Belated Beginnings

Well, we have been rather ignorant in keeping up with the blog, haven't we sister? :o It must be remedied.

Don't worry folks, it most definitely will. I myself have been enrolled into both writing classes and art classes to improve my current standing in those two hobbies of mine.

What's been happening aside from that in my life? There's one particular issue bearing down on my mind, even though I've at the moment pushed it as far away from my mind unless it presents itself to me.

Being an avid Warcraft player, I enjoy getting people involved with the game. To give them some stress-relief from the burdening days of school, work, or possibly a depressing lifestyle that's in the process of being fixed. While many have found the game a bad plan of substitute, others have found extra hope in it.

Unfortunately, Warcraft is not for all people. One friend in particular, Jussi, has lost touch with reality, if not her life. I had introduced her since she needed inspiration for her art, and Warcraft had given me more than enough to write and draw about for months at a time. At the time, I was blind. I should have never introduced her to it. It was hard enough getting her to publish art on a daily basis, or at least sketch something in her notebook.

Nevertheless, it was introduced. For two weeks, she fought over who to RAF with, which is a program that allows a veteran player and a new player to level together at 300 times the speed of a solo player. As a reward for recruitment, free levels were offered, up to 40 free levels, and the veteran was given a very special mount only available through the program. Being a mount collector, yes, I did want the mount, but at the same time, I was more interested in playing with her.

She went with her friend, who pulled her into a guilt trip saying she owed him, and how he promised to help her with everything in the game. It proved to be a problem. A very large problem. Instead of aiding her, he used her to progress his own characters. Never taught her the hot keys, how to play, how to sell, how to research her class and work on getting better at playing while leveling. When she had quests to do, he forbid it, yet when he needed things done, he made her follow him around like a puppy.

Eventually, he returned to his own server, and I said good riddance. The fact he had the audacity to use an old friend like that was terrible. I took the reins along with my fiance, and helped her into the game.

Possibly the worst mistake I ever made. What was easy for me to pull in and out of, she was attached to. She became addicted. Addicted enough to drop her entire art career, to toss away everything for a raiding guild she had found on a game with a fellow player who to anyone outside of the guild, saw as more than a friendship.

Day and night, her username was found on Warcraft, and it was no idle matter while she went to sleep. Warcraft naturally AFKs you at 30 minutes, and kicks you from the server after an hour. So she was very active. I was distressed that she had tossed so much away for a game.

I can not blame the game, because years of psychology have revealed to me that it is not the game that 'steals' people away; it is the person's lack of willpower, and their lack of discipline. Jussi had none, and for the past five years of knowing her, I had been trying to get her on a path to get some to do what she needed to do to move on with her life.

I wrote a journal on Deviantart regarding it, stating I would be missing from Warcraft for a while, because seeing her on constantly distraught me. To know one of my best friends had willingly tossed everything she previously worked for, in the blink of an eye for a raiding guild was stressing.

She would leave her instant messengers on, but never answer them. When she did, it was always a 'Brb. Raiding.' or a 'Hold on.' To which would never be replied to again. When on Warcraft to speak to her, the same results came. All that matters to her is raiding.

When I emailed her about it, texted her about it, DA noted her about it, contacted her through every means of contact she had that I was aware of, except Warcraft, I received no response.

When I confronted her about it on Warcraft, she suddenly launched into an angry rage that I had no right to go off on her. I had never brought the topic up to her before, she said. Never have I, so it was wrong to lash out at her. It was evident then that she had let Warcraft take up so much time that she couldn't even check a program or an email for a moment to see what I had been trying to tell her for weeks.

When my fiance confronted her, she went off on him, asking him where the hell he's been for the past few weeks. He was angry at her audacity. He plays the game six hours a day, and every time, she is on just as well, but once again, the Brbs, the Hold Ons, and the refusal to reply due to raiding, regardless of the time of day.


While it is her place to choose what she wants to do, I as a friend can not stand seeing someone fall like that, hence why my attention was still on her. But when she sent me a DA note stating some things that told me "I never checked any of your emails or notes, so none of the things I'm saying make any sense"; that's when I got angry.

She insulted my passion for writing. She accused me of being addicted to writing, of being a hypocrite. If I can spend so much time on writing, she can spend just as much time on Warcraft. It was then I had lost respect for her. To dare compare a career field in the world, something that shows more emotion to a video game, was a dense point of view.

In addition to all of this, she lashed out at my fiance, accusing him of following me like a puppy, as if she had forgotten that the two of us had come together because of our love for art and writing. When I went to write, so did he, because I am his inspiration to write. And so she attempted to use that as a means to 'justify' her recent negative attitude and hostility.

I have only one option left to 'save' her, to get her back into reality and realize that moderation is necessary in order to successfully live a good life. If Warcraft becomes all that she does, the consequences of real life will hit her harder than seemingly necessary.


Two days ago, she wrote about it, stating how she has realized Warcraft is taking up her life. A friend disappeared off to school, and she didn't want to be left behind. As a result, she swore to draw every morning, and she would not touch Warcraft until 2 PM everyday and on from there. That was her plan, her goal, her ambition.


And yet, she is online. On Warcraft. All day. She will not read articles about art, she will not enroll into art classes online, which practically let her stay at home, study art, while playing Warcraft. She will not acknowledge any of her 'friends', unless they are on Warcraft with her. She has pretty much segregated herself and anyone who ever knew her. If you don't play Warcraft, she wants nothing to do with you, and assumes you no longer exist.

I have one option left to ride on, and that's to contact her mother about it. Being a fellow writer, I hope she too sees the problems I'm seeing. I hope she realizes that her daughter is throwing her life away for a video game that, instead of inspiring her, has killed any willpower and discipline left in her to pursue anything outside of a mouse click. I already have taken blame for introducing her, but it is no fault of mine that she mingled with the wrong people in the game, and it is no fault of mine that she has chosen Warcraft over life. One option left.

And I pray it opens her eyes.