Why I Don't Play World of Warcraft

Not that any of you care, but I need to write this for me. Why am I not playing the greatest game ever invented? Me, who grew up with Frogger and Qbert on Atari, and everything on Nintendo? Me, who thought King's Bounty was God's gift to my DOS prompt? Me, who fell in love with Ocarina of Time and actually had a dream which helped me solve a puzzle I'd been working on for days? Why in the world would I not play a game that I knowingly would enjoy for hours and hours on end? I know some of you may think video games are dorky and a dumb waste of time. So is reading other people's blogs. So, you can't use that argument. Ha-ha. But, if you've grown up with games like I have, and especially enjoy RPGs, there's a 100% chance that you would love World of Warcraft. Just watch this teaser trailer and tell me you're not at least intrigued:


Yes, I know WoW has been around for years now. Which makes it even more amazing that I don't play. So the question remains, why don't I play World of Warcraft? Well, the reason I like to give is that I know I would become addicted to this game and would not be able to make myself stop. I have a hard time putting up Mike Tyson's Punch-Out, so there's no way I could limit my playing time for WoW. As evidence of what can happen, I offer up two videos. This first one is just sound of a kid fighting with his parents, who are trying to make him stop for the night. Scary.


Next is some kind of British news story on game addiction.


There is little doubt in my mind that I would become addicted to this game. I would probably never admit to that, but I'm sure it would happen. Those two kids would have nothing on me. So, it's easy to use that as an excuse for me and an explanation as to why I don't play. Another excuse is that there's no way my wife would agree to letting me play this game for more than 15 minutes a day. That may or may not be true, but I like to think it's true, so there's another reason I don't play. And the best excuse is because we don't have an internet connection at home. Actually, this is probably the only excuse. Dangit. I want to play. Lastly, WoW has come up with a great advertising campaign to promote their free 10-day trial. Thanks to Brian (who is on WoW hiatus, but has played in the past) for first pointing these out to me a while ago. Mr. T. is still the best one.




Not sure this one counts, it's from Toyota:


And, just for the heck of it, since no post about WOW would be complete without it: Leeeeeeroooooy Jenkins!

Gonzo's Great Advice

"I've never been there, but I know the way..." -The Great Gonzo

I thought giving Gonzo a pipe made him look more distinguished and added some depth and mystique to his quote.

The quote is from one of my favorite songs of all time, "I'm Going To Go Back There Someday." Actually, I'm not sure that is the title of the song, but that doesn't take away from it's awesomeness. There are a number of brilliant lines in that song, and this particular one has always struck a chord with me. So to speak.

I was recently telling a friend of mine how it seems I get an annoying feeling of discontent about every six months or so. Beginning around high school, I placed the blame for this feeling on women and my relationships with them. But since then, I've been happily married, and yet the feeling remains. So, I decided it must be because of the jobs I've been in. Well, now I really like the job I do, and here comes this feeling again. So I'm left trying to figure out where it's coming from.

The scary thing about this feeling is that usually it leads to me doing something fairly drastic. Like moving to California, changing jobs, or getting married. So, I'm not sure what will happen this time (I'd cut my hair, but it's already too short) and I've been thinking more and more about it.

As I said, this feeling comes and goes and I was reminded of a post I did about a year ago. It's called We've All Got Itchy Feet. I think it does a better job of discussing this feeling than I'm doing today. In that post, I mentioned this song by Gonzo, and I was reminded how much truth is in that song.

The only conclusion I can come up with unites Gonzo and another person I love to quote: C.S. Lewis. He's the one who says we're not content because we weren't made for this world. That's the only way to explain this.

I think that is what Gonzo is talking about. And now that I think about it, this isn't the first time a Muppet has crossed paths with Lewis. I remember that happened in one of the first posts I ever wrote. The Rainbow Connection. Crazy.

Anyways, I'm not sure what to do with all of this. All I know is that this feeling always makes me feel old and tired. So I'll leave you with Gonzo's awesome song. It's a classic and one of my favorites. And in case you were wondering... Yes, that is smoke from an atom bomb coming out of Gonzo's pipe.