I don't think it's a far stretch to say that I'm a bit of an obsessive person. My life for the past 10 or so years can be largely charted by following my long-term obsessions, each lasting anywhere between 1 and 4 years and marked by a need to absorb all the knowledge about the given field. A quick recap, mainly to remind myself:
- Battlefield 1942: 3½ years
- E-sports: 1½ years
- Unreal Tournament 2004: 1 year
- World of Warcraft: 1½ years
- Rock climbing: 1½ years till present

It's a recurring pattern that has been largely unchanged - an initial interest, then a few reinforcing experiences leading to the sort of rabid devotion that only true obsessives can know. And while some interests have faded naturally into the background - Battlefield 1942 and UT2004 both had their scenes fade away into oblivion, leading to my own eventual dismissal of them, others have taken a rather stranger course.

While I still retain a casual interest in e-sports, the current state of things is certainly one reason why I no longer strive to follow every event. Things were different when the number of events was limited, each with their own aura of glory surrounding them - the ESWC, CPL and WCG all retained their places in the calendars of all as the big events to follow.

These days, things are scattered across a large number of different games and no event is untainted by mitigating factors to rabid fandom. The WCG has its virtual pool, the CGS its retarded ruleset, the CPL a complete fiasco, and so on. But at the same time, it's still largely down to a waning interest on my own part.

World of Warcraft ended up being too much to deal with in a new university environment, with its time-sapping commitment far too big a piece to swallow amongst all the other small things that dot a university student's agenda.

But the most recent obsession, rock climbing, has me partly following from beside as a bemused spectator - aware of the absurd degree to which I've taken an interest in the sport, but also unable or unwilling to relent.

Perhaps the most bizarre aspect, though, is the amount of reading that I do into this and all the other interests I've had. Through these interests I've waded through thousands of pages of written accounts by both experts and amateurs, trawling through Thottbot and ESR comments alike - in the hope of, what? Gleaning some golden nugget of pure information that will elevate my understanding to another level? It seems unlikely.

However, in a perhaps uncharacteristic move, I find myself pondering over the implications on a personal, psychological level. Maybe, as I've read elsewhere, this is just the geek inside coming out, flitting from project to project with full dedication to each and every one of them until there is none left. A worrying thought, especially after investing quite a lot of money into rock climbing equipment...