Goodbye DOTA

Today at 2 a.m , 18th July 2007 , DOTA was terminated from my life for good.
It was a tough yet very much needed decision on my part . I also had a good pal to help me along and he's xin hao - he helped me along by using "fire-power" to urge me to do the right thing and later use "ice-cold ice pack" to console me after the deed was done.

Deleting the game of DOTA (which i've been playing for one year avidly now) was a two phase action . 1) Delete WARCRAFT folder 2) EMPTY RECYCLE BIN . When i did 1) , it took me another 5 mins to do 2) . Because , all those emotions, memories and attachment for the game is so huge , its like parting with a way of life - almost a lifestyle by itself. The thing that brought me courage to do 2) is due to a little cut-scene from terminator 2 it goes like this

...
John Connor : is he dead now ? (referring to T-1000)
Terminator : Terminated
John Connor : (phew) it's over now
Terminator : No , there is still one more chip (pointing towards forehead) , and it must be destroyed also
(fast-forward)
John Connor : NO , please dont leave me , please NO
Terminator : I am sorry john i am sorry
John Connor : I ORDER YOU NOT TO GO I ORDER YOU NOT TO GO (with tears)
Terminator : I know now why you cry , but it is something i can never do
...

If a terminator can self-terminate for the sake of mankind (which has nothing to do with him) , then i can terminate dota for the sake of my life and well-being

I suppose the core reason why i quit dota is because i find that it hugely increases my craving , ego and greed . For some unknown reasons, i crave for sex more , crave for recognition more and crave for friendship more. The same goes for the other two attributes.

This may well be the effects of online gaming, as xin hao rightly pointed out , online gaming does not affect us on a conscious level , it attacks on a sub-conscious level. This is the scary part of most things - online gaming is but one of them.

As for myself, i just had faith that dota was ruining my life and if it wasn't why would i give two hecks about deleting it? BECAUSE IT WAS.

Anything that has a tinch of addiction to it cannot be trusted , and how do you know whether you are addicted to it? - try going one week without it and see how it feels. (refers mostly to conventional things - going one week without sleep is of course not applicable in this case)
For those who do not understand what i mean, take milk for an example, can you go one week without drinking milk? i suppose most would say yes

Then why can't you go one week without [insert whatever]? its because you are addicted!
Try it.. dont believe me. Go and try. think u're not hooked on TV? try one week without TV , how does it feel.

To sum it up, i guess a quotation fits best

"Men have to do things the right way - not their own way"

I did what i have and had to do. Have you?