I generally avoid playing video games. Not that I dislike them. On the contrary, I generally love any sort of strategical simulation game. I can't tell you how many hours I wasted, for example, playing SimCity when I was in college.

That's the problem, you see. If I find a game that I enjoy it suddenly takes up much more of my free time than it rightly should. I tend towards strategical sports simulations these days. Diamond Mind Baseball, for instance, was last summer's obsession. A couple of weeks ago I decided to take a chance on a franchise that is hugely successful in Britain, Championship Manager.

Now the premise, I'll admit, is nothing but hardcore geek. It's, of all things, an incredibly detailed football (soccer, if you must) simulation. I won't bore you with the details, but suffice it to say that the minutia that it goes into is simply mind-boggling. Fan sites all over the web talk about how addictive this program is. There are entire sites devoted to fan fiction about players' teams. There's even a monthly glossy magazine in Britain. It's an evil, evil thing this game.

I, for one, am starting to get sucked in. I - must - fight - it. I don't have enough spare time to blog, let alone play a goofy game.

Oh, and if you're interested in jumping into this crack den, be sure to buy the game from a British reseller. It's not currently available in the US and, when they do release it, word is that it will have fictional players rather than the real thing...