For the past few months I've been heavily into World of Warcraft. I was having a great time leveling up my little warrior, hooking up with my friends for some instances, and enjoying the company of my guild. Things were good. During this time I hadn't bought a single other game, as any time spent on another game was valuable time I could have been spending working on my character. Recently a new job opportunity arose and I will be working full-time now so I decided to quit playing WoW, despite having two months left of my subscription, as there would be no time to play with all my classes and work. Sure, I could fit a decent amount of hours on the weekends but I would fall behind and I didn't want to face the temptation of playing when I was trying to study.
Anyhow, I never considered quitting gaming completely, I just needed something I could play for a few hours here and there and enjoy the experience. I picked up Splinter Cell Chaos Theory last week and gave it a whirl, I've never played any of the previous games in the series but the reviews have been astounding. Lo and behold, I feel almost like my love of gaming has been restored. SCCT has been a joy to play this past week and it was so refreshing not to be playing as a part of an instance grind or whatever, simply working to level up my character. What a delight it as been playing through SCCT, it makes me remember how satisfying a good game can really be. I wish I had dumped WoW earlier Time to check out what I've missed these past few months.
You describe exactly why I don't want to play WoW. I know I'd love it. I know I'd invest hundreds of hours. And then from one day to the other I'd drop it and will see it as time I could have used better (girl/life/study/other game).