Is there time for gaming?

Just to clear up one thing, I play World of Warcraft. 

I've met some of my closest friends through the game, had much drama and stress over the game, and enjoyed some very fun times doing my favorite WoW R&R (raiding and roleplay).  I've played Horde and Alliance and had multiple 80s on both factions.  I've even run two accounts at the same time on different PCs (known as dual-boxing). 

Needless to say, I fell into the "addicted" category of WoW gamers for at least five of the six years I've been playing. 

Then several weeks ago I stumbled on this brilliant video of Jane McGonigal talking about how we can harness the 5 billion+ hours people put into WoW for real world problems. 

Something about this hit home with me, probably because I was one of those gamers making the "epic win" face every time something fantastic happened in the game.  Everything she said was true; we log in, people are happy to see us, we matter, we can change the world, etc. etc.  There's no unemployment in WoW - and who do you think actually plays WoW?

Anyway after hearing Ms. McGonigal's very inspiring talk, I've found myself playing less and less WoW, and getting more and more involved in things I've wanted to do for years but found excuses not to - like writing, running, playing my violin again, and blogging/internet marketing stuff. 

Suddenly I'm finding there's this whole world out there of interesting things and people.  There's so much to do and not enough time to ever do it all.  I have so many different interests and passions.  How did I not notice this before? 

Unfortunately, it was because of WoW.  I got so absorbed in the fun of the virtual world that I started to think the real world needed me less.  

I don't want to bash WoW; there's enough of that out there already.  I just feel the need to ask a very serious question: with all the problems we have in our real world, do we really have time to spend in virtual worlds? 

This doesn't apply solely to world of warcraft - look at things like Farmville and Mafia Wars and all the addictive facebook games people spend hours playing.   Sure these are businesses and just like fast food, the makers are going to keep putting them out there as long as they're making money.  Can't entirely blame them, can you?  

If McDonalds CEOs said "hey guys, sorry to inform you that we're quitting because the fast food industry is making people fat!" then millions of people would be out of jobs, even if it did mean we had lower obesity rates.