People are probably wondering why I haven’t posted for awhile and the answer is simple: I’ve weened myself off MMORPGs.

Surprisingly, it was a pretty simple process. One day I was sitting there, playing some game or another, and I thought, “Why are you doing this? Are you getting any pleasure out of it? Is it fun?” and the answers were, “I don’t know…”, “No…” and “No…”.

Now, I’m a pretty straightforward kind of guy, so when that dawned on me, I decided it was time for serious action.

I got up from the PC and walked away. Literally.

Yep, as simple as that. I cancelled what games subs I still had open and just walked away. A geek to the end, of course, I then re-enrolled in my local garrison of the 501st and a number of other Star Wars costuming groups and have spent some great weekends lately OUT OF THE HOUSE and WITH REAL PEOPLE. Still doing geeky things, of course. I would never pretend that what I’m doing is highbrow compared to playing MMORPGs, but it’s been quite a revelation for me. I always KNEW there was a real world outside of MMORPGs, as I used to be quite social before I started devoting every weekend to grinding pointless levels in some silly game or other during the last decade, but I’d kind of forgotten how much fun it is to meet new people and tell each other our stories and have some REAL LIFE fun.

My wife has joined me in this excercise (quitting MMORPGs and doing more real-world stuff), and she’s loving it, too. She’s also doing a lot of gardening and making our backyard look like a million dollars. We are both really enjoying ourselves and feeling good.

Now, far be it for me to come at this with the zeal of a reformed smoker or born-again Christian (as both are as annoying as each other), but I’ve got to say to this next bit. To you folks out there that are enjoying your MMORPGs… great. That’s awesome. Keep playing! I could probably bang on about the number of broken people I’ve encountered in MMORPGs who I think are definitely making their depression or other medical condition worse by remaining in a game but, you know what? I can’t save the world in this regard so, just have fun! Live it up! I don’t care anymore if it’s really feeding some kind of psychosis or making up for the fact your mother never loved you or whatever the case might be… if you’re digging it, that’s good enough for me. But it you’re NOT enjoying your gaming… and I have a sneaking suspicion that there’s actually a LOT of people out there who aren’t having fun… just walk away. Yep, walk away and find something new in your life. There’s no law that says you can’t go back one day but, in the short term, just get out there and see what else is on offer in the world. You might be really surprised at the refreshing change you can have after months or, more likely, years in MMORPG land.

See, I totally reserve the right to come back to MMORPGs one day, myself. Heck, if BioWare actually announces a Star Wars game next week (or is it later this week? I’m already forgetting the details), I will probably be giving it a good sniff as I am a major Star Wars geek in general terms. The real proof of the pudding will be the implementation and gameplay, of course. It had better be revolutionary.

Because that’s the real issue at hand. I haven’t been enjoying MMORPGs anymore precisely because they are basically clones of each other… pointless and utterly stupid grindfests with no redeeming features. I mean, at the end of the day, what do you actually get out of investing oodles of time into an MMORPG? Not much, I can tell you. With character classes and skills in MMORPGs pretty much “cookie cutter” versions of each other, even hitting the level cap and raiding the harder instances isn’t much of an achievement… there are always, always, always thousands of other people JUST LIKE YOU. The promise of early MMORPGs, where you really were living in a virtual world and had the opportunity to be a real character, has been taken by more modern MMORPGs — starting with WoW — and simplified to the max. Chopped up, blended, guzzled by fat MMORPG players and then pissed up against a wall. It’s a really depressing thing, actually.

Where is the innovation in this industry? When is a company going to have the balls to do something new? I’ve been shouting about this in my writings for what feels like forever. I’ve been watching every new game for years and, every time, they promise something new… and never actually deliver it. Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. And it’s for that reason alone that I can easily, and confidentally, walk away from the industry as it stands at this point in time. It’s just not worth it. To be honest, it’s actually quite stupid. People pay real money over and over and over and over to grind through levels they can’t stand. I mean, it just makes no sense on any level. There is some really weird psychology going on that I wish someone would write a paper on because I can’t think of too many hobbies where the participants actively hate what they’re doing, yet feel this overwhelming compulsion to keep paying and playing. It’s weird.

Will I come back? Again, if a company can make a great, ground-breaking game — or I just happen to really like the IP (like Star Wars or Star Trek), I might do. But, right now, even with Warhammer out there, and a new WoW expansion, and a Hoth theme park for Star Wars Galaxies and all manner of “new” things happening (where “new” means re-heated, turgid old shit), I’m off to get some sunshine.

You’ve been a great audience. Thankyouverymuch.