"Too much of anything" is a one-way street to disaster. A self-confessed World of Warcraft addict recalls how he got trapped under WoW's compelling game spell. Why did he leave after achieving 60 levels, 30+ epics, and a seat on the oldest and largest guild on our server's council?

In a nutshell (the guy wrote a rather long explanation) he left WoW because "Blizzard has created an alternate universe where we don't have to be ourselves when we don't want to be... as a guild decision maker, I've seen it destroy more families and friendships and take a huge toll on individuals than any drug on the market today."

While that seems harsh, the reformed WoW addict claims the game took a huge personal toll on him. He dropped plans to whip himself into shape and instead gained 30 pounds "and it is not muscle." He abandoned a lot of his hobbies including music, writing, and martial arts. And his biggest gripe: he basically exchanged his real world social social life for the imaginary one.

But that, he says, is nothing compared to some of the things he'd seen. People have actually turned their backs on their families, partners, and kids because they would rather play WoW. What makes WoW so addictive?

Blizzard created a game that you simply can not win...the only way to "get better" is to play more and more. To our average "serious" player this equates to anywhere between 12 hours (for the casual and usually "useless" player) to honestly 10 hours a day, seven days a week for those "hardcore" gamers. During my stint, I was playing about 30 hours a week.