Yes, it's been quite a while since my last post.  The bulk of the blame should fall on two very consuming, yet diametrically opposed, forces.  The first of which started with a simple free trial to the online fantasy game World of Warcraft.  What a game!  I had so much fun playing, but ended up paying for it all too soon.

Below are the main reasons that woke me up enough to stop playing an online game and get back to the real world where I was neglecting my self and my career.

1) Easy access, the hard way.
Since February of 2010 I've been running my own business full-time from home.  I left my "corporate" job so I could set my own hours and determine my own pay rate.  I was happy to put in extra time and effort because I was always fairly paid for my hard-work.

However, working in front of a computer all day from home meant I was also working one click away from the W.O.W. login screen. If a client didn't call me back or respond to my email fast enough, I'd jump on and play.  How could I refuse?

"Just a few minutes, until they call back"  I'd tell myself.  However, 3 hours later I would notice unread emails and voicemails piled up from clients that could have converted into more paying jobs.

The quality of my work never suffered, but the quantity plummeted faster than I expected.  I left my "job" to play games all day and expected to somehow still get paid? I don't think so.

2) False sense of accomplishment (ding!)
I honestly believe most human beings are driven to create and accomplish.  Yes we all work for money to keep food on our tables, but even those that work a job they hate feel some satisfaction out of doing that job well.  I'm very driven by past successes, as well as the act of learning or creating itself.

Playing World of Warcraft, there was always a new level to achieve, dungeon to raid, or quest item to attain.  I actually picked up professions in the game pretty quick, becoming a Master Skinner and Leatherworker.  I'd hunt bears, or similar "MOBs" in the game, skin them, create leather armor and sell it to vendors in the game for gold.

I was very successful, but the gold in my W.O.W. bank wasn't dollars in my real bank account.  After a day of successful gaming, the itch was already scratched and I didn't feel the need to succeed or produce in the real world.

3) It costs (more than $14.99 a month)
There is a command you can enter at the WOW prompt to see the total accumulation of real time you've spent logged in playing.  On a suggestion from a colleague I entered this command and was shocked!  I had logged enough in-game hours to add up to an entire week.  That's 7 days at 24 hours a day!

I had only owned the game for a month and a half, how was this possible? During that time I spent over 15% of my days and nights playing this game.  I still slept the same amount of time and still spent time with my family, that means the time I spent actually working had suffered dramatically.

As a small business owner I charge between $50 - $65 per hour for most projects.  If I would have just used half of that game time working on projects I would have made over $4,000.  I'd much rather have that than a +13 DEX Ivory Bracer I spent hours questing to get.

Since getting out of the WOW universe I've had such a sharp increase in business and feel much better having real success instead of the simulated kind.  I've also learned MySQL and iPhone app programming, two things I'm totally in love with now.

I have a full app in the iTunes App Store now, and the 2nd one is launching very soon.

Before, I was too busy to blog because I spend my days as a Night-Elf Rogue named Taknore.  Now I'm too busy to blog because of I'm a successful Web and App developer.

Life is short, use your time to perfect your craft… not your World of Warcraft.