Hello Clueless Shaman,

I started WoW a week before 3.1. I instantly fell in love with the game. My first nine months playing were absolutely amazing. I was completely enthralled with exploring the world and the lore and meeting people in random places.

I didn't want to admit it at the time, but the game was having negative effects on my life. I flunked out of college because I spent 8 hours a day in Azeroth. I tried various means of controlling my hours, but they all only worked temporarily, if at all.

Meanwhile the game started to turn into a grind. My first guild merged with another guild, and the drama turned into a sticky mess. Fairly soon I had seen every inch of the map and quest grinds turned into rep grinds turned into "The Insane" grinds. Each patch became a rat race.

I made the decision to quit a few months ago, but I still frequent WoW news sites. Like you I see the news about 4.3 and am tempted to play.

But I need to be realistic here. WoW is, while pleasant, just a memory. Through repeated attempts to cut back on the hours I have shown to myself that I have no capability to control myself, and a return to Azeroth would result in more life-destroying instead of my present attempts to get myself a job and back into college.

If I had nothing to lose and nothing to do, then maybe I could self-indulge by spending my entire life on Azeroth. But real women are 100 times hotter than nelf chicks. For one, real women are alive, breathing, three-dimensional; while every nelf chick looks the same, isn't real, and her dance is the same every single time. Maybe the real woman wakes up with messed up hair, a face that looks like she was up all night, and clothes that don't match, but her faults are also part of what make her alive and beautiful.

In other words, if I had the choice between WoW and a girl, I'd pick the girl every single time.

And that's my advice to you. Yes, the memories are great, but when you return to visit you can't re-do the memory. The world changes whether you change with it or not. Enjoy the memory, and move on.

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