It has now been about 31.5 hours since my last 4+ hour romp in Final Fantasy XI. This was only the 2nd time in over a year of playing that I had engaged in such a long session. This time I avoided the arm cramping but having stayed up until 2am, found myself suffering severe sleep deprivation and something entirely new, cravings. The long session had consisted of a fair amount of traveling and fighting in the company of a small party of other players. It was a lot of fun and by the end of it I could probably have continued another hour or two. So I’m guessing that my brain was awash in endorphines in which case withdrawal symptoms would be expected. After that, I had a better understanding of why people get addicted to these games. I haven’t played again since that time, but I sure have been thinking about it!
Another interesting thing during the session was the dreaded question of, are you a guy? I’ve been playing a lot as a female character because it just seemed more fun that way to me, but I hadn’t really decided how I wanted to answer the question of gender if it were raised. Until now, no one had asked directly so I never raised it myself, preferring to maintain the illusion. But when asked directly I decided to just play it straight and honest. As it turned out, it was no big deal and interestingly enough no one else who joined our party later even asked about it. You don’t see lots of female characters in the game anyway, so I would guess that most players prefer to maintain the illusion too. This is just a game afterall, right?