"Who am I?" I mutter at the empty text field. It doesn't answer. I wouldn't want it to. Once and always, Action Jay, a guy on the internet for far too long. I've seen it all, and trying my best to keep it together. A live window to my day to day life and musings can be found on Mastodon, currently at thecanadian.social/@action_jay You'll see me talking about local politics in Saskatoon, geeking out about TTRPGs and Video Games, hammering drums for various causes, and just enjoying life as it comes. Meanwhile, here, on this page, we'll see occasional big life updates in the form of those blog posts the kids are always talking about.

Sunday, October 11, 2026

I Accidentally the Whole Game

I don't like my brain on MMOs.

I played and quit World of Warcraft, several times, over the course of my geek career. I love it, the world is vibrant and the story is engaging and it's so vast and deep and fun. But I'm also a completionist and there is absolutely no end to it.

There's a point where I'm strategizing how to see and do everything and then butt up against the dozens of progress bars that are satisfying to see budging forward but at some point become impossible.

I lose entire days, and about then I remind myself of the kind of person I am and that this is probably not good for me.

well shit
So it was with extreme caution and an attempt at a plan that I approached Neverwinter this last month. The goal is noble: I want to see the world and story and characters of the Forgotten Realms I've been DMing from an official lens. Give me ideas and context that I can deliver my players. And a handful of my players came on board to play together - in character even! Great fun and a wild success.

Then, as luck would have it, I came down with a nasty cold and barely had energy for much of anything for a week. Then the week after I'm on late shifts with several hours to kill each morning in my precious me-time.

By this point my character's dipped into the campaigns, the higher level progression that requires repeated daily quests for currencies that nudge progression bars, which require more and more each time. The end reward? Portions of a percentage boost to some stat or another. More time is sunk into this joyless, brainless task than actually seeing new content and enjoying the game.

And damnit, here I am again.

It's going to take willpower to pull out of that spiral and get back on task. There's plenty of story based content, places to see, people to meet if I can just resist that stupid treadmill.

I'd prefer to approach this along with my group and if I can get them to regularly tag along for structured sessions I think it'd be more in spirit of the idea. Playing Baldur's Gate 3 in character with my wife similarly allowed me to push past the completionist instinct and actually enjoy it.

I don't like my brain on MMOs, and I don't like the way I fall for the addictive design and dark patterns. Cause it does feel good! Right until I step back and realise where my time went.
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