If at First You Don't Succeed, Destroy All Evidence That You Tried*

I admit it. I’ve become a WoW addict. (That’s World of Warcraft to you innocents). I sat at the dinner table a few months ago and listened as my eldest daughter, Manda, and her hubs talked about this online game they were playing and how much fun they were having. Although I have always been a computer geek, I never quite made the transition into the gaming community. I never could manage to run a Nintendo controller or anything remotely like it. I felt inadequate somehow by this lack of skills. I mean, have I mentioned I’m a computer geek? Yeah.

So without warning it was a bolt from the blue (I think that may have been redundant) to receive the software for WoW for Christmas. It sat, untouched, on my desk for a couple of weeks as I looked at the box and dared myself to actually open it and see what it was all about. It taunted me with the pretty colors and vivid graphics on the box to the point where I almost…. Almost…. opened it. Fear made me hold back.

Pshaw. What a fool. I was.

Manda came over and helped me install it and after some technical difficulties, I was finally online. With lots of hand-holding from her and her Hubs, I have been gradually working through this mysterious world of elves and humans and gnomes and strange animals. I’ve been a hunter, a mage, a shaman, a warlock, a paladin and a warrior. I’ve gone to other realms and been undead and a troll. I’ve been good and I’ve been evil… and, by golly, I’ve been having a blast!

Who’da thunk? Certainly not my son-in-law! To his credit, he’s been very good about this. He’s offered online support and encouragement, and put up with every stupid question I could come up with. He’s tolerated days when I’ve gone to their house and plugged my laptop into their network and played for hours with Manda, then stayed and eaten supper with them and played hours more with them both. He just puts on this cute little secret smile he’s got and keeps playing…

With the new addition to our family room (big TV) Hubs is now pretty much a permanent fixture there. I sit down there with my laptop as I get the best internet signal there, and I play alongside the TV blaring the history channel, ESPN, or NASCAR. I wear earphones, but they don’t block out everything, but that’s okay… I enjoy being able to do something I like to do and still visit with Hubs. I think he’s getting used to me cussing when I get dead again, or someone takes away a special prize I was working for… He’s learning what it means when I say, “my imp got killed” or “my pet ran away”.

Me? Let’s just say it’s gotten bad. When you wake up in the middle of the night trying to figure out a strategy for completing quests in an area that you have been getting killed pretty regularily in, or you lay there trying to decide if you want to get rid of one of your characters or develop a new one, this is bad. When you dream in WoW characters, family members and work-related issues all rolled into one bizarre dream, this is bad. When you know more people by their character names then you ever have in your life by their real names… this is bad? Oh, hell, maybe not. It’s FUN, people! It’s fun… Addicted? Yep… I’ll admit it.

*Murphy's Law #?