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One year ago, on the 15th of August I officially retired from Warspear Online. That was the last day in the upcoming 10 months when I logged on for a longer time. After that, I only checked up once or twice a month, to see if everything is alright with my character, Tatelan. I thought I would share a brief story of the past year, since it is very interesting what happened after I stepped into real life. I warn you in advance: it may sound too uplifting, but this is only because I don't want to (and have the time to) explain everything that happened. During a period of two and a half years I levelled up multiple characters, became well-known ingame and supposedly had a lot of fun, however, my connection with people in real life was not too perfect. I was always showing more than I really was, so people weren't suspicious what was really going on. You know, I like talking and interacting with people. But as I recall, I wasn't very good at it. I kept to my fixidea "I don't care what others think of me". This was visible on my look, my clothing (just compare the photos of last and this year's photo contest, you'll see the difference), my attitude to others. I talked a lot of nonsense at that time. And the reason I neglected myself and others was the fact that EVERY free time I had was occupied by Warspear Online. Good job, Aigrind, you've developed a game that kept me playing nonstop for more than two years. You may ask: "Hey! Aren't you a student? When did you have time to play?" The answer is simple: at night. In my case being addicted meant playing whenever I could. And that was the time from 9 PM till 3-4 AM at night. Insane to say, but I mostly slept 2-3 hours a day. Of course, my parents didn't know about it. Playing at night had no effect on my health (looking back, it's a miracle) my grades at school (It had actually, but parents took it as a bad start of high school. Well, not really. I was playing instead of learning...), I did all the stuff they asked for.… Why would have they been suspicious? In short, I was a nerd gamer. Last summer I had a job and I helped a lot at the construction of our new house. I simply had no time to play, and when I had free time, I strangely had no mood to play. Quitting an addiction is hard, but in my case it was only a matter of a few weeks not being able to play. I realised I did not need Warspear Online to occupy myself. It is hard to believe that only a single game kept me from a lot of good thing in life but that is the truth. I suddenly had a LOT of free time. I read a lot before, too, but only to be able to say "I read that book". Thanks to my photomemory I was able to read Pride and Prejudice in a week, Orwell's 1984 in two hours. And when I said " I read it", it was the truth. I spent last summer with reading a lot, but this time I looked for deeper meanings, for interesting thoughts and I was thinking a lot about them. I also read psychological books and philosophers' writings. Doing it to improve intellectually. I also had time for crafting, and I realised I have quite cool ideas to create them (as you may have seen it too, on the specific thread of this forum.) When I returned to school in September, I returned completely changed. Of course a lot of people realised it. Being able to speak about things and to think about stuff deeply, they visibly started to appreciate my presence in the group. I made friends with quite a few people in my class, my grades improved a lot, I have goals for my future. In May I played a dungeon for the first time in the past 10 months. Since then I am online more often, not because I am addicted, but because I enjoy playing. Big difference! So where are we now, one year after leaving the game? I finish high-school next year, but I already completed half of my final exams. My look's changed too. I have healthy and strong connections with the people who are important to me. The whole thing may sound a bit sugary. I can assure you things weren't as easy and fast as written here, but I remind you that this was only a brief story. But this doesn't change the fact that my story seems to end well, and this story started when I gave up my addiction to Warspear Online. Nowadays you can find me ingame often, but September comes soon when I will have other things to attend to. Of course, the forum is always a place I visit often. It's a cool place and doesn't take too much of my time. Thanks for reading, feel free to comment your thoughts about it! Ben