Millions of people around the world are addicted to online RPGs. RPG transports you to a different world despite your current situation and worries. That’s why RPG, especially Massive Multiplayer online RPG (MMORPG) is so addictive. It draws you from the reality. It makes you want to come back again and again.

I once did an experiment. I was wondering why so many people were hooked to World of Warcraft. What’s so interesting about the game? I bought the game and a game card (I bought one game card and told myself to stop the game after 60 days). The problem was that the game became so interesting, the game world so vast that I got plunged deeper and deeper into the game. As you play, you want to level up, you want more experience, you want to buy better armor and sword, with that you can have more power…I ended up extending my intended period; I bought another 60 days game card. Thankfully, I managed to pull myself out of the game entirely after that. The experiment nearly went out of hand. The hunter nearly became the hunted. It wasted a lot of my precious time and not to mention some health (poor eyesight, backache, headache etc…) because of the long hours of playing.

In some ways, blogging is like Role Playing Games.

• You build your character gradually up (in this case- your blog) through ‘missions’ or constant tasks like update content, check and reply comments etc).
• You can level up (in terms of PageRank, Technorati ranking etc.) if you blog longer and follow some known methods.
• You can buy booster “accessories” (like paid traffic)
• You can join a guild (blogger network or directories)
• There is a system of reputation and authority to maintain
• There is a vast world (the blogsphere) to explore
• It can be addictive especially if you are chasing after ranking…
• It can be addictive because of the newfound friendships and networking in the new media (as in the case of MMORPG and increasingly, Facebook)

I am not saying that blogging (or for that matter, computer gaming) is bad. In fact blogging allows me to improve my writing, meet more friends and allows me to communicate more with them.

I am just saying that in everything we do, we have to do in moderation.