Clive Thompson over at Wired News puzzles over the reasons we become addicted to certain games. After picking up Burnout: Revenge, he was immediately hooked, ditching writing deadlines and ignoring his misses. Thompson fantasized about the game when he wasn't playing, and gorged himself in gaming binges. Then suddenly, he went cold turkey.

Certainly, every gamer knows this experience. Why does this happen? Thompson contacted several of his hard-core gaming associates to see what they think.

"For a while, with a really amazing new game, it's all you do, all you think about," says Luke Smith, who writes for the game blog Kotaku and recently has spent weeks fanatically rolling a level-60 character in World of Warcraft. "But then it's balance issues, buggy play, poor online optimization. You keep trying to 'make it work,' and it won't."

Hey, Luke's not only hardcore, but a certified WoW insomniac. Now that his AIM name has been posted, feel free to hit him with late night tips. He'll be up, leading raids until dawn. Trust me.

The End of the Affair [Wired News]