Hi, My name is John Kane III and I have a problem. Drugs are addictive, alcohol is addictive, and “World of Warcraft” is addictive. Guess which one I’ve been getting my fix from. Online games, particularly multi-player role-playing games have been around since the Ninetiesnineties, since the debut of “Ultima Online.”. However, the basic premise of the games has changed very little: you run around, kill monsters, go on quests, and try to be better than everyone else doing the same things from their computers. What makes these games different from others is the fact that you’re playing with other people. Picture this: you walk into a crowded room and ask if anyone knows where something is. You don’t know any of these people and they don’t know you. Going a step further, they’re wearing masks or something and are wearing name tags with fake names on them. Do you think that these people, who don’t really care about who you are or what you’re doing, are going to be all that helpful?

Based on my experiences, most people in these situations will just ignore you. A few will regretfully say they are not sure of the answer. One or two might give you a full answer if they know anything, but most of the players who respond either give you a completely wrong answer or make fun of you for not knowing the answer yourself. These players, those that do nothing but harass and insult other players, are called “griefers.”, This harassment, unfortunately, usually isn’t against the game’s rules and almost never violates the End User Agreement, making them safe from punishment from admins or moderators. But they are nuisances and impact the playing experience. So the first point I am trying to make with this article, aside from the addictiveness of “World of Warcraft,”, is that even though you are anonymous online, don’t be an ass and ruin a perfectly good playing experience for the rest of us.

So with that, I tell you this: my online addiction is “World of Warcraft,”, the MMORPG based off of the real- time strategy series “Warcraft.”. I tend to play at least 5 times a week in the evening;, diagnosable, I would assume, as a “Warcraft” binge. “World of Warcraft” has been around for about four years but is still going strong with approximately 6 million subscribers and a second expansion coming out this year. Obviously Blizzard is doing something right to maintain this much popularity with a single game four years after its initial release.

The reason I am writing this VGC is because this is a little more of a personal confession than the usual review. I’m starting to come to terms with how much time I’ve been spending playing “World of Warcraft” and how this has been affecting my life, particularly my studies. I’ve admitted that I am an addict, which, as far as I’m concerned, is the first step, right? Now I’m not going to quit playing “World of Warcraft” (or any other games) cold turkey. I’m not even going to stop playing them entirely. I am going to try and cut back and spend more time studying. I’m calling for everyone who plays any online games habitually to join me in taking a pledge that may help improve their lifelives. I vow to reduce the amount of time I spend playing online games by half, and to retake my life from this game. And I’ll do it all using the strategic and militaristic skills I learned from a certain MMORPG.