I Quit Elvenar

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I'm a gamer. That used to be something you never said out loud. Gamers were pariahs. A lot has changed in forty years.

 Now Gamers are cool.

Are you playing the game or is the game playing you?

 A lot of games have perfected the art of sucking you into a free game - then you pay.

 To avoid waiting. They hooked us on that one.

 To have bigger, better armies. Yup.

 To have equipment that others don't. Ouch.

 To have special mounts. (Thanks, WoW. Loved you.)

 It's psychology, and the game-makers mastered it.

 I quit playing Elvenar. The makers of the game hit me in my weak spot. They know I don't like waiting, so a few crystals here, a few crystals there and I'm moving again in the game.

 Crystals cost real money. Pretty soon it adds up.

 The game is free. Playing it isn't, unless you can resist.

 Resistance is futile.
The Plarium games are worse. They know I don't like waiting, and I can pay to skip that (and have). They also know I don't like getting beat up by someone else. For a few bucks I can retaliate. I can show those bullies that I'm tougher than they are.

 There's always someone tougher, maybe with a few more dollars invested. I could outspend them.

 Now the game is playing me.

 That's not what gaming is about.

 ~

 Life is like that.

 We get involved in doing things that cost nothing to join.

 They can cost everything to continue.

 That porn on the computer. You can access it for free.

 And lose yourself. Lose your family.

 That little bottle of beer? How about the next one?

 What's the real price? That's the question. What are you really paying? 

 Do you wonder how you ended up where you are? It's a slippery slope, that downhill slide.

 Life can play you. A little lie. Just bend your moral code. It's not broken.

 Yet.

 Justify. 

 Sex is okay if it isn't lustful.

 I don't mean to be angry. It's just the way I am.

 Bad language is just words.

 Are you playing the game or is the game playing you?

 Sometimes you just have to quit playing and look at the bigger picture.

 Get a different perspective.

 Is this who your mother wanted you to be?

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