Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve received mail from a couple of MMORPGs that I used to play (EverQuest and Anarchy Online), offering to give me 30 days of free game play on my old accounts. This is tantamount to offering free crack to a recovered addict, or a “small drink for old-times’ sake” to an AA member. It’s in extremely poor taste, dangerous even, to wave an object of addiction under the nose of a former junkie.
The really bad thing about getting mail like this is that I’m not really a recovered MMORPG addict, just a different one. I only managed to kick my EQ habit by replacing it with AO, and the only reason I no longer play AO is that I’ve turned my online gaming yen toward Earth & Beyond. I’ve promised myself only one online addiction at a time, which means that I actually get to sleep every once in a while. I must admit to being sorely tempted to indulge in another 30 days of EQ or AO, “risk-free” with “no obligation”.
I really enjoy being married, though.
The email campaign by these two games reminds me a lot of the “we were bad, we’re sorry, please join us again” snail mail that I still get from Columbia House Records, but with a sinister edge to it. At least with Columbia, it was only money for music, not life’s blood for experience points.
