Real Life is Serious Business part 2

So, I will not tell you which game I'm playing at the moment. Let's just say that in the US, a mans best friend is a big dog. That should give those that are in the know a clue, albeit a cryptic one, to what I'm into. The real challenge is not the game ofcourse, it's the synergy between playing a time-consuming behemoth of an mmorpg and not losing track of real life. Because real life, as we all know, is SRS BSNS.

I'm going to try and compile a list of reasons and causes why mmorpg-ing takes up so much more time, and compells me to the screen so much more. You, dear reader, are of course welcome to join in and add reasons of your own, so that we may one day have a great compendium of how-to's and how-nots and watch-out-your-wife-is-going-to-leave-yous. Here we go then:

The big list of reasons why mmorpgs eat up my life whereas regular (offline) games do not:

1) Size: mmorpgs are big. Areas are big, compared to offline games. They need to be, since there are often more players around. That means that simply navigating the game world and gaining experience will take, on average, longer.

2) Realtime: I think this is an important difference. Mmorpgs do not have a pause button that you can quickly press. You either log out or you find a safe place, but those things both take more time than pressing a pause button. Don't believe me? Here is an example:

What you should do, is just drop what you are doing like in a normal game and focus on whatever RL issue/thing/monster is in need of your attention. But that could mean you die in-game. And dying in a game goes against the very fiber of the gamers' nature. Dying is for noobs. Dying is 2007. Dying is Not Done.

So you spent 5 minutes hiding your toon behind a tree, checking mob patrol paths and asking in chat if any hostile players have been seen recently. By the time you have "secured" your character, you can bet your subscription that whatever drew your attention has been dealt with, not by you, but by someone who might have had better things to do.

More to come.