"Hi. I'm what all you females and males talk about. He plays 50 hours a week. She plays 50 hours a week.

I'm the one that use to play 50 hours a week. I played everquest day in and day out since 2001. And what did it get me??? An ex-girlfriend, almost lost my career, almost put my life down the tube. Where my paychecks go, to everquest. When it should have gone to my ex and my child.

Well this is where it starts:

The year 2001 my girlfriend knew that I love video games, she bought me everquest. My cousin plays that game too. I joined him on his server.... We became the best in that server, had everything a gamer wanted. We had respect, loyalty and we were in the best guild (a formation of people that have loyalty amongst each other), Aduentus. We conquered Sleepers Tomb(a very hard boss). Had all the keys to zones(like having a key to the city). Me and my cousin were and he is still the best.... My life was still juggling and everything was going okay until Shadow of Luclin(an expansion to everquest) came out. My cousin and I moved to a different server a care bear server(Server where human players cant kill other human players).... In that server we went bonkers. We both created bards and everything became competitive amongst me and him. We both started playin almost 70 HOURS a week. I ended up marrying a female in game .... And to top it off my RL (real life) started to fall apart, but I was lvl 60 which was the highest at that time. But I was conquering it all. So was my cousin. We were in a guild ....One of the best guilds at that time. But for my real life it was falling apart. My best friend, my girlfriend all they can see was the back of my head majority of the time. My son was around, sad to say but I never spent time to myself. Always Work, EQ, sleep, EQ, Work. I always told myself my days off will go to my girlfriend and my son. NOPE raids(when a bunch of players get together to take out a monster) were on my day off. My real life was going down the toilet, but my eq life was on the peak! Moving ahead..... Then a great expansion came out Dungeons of Norrath. That was when my eq life picked up. I became a GoD in that game, no one other than my cousin owned me(owned means better).... My cousin went bonkers worse than me, he started to play 80 HOURS!!!!! I'll say that again 80 HOURS!!!!! I started to slowly watch my RL(real life) dimenish before my eyes. Then my girlfriend said something that hit me so hard that I cried. "Choose. Me or Everquest. Me or ..." Say what? Its only a game, i told myself. So why am I even thinking of choosing everquest over my girlfriend? I couldn't answer her. So you know what? She LEFT ME and took my son with her. I realized two weeks later what has become of me. I became a Evercrack fiend. FTW(for the win). Through good through bad EQ was my release from a mundane reality....You know I can blame anyone. I can blame Sony Verant for creating the game. I can blame my girlfriend for buying me the game. I can blame my cousin for taking me as far as he did. I can blame ... for marrying me in the game. I can blame ... for recruiting me into their guild. You know who I blame. Me! I controlled my environment I control my RL. Till this day I play EQ, but I only play for about 10 hours a week some weeks 20 hours but no more, no less. For those wondering about my cousin. He still plays but only about 40-50 hours a week. I think the point that hit me the most was when my cousin went unemployed. He was fired, because lack of attendance....My ex-girlfriend and I still talk as friends and see my son a lot now. As for my cousin, he still has his ups and downs with his girlfriend and kids. He went 4 months unemployed and I helped him through it. He currently now is a laborer when he use to be a manager. But you know he still plays EQ 40 hours a week FTW(for the win). I play 20 Hours at most a week, but thats just to say hi to my EQ wife and my EQ friends. I give EQ this much though. My EQ wife is ..., she came all the way down to ... to see me, when she came she did the most amazing thing. She said, "...(my rl name) you need to get better, EQ is not your life, its a game." She picked my computer up and chucked it on the floor. "I fell in love with you and you know what? your a very attractive person, but you need to get your stuff together." If I never met here, who knows. We are best friends. And she lives all the way out in .... And she is very attractive. But she is right I do need to get my stuff together.

My advice to all the Widows of EQ. Love your ignificant other, yes it may be his or her fault. But that game is REAL. It really is, I lost my girlfriend that could have been my wife. But she is my friend. And in the game I made a real close best friend, we visit each other constantly.

You all may say that its just a game, but take it from a recovering addict of EQ. ITS NOT!!! ITS MORE REAL THAN YOU BELIEVE!!! You deal with emotions, physical attractions and it sucks you in. PLEASE! SAVE YOUR SIGNIFACANT OTHER! Do what ...(My ex-girlfriend) did. Leave him/her or do what ...(EQ wife) did. BREAK THE COMPUTER!

Thanks for listening or reading"