Time to find some new friends?

You've heard about it. You've seen it. You likely know someone who has been consumed by it. It destroys families, undermines relationships, ruins lives, and---for an unfortunate few---can even kill. No, I'm not talking about drugs, or alcohol, or pornography, or gay marriage, or Sarah Palin, or even Microsoft. I'm talking about Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) addiction.

World of Warcraft, Second Life, Everquest, Lord of the Rings Online, Ragnarok Online, Runescape, EVE Online, Lineage---the list goes on and on and on (and on). Today's game market is literally flooded with these subscription- and microtransaction-based cash cows. Sure, you'll find plenty of casual players in any of these games... but for every casual player, there's someone who treats the game like a full-time job because they're addicted.

I'm not going to speculate on the hows and whys of MMOG addiction (besides, I have firsthand experience, and I believe it's impossible to understand how someone can take a game so seriously until you find yourself, unexpectedly, in that position). Instead, this post is somewhat of a lamentation. You see, I recently lost a few friends to this disease, and I just can't seem to cure them.


Of all the addictive games out there, my friends chose Evony. Yes, that Evony. The horribly slow and boring real-time strategy game with no audio feedback to speak of. The game that uses scantily-clad females in its widespread advertisements, yet contains no females in the game proper. The game in which, if you feel so inclined, you can be the best simply by paying the most money on microtransactions. The game that's allegedly run by a company connected to a Chinese gold farming operation (basically a sweat shop, only the product is MMOG currency instead of clothing).

I mean, come on. At least World of Warcraft was occasionally fun.