Where am I spending too much of my time when online? Adventure Quest. I blame it on my nephew. Sure, he’s only nine, but he introduced me to this online RPG.

At first I thought it was kind of boring. All you do is click Attack or Spells and wait to see how many hit points your opponent loses and how many he takes you for. But, there is more, once you begin the fall into gaming addiction. Right now I’m a level 49, on the very cusp of being 50. I’m a level 5 Mage and it’s fun seeing how far I can get my adventurer to go, whether I can stretch those few last hit points enough to live through the battle or if I’ll be just that one or two short and end up losing. Characters don’t die in Adventure Quest, however. You can keep them going or start a new one if you choose.

In your adventures, you earn gold which buys more spells, weapons, armour, pets (sidekicks), and this allows you to improve your character with more intelligence, charisma, luck, strength, and so on, just like the old Dungeons and Dragons game. Only this time you can’t see the Dungeon Master and he or she doesn’t tell you when they’re tired and want to go home. In Adventure Quest you play till you suddenly realize it’s become too dark to see the screen without turning on some lights.

The Adventure Quest site is creating its own spinoff sites. Neither is available for general play yet. Artix Entertainment will open Dragon Fable and Arch Knight soon. Arch Knight is open for paying players (Guardians) now. Adventure Quest is playable without paying but there are more features, quests, and levels for those who play as Guardians.