Knocked me off the Ol' Wagon

I hear you; it’s that pernicious" Level Up" psychology that keeps you hooked.
Back in the day’s way before “Pwn” was even remotely part of anyone’s language, I became hooked for a while on an ASCII character dungeons and dragons type game that ran on my college’s Digital VAX11 mainframe. I would say, "I’ll just play for a few minutes; just enough to get 100 more experience points (or something) and then I’ll go back to the library and study. 3 very short hours later…..

I was in bad shape. I actually stooped to having my account automatically run the app when I logged onto the system to save time. I didn’t use it for anything else. Finally, after seeing myself in the mirror with bloodshot eyes and a deathly pale complexion, I quit cold turkey and walked out blinking into the sunlight to never look back on the way I rearranged those bits and bytes so progressively.

So I swore it all off and went on the wagon for last 20 years.

I logged into ‘Epic Pet Wars’ and started playing yesterday just to see what you were talking about. Just for a few minutes—you know, all in the name of research. Now I’m divorced, I lost my job and the Repo men are out in my driveway, but I don’t care! I – MUST – make – Level — 6 – by – tomorrow!