Is it possible to have a healthy online gaming life? Yes it is. Just like Tony Sinclair says, “All things in moderation.”

Recently CNN reported on online game addiction, the article was good but they made a generalization about gamers. Not everyone is addicted, well at least not the people I know. The article talked about a WoW player who has lost several jobs, his girlfriend and is near homelessness. That is an addict, no game should be in that much control of your life.

There have been days when I really wanted to do something in WoW but knew I had to go to work. I may have put myself in a place where I was running behind schedule but I showed up for work. I sat at work all day thinking about what I needed to do and in what order to maximize my time once I got out of work. Does that make me an addict? Do you ever think about something other then work on a slow day?

I look at game addicts just the same as any other addict in the world. They have a problem and until they acknowledge the problem they think everything is fine. I don’t go out of my way to confront people like that but I try to drop hints to help them get their life back on track.

How about people in raiding guilds? You know the ones, they raid 7 nights a week and are near the end of Black Temple. Are they addicts for spending their evenings doing something fun? I don’t think so, it is the same as people being totally consumed by their favorite TV show. So what is the problem?

Well the problem comes into play when someone neglects their real life responsibilities to play the game. I’m not talking about putting off mowing the lawn until tomorrow. I’m talking about not feeding your kids or letting your home become filled with piles of filth. Neither of these things happen with the average gamer and especially not with the casual players.

So how do you know you have a good balance between the two? Well there is no way to generalize the balance everyone has different situations at home and with work. But being aware of them and putting them in the right priority is the best way to make sure.

Monday morning I woke up even more tired then when I went to bed. I have been trying to fight this cold I got but it has taken it’s toll finally. I had a big list of things to do on my mage and pally during my weekend off but I did maybe half of it.

Hyouzan is still doing PvP to save honor for the Season 2 weapon when it comes out. As well as doing the dailys to help bring in some more money since I spent alot on my flying mount and 1-300 engineering mats.

I had fun last night being OT in Kara on my pally. We downed Attunemen, Moroes, Maiden, Oz and Curator. I think I caused us to wipe once but I don’t know for sure. I signed up for next week after reset, all in all 9 badges. This morning I got my last badge and my [item]Tankatronic Goggles[/item]. I still have some gear I want but I’m not settling on what I am wearing now as my tanking set. There is still gear out there that is an upgrade and I will be wearing it soon enough.

Bad Allys , a true story

I landed in BEM to start my dailys and I see a TEF’d ally mage sitting between the Skyguard and Og’rila. No <AFK> just sitting on his mount. Well since this is a normal realm I decided to deTEF him, aka slaughter him. Done and done, I went up by the Skyguard to wait for my TEF to expire when a ally lock lands above the “Wrangle the ray chick”. Next thing I know I’m DOT’d feared and life drained. DEAD. I was upset as anyone would be that the guards didn’t attack him. I run back to my corpse and he’s gone. I look over and a priest is rezzing the first guy I killed, she runs up to the skyguard and sits.

Well I always follow the golden rule, I landed on the building above her and 1-2-3, dead priest. Wow, the guards only netted me and I just had to wait for them to timeout to get on my mount.

My suggestion is to give the skyguard peeps ranged attacks to make a nuetral area actually work against casters.

Well right now my work schedule doesn’t permit me to raid. I am working from 3pm until 11pm server time. We normaly raid (Karazhan and Zul Aman) groups Mondays through Fridays. I won’t be abel to make either start time so I’m pretty much only raiding 25 mans. Does it suck? Yes. Did I get everything I wanted from Karazhan> Nope, I wanted a few things that either never dropped or that I never won a roll on. Oh well things happen.

I am taking this time to burn through Alterac Valley to get a better weapon, [item]28297en[/item]. I tried for the blade from the Prince, [item]28770en[/item] and missed the roll everytime. I also, tried for the blade from Gruul, [item]28802en[/item]. I missed those rolls too. I would like one of those blades so I can use my honor for more S1 gear. I’m not ever betting on getting it but I’m going to keep trying for [item]28802en[/item].