Warcraft Destroyed My Life: Love or Addiction?

I'm sure many of your have heard of the massive multiplayer online role playing game (mmorpg) called The World of Warcraft (WoW). I have been playing it since it came out. I have 8 level 70 "toons" and I know I'll have 9 in a little while. When the second major expansion comes out I'll have 10 characters which I play.

I have no idea what it is about that game that keeps me coming back. I've taken breaks from the game saying, "I'll never play that game again, what a waste of time." A few months later I find myself at the control of a 70 resto shaman healing my way through some dungeon. Am I addicted? Maybe I should consider what addiction is.

Addiction \ə-ˈdik-shən, a-\
Function: noun
Date: 1599

1: the quality or state of being addicted
2: compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance (as heroin, nicotine, or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal; broadly : persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be harmful.

Well I'm not trying to sell my body or steal my best friend's TV to pay for another month of Warcraft but even when I grow tired of doing the same thing day in and day out within the video game, I still find myself playing it almost everyday since it came out.

I've made up excuses to avoid going out to parties or hanging out with my friends simply because I wanted to play Warcraft. All forms of general "real life" socializing seems to be unappealing when compared to WoW. In fact I can genuinely say that between this blog, my websites, and a few others business type ventures Warcraft is probably what I spend most of my life doing. So I should ask myself a question; am I wasting my life playing a video game? I think so. Why don't I stop playing the game altogether, just cancel the account? If I had the answer to that perhaps I would be a lot more successful. I guess it's a good thing that after a while my wrists start to hurt so bad that I can't possibly play anymore Warcraft.

I don't know where I'm going with this entry but I do know one thing. I've been playing The World of Warcraft the whole time I've been writing this.