Goodbye, Azeroth

After over a year and a half (yes, I've been playing it since it was first released, and the beta before that), I've cancelled my World of Warcraft account and erased it from my PC. There are several reasons for this, both philosophical and practical. From a practical standpoint, it was just too much of a time sink. It took time away from other, better, things I could be doing (like, you know, actually interacting with friends and family). I shudder to think exactly how much time was spent playing it, for no lasting benefit.

Philosophically, I've started to wonder if the addictive nature of MMOs in general is that you get the thrill of achievement, in constant small doses, for relatively little effort. But it's hollow. When you shut it down after six hours of running Scholomance to get those armor pieces, what good is it to you?

This is not to say that leisure has no place; my weekly Game Night with CJ, Ben, Lindsay, et al, is a long-running institution that I have no wish to discontinue. But we do much more than play games (more like keep each other sane), and nothing beats it for sheer fun. It's a real social outlet, rather than just words on a screen.

Nor does it mean that I'm giving up computer games. But no longer playing WoW is likely to free up an awful lot of time.

I took all of my character's (substantial) in-game cash and mailed it to one of my contacts with the instructions "Do something awesome." That's good enough.