by Renee Hansen

Created on: May 14, 2009   Last Updated: May 15, 2009

An intervention, I thought. Surely an intervention was in order because it must be some sort of addiction. He spent all his time on it, he talked about it constantly, WOW seemed to be the major focus of his life. Yes, an intervention was definitely in order. Then it occurred to me, all his friends and even many of our relatives were sinking in this dire abyss as well. There was no one but me to intervene. No, it wasn't drugs or alcohol or gambling. It's World of Warcraft, or WOW, a massive online game that has started to replace TV as the major brain rotting device in the world.

My husband became involved in it about 2 years ago. He works in the information technology field, an area replete with computer geeks, of course and everyone else in his workplace was playing. It started off slowly, just one character. But then it grew. He has eight characters now, each with their own wardrobe, arsenal and pets. He even tries to get me involved, You'd like it, he told me, you played Dungeons and Dragons! Yes, I admit that nerd that I was, and still am, I played D & DI was fifteen! In an odd sort of way, the role playing gave me an opportunity to explore myself and define who I am. But at forty-five, I am a bit more grounded in the real world now.

At first, I tried to lure him away from it, tried to introduce him to new hobbies, even tried to make him think that we couldn't afford it (we can). I tried to get him involved in a TV series, he put a TV tuner in his computer and got an extra monitor so he could watch TV while he played. I tried luring him out to movies and to dinner, even that failed. Even during the brief moments that he was not talking about his priest, warrior or hunter, someone else in the room was. There is no escape from the Lich King!

Then I tried to ignore it, maybe if I didn't pay attention, it would just go away and my husband would rejoin me in the real world. No such luck, he just took it as a sign that I didn't mind if he played and went right on.

With the attitude, if you can't beat'em join'em, I did try playing for awhile and became a Blood Elf Rogue. I just couldn't get into it. Besides, I have my own guilty little pleasure when it comes to games Monopoly! If I am going to have some other persona, I want it to be more Donald Trump than Galadriel!

I started disparaging it at every possible moment. I made biting remarks especially when it became the main topic of conversation at a wedding reception we were attending.

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