The Escapist Issue #120 Now Available

The latest issue of Escapist Magazine features five new articles that focus entirely on MMORPG elements like raiding, disease spreading, and quitting an MMO with a bang. A snippet from “The Good Ending”:

I stepped from the safe confines of my office and announced to my wife that I had made the decision to end my World of Warcraft addiction. She seemed more curious than pleased.

“Really? Don’t you like the game anymore?”

Anyone who’s ever been really invested in an MMOG might understand how that’s a difficult question to answer. The game had become the bedrock of my pastime. I wasn’t sure anymore whether I was playing out of a sense of fun or artificial necessity. Ask the alcoholic if he enjoys drinking or the smoker if his cigarettes taste good, and, if he’s at that fine precipice between control and chaos, the answer is equal parts yes and no. Maybe it’s just inertia that keeps an addict going, the comfort zone in which we operate in familiar terms with familiar people. So I dodged the question and pointed out that it would give me more time to spend with her and our son.