Just What is This Thing Called "Free Time" Anyway?

/snort
From Pinterest.

My inability to finish an RPG/MMORPG has, once again, reared its head.

I got my party to the city of Baldur's Gate and acquired a few quests --both with timers-- and I realized that I'd likely have to block out a few hours to take care of some of these items. Sure, I could just save and walk away, but have you tried putting down a good page turner of a book at nighttime?*

So, once again I backed off and said "okay, when I get that sort of free time without any commitments, I'll take BG up again".

Judging by my schedule, I think I might get that sort of free time without much in the way of interruptions by sometime in late March. No, I'm not being facetious either; it's just that busy with two kids actively involved in high school --and one beginning his university visits-- and both parents working.

They say acknowledging you have a problem is the first step to treating it, but it doesn't help that I want to finish these games to find out how they end.**

Yeah, I've been there.
Melencolia I by Albrecht Dürer.
From Wikipedia.

And it's not like I can't finish any game at all, because I regularly play Civ and Civ-esque titles to completion. Those games, however, have one critical difference: I can walk away and save without getting so sucked in that I forget everything else. Plus, unlike an MMO they can just sit there in the background while I do other tasks around the house. Perhaps it's because I've cut my MMO teeth on a PvP server, but I've experienced way too many times of me going away, taking care of something or other for 15 minutes, only to find that I've been ganked while parked somewhere in the Arathi Highlands.***

But that's okay. If that's the worst quirk that I've got --stepping in before a self destructive urge takes over-- I'm in pretty good shape. Besides, it's not like I'm twiddling my thumbs with nothing to do.






*Back in the day, when Robert Jordan's Lord of Chaos was released, I spent the entire Saturday after acquiring the novel reading it. I finished sometime on Sunday --no small feat for a Robert Jordan novel of 720 pages hardcover-- and only then did I realize that I not only missed sleep I also missed eating anything.

**Okay, I know how BG ends, but the sentiment is the same. And this sentiment also extends to my to be read pile.

***Flying is a godsend for the MMO player who has to take a break. As is stealth. Neither prevent some determined enemy from trying to gank you --one L80 Rogue tried to gank L63 Quintalan while I was flying by dropping mount and attempting to kill me while falling-- but it's much much harder.