Risking social life and priority I slipped the Starcraft install disc into my cd-drive and began my impatient wait as the loading bar crept across my screen. My hopes? To enjoy the comforts of a computer game and the company of my distant friend without being dragged into the fiendish lifestyle I abandoned once my World of Warcraft account sold on e-bay.

I thought maybe with a game this old I wouldn’t get sucked into the endless pit of reading that is a public forum, nor would I have the horrible problem that plagues MMO’s, that is never being able to finish an actual game. However, in an effort to touch up on my strategy I have stumbled across BattleReports.com. I never was really good at this game and these war annals record the feats of the some the best players that have graced battle.net. Not only that but they are fun reads. Too fun. Much of my spare time (and some that was not to spare) has been devoted to this site. It is easy reading and a seemingly benign distraction. As are all the good ones…

I never quite understood why, but while playing another human in a game of Starcraft my hands shake uncontrollably. The tension that builds as the minutes creep towards an inevitable confrontation. My quick reflexes in first person shooters are useless in games like these. Instead I’m forced to focus on a much more grande scheme involving macro and micro-management. Turns out I can’t do that very well and that’s where things fall apart… What sucks is after the 15 minutes goes by and my army lies in ruin I can’t rely on a quick respawn to get back in the action. The game is over, the investment lost and rarely is there chance for revenge.