Gaming

I used to be addicted to gaming. Actually the phenomenon of the mmorpg, in this case WoW. The thing is you chat, talk and play with a lot of people and you get to know them, some better then others.

It is not the game itself, it is more the experience that is addictive. Imagine going on camping trip with about 40 friends and play games like paintball, laserquest and capture the flag. Add a very tactical strategy which requires everyone to do their best and not slack or you will fail. Getting rewards is nice too, becoming better and better. Successful in a different life.

I had quit it once before when I moved from my student room to my first apartment. Leaving was hard and after trying other kinds of games I realised they could never give me the experience World of Warcraft had given me. So I started again, got Skavenger playing it too. I had a bit of a down time, not really playing when I moved from my apartment to Skavenger's place.

So when we were gonna move from the apartement to the house we live in now it was natural to stop playing for a little while. I had a lot of stuff to do, work on the house and work in general. To be honest I had lost the joy or "raiding" that much and having nothing much of a social life left, not that I have a social life now, but a "vacation" from WoW was welcome.

...

About a week ago something terrible happened. A guy with whom I had played online together for at least 150 hours in total died. He was only 19 years old. He had an accident and without any warning he was gone. His closest friend played together with him always. He told us the terrible news. There was one ceremony that same day and 3 days later an other, more secluded, only a few guys saw us but did not interfere that time. I logged in to join that ofcourse.
I had been thinking of coming back at that point. So I came back.

Today I was in a raid again and really enjoyed it. I was one of the 15 first members that founded the "guild" and at the moment it is very successful. Ranked place 50 6 months ago, currently it is ranked 7th. I had a share (maybe a big share) in that, at least in the beginning and I have seen a lot of guys come and go. Today I saw everybody being really focussed and disciplined. I can't take credit for this, it has to go to Mythicow, if he may ever read this. What I wanted to say is that I am proud to be part of this group of nerds, this team, this army.

I will be playing more regularly from now on, but not that much. I don't want to get a WoW-Burnout (again). 2 nights a week is pretty ok I guess, and maybe some more if we are about to kill a new boss...

Hmm guess that might be the reason I am my own boss now, not that I killed a lot of bosses IRL ;)