I miss my stupid online text-based game :/

no, not the game, the community. there are two sites that i often kept open and would refresh while doing other things... i normally didn't pay a lot of attention to them, but they were habit. they were both forum sites related to the game. or linked with it at least - a lot of their content was not game related. but i've decided that it's best to stay away from them because they're likely to draw me back into the game.

but they are habit, and it's hard to break the habit. a few times already today i've found myself on one of the forum sites without really thinking about it... it's just such a common action for me to open up a new tab, type the first few letters of the url and then autocomplete and go. i don't use bookmarks for the sites that i use most, because autocomplete is just as easy, and leaves less mess. instead, my bookmarks are sites i've happened upon that i thought i might want again but suspected i wouldn't be able to easily find.

i still talk to a few people from this game on aim, but only the ones who i'd consider friends and who i've chatted with a lot about non-game-related issues, a.k.a. real life. that's the split in the community - game-related and real life. your game-related life and your "real life". many people spend more time in their game-related life than their real one.

it really is a substitute social community. it IS social interaction, it IS a social life. it's just one with a different medium of communication - only written, instead of real life that consists of written as well as verbal, tactile, and visual communication. its limitations can even facilitate communication better than real life, in some cases. it can be easier to open up to someone online, an internet friend, someone who isn't "real". and one doesn't get interrupted much in writing. you can share things with these people who you've never met, and likely never will meet, that you couldn't share with many of your real life friends - because the fear of being judged and found to be a complete fucking psycho is less severe.

it also helps that many of the people online are a lot like you, and may be undergoing the same issues, conflicts, etc.

And yes, I fully realise that by throwing my myself into dA, and by throwing myself into blogging, i'm simply replacing my stupid text-based game social life with another "virtual" one. but i can see good things coming of dA and focusing on my photography. blogging i'm not so sure about - but mind you, i'm also not so sure that i'll even stick with this and won't get bored of it after two weeks. what's the standard life span of a blog, i wonder?

but blogging is, i think, more introspective. or more egocentric :P