I cancelled my subscription.
But it won't let go.
Between winter and spring quarter I realized that I wasn't playing World of Warcraft much anymore. I have had this account for roughly four years, (Oh my god, was it four years?) but was only super into it for about six months. Those were a rough six months, filled with crashing grades, a rocky relationship, and nothingness - I wouldn't recommend it. I'm normally a procrastinator, so playing a game instead of doing homework was normal. (In fact, I have a 5-7 page paper due tomorrow, and I haven't even started it yet. But whatever, what I'm doing now counts as homework, too.) It was never a big problem, until I started procrastinating to the point of just not doing it at all. There was a summer, however, where WoW was the best thing ever. I had no obligations, was trapped in faraway Montana, and had a great summer hanging out with my friends online.
Speaking of friends, it didn't take me long to realize that the only time I was having fun in WoW was when I was hanging out with friends. I would log on, see none of my friends were on, and log off. I never really made relationships with people online, so if none of my IRL ("in real life") friends were on, I just didn't play.
Once I learned to play in moderation my life improved, but WoW was never really the same. My friends were still playing, a lot, so when I would log on it was hard to play with them because they were so much more advanced in "level" than I was. We were still technically the same level, but they were doing instances (dungeons) that I didn't have the gear for. This decreased the amount of time I was willing to put into WoW even more.
Something I've realized over my time playing WoW, Magic, and other games, is that they are all about promises of awesome things to come. At least, for me they are. Unfortunately, these things usually never come, and require a lot of time and hard work to aquire. For Magic, that awesome thing is winning a Pro Tour, or even becoming World Champion. I just made it into my first Pro Tour, and that was 7 years in the making. For World of Warcraft, it was beating the top raid with your friends, or (more my style) being the top arena team. (Arena is the player-vs-player competition part of WoW.) Early on in WoW, the promises were even as small as "doing instances with yoru friend at 70." My friend Kevin always wanted this, but it never really happened.
My point is that I still put countless hours (days, weeks...maybe months) into WoW. So did Kevin. So did the rest of my friends. I never came close to being the top 2v2 arena team, my ultimate goal. I never even got close to having the proper pvp gear, something that's necessary to compete at all. Yet, I still gave Blizzard hundreds of dollars in the hopes that one day I'll do what I want to do - nevermind all the grinding along the way that I actually am doing. Luckily, I enjoy the day-to-day Magic, so the hours I put in are fun. With WoW, however, once I realized I wasn't enjoying a large part of my experience, I stopped.
It felt good to be out. I didn't need to log on, I didn't have this nagging voice in the back of my head saying "you should level your one-handed sword skill" or "you really need to be farming honor right now." A lot of the guilt of not playing disappeard. (Believe me, there was guilt.) It was wonderful.
Then came Wanda.
I'm sitting in Wanda's class on the first day, and she said it. "I want you all to be in virtual worlds, so get an Eve Online account, Second Life, and World of Warcraft at least." Uhhg. Now you're telling me I have to reactivate my World of Warcraft acconut for homework? Seriously?
Damn you Blizzard, daaaaamn yoooouuu!!!!
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