"I quit, and so should you"

I was thinking about quitting realm for some time.

Honestly, I already did quit a few days ago but... then I returned. To the forum only. Just to see last posts or maybe some private messages. Then I started reading. Reading the forum made me want to play and I entered the game - just for a few minutes. Then minutes became hours... As always. That's something sick, an addiction. At least it's better than pills or drugs or alcohol.

I realized that it's eating too much of my time. Too much of my energy that could be directed to my own creative projects. From being just a casual game it become sort of a monster that eats a big part of my life. Because not only I'm playing a few hours a day but also thinking about realm during the day. It's interfering with my real life. Is it worth it?

In realm we are busy with solving artificial problems - defeating enemies that don't really exist, gathering artificial wealth based on artificial scarcity of items. Also, there is nothing new there. I completed hundreds of tombs, trenches and undead lairs. And not so many cemeteries or candy lands but they aren't worth it. How many times can one person do these things again and again and again and again?

The content can be completed in a week and perfected maybe in three months (especially tombs). So this game is not about content. The point of this game is social interaction. But it's still artificial and shallow, it's based on solving all these artificial problems together.

You can develop friendships when times are hard, when people are struggling, overpowered by some crushing forces. That force can be a permadeath - when noobs are struggling and give away noobish items to help their brethren to rebuild.

I no longer have economic problems in the game. I'm wealthy. And even if I lose everything, I can rebuild.

Yes, there is still a room for improvement. I can still get better at running tombs. And maybe beat Krayzie in a speedrun one day? That could be a worthy goal. Speedruns give a lot of replayability to any game. Or maybe farm fame for all-time legend? That's too time consuming and there's no real challenge. And it's only a game. All things achieved here are really worthless.

And there is a problem that many parts of the game that were fun for me are no longer fun. I kill these poor gods one by one or rush a tomb and I think: what am I doing here? With a feeling that it's no longer a right place for me. It's no longer playful.

One of my most enjoyable moments in the realm was joining a midland train as a noob. I leveled to 20 by making one circle around the map and the train was crushing everything in it's path. All those scary monsters, hard to take out alone, were vanishing under the train's firepower! That was fun. Or visiting dungeons for the first time...

My best IRL friend didn't want to play Realm. He started, leveled to 20 following the quest marker and said the game is no challenge to him. And he would be a boss there because he beats me in all games.

I was also thinking about improving the game - it's interface and mechanics. I have lot of ideas. I keep them to myself because the developers don't give a shit about player's ideas. Or worse - they may implement it and charge gold for things I'd like to be free for everyone. I should probably make my own game and channel my energy and time into that.

The conclusion is - if you want to quit, don't visit forums, don't enter IRC or mumble.

Now I'd like to say "thank you" to all people who I know and care about, you know who you are. Or you don't. I'm not really a social person. And my oldest realm friends (if I can call them that) don't play the game anyway. There won't be wine cellars, tombs and drop parties. No mass suicide of all characters. I won't even return to the game to say good bye. I'm not even sure if I will really quit. My quitting will be probably instant.

Now the character's death is a good opportunity to leave because I want to fool the all-seeing Sauron's eye of realmeye into thinking it's still alive. Also, according to my religious beliefs, I will treat this highly improbable death as a "sign" (from universe or gods or whatever spiritual forces) that my previous decision about quitting was right. My cruel gods say: stay true to your word and do as you stated. Or we will do it for you.

See you in another life, brothers.