Tim Dean at the blog Trembling Hand, who I rather rudely called "clueless" last month, has come up with a wonderful little hypothetical.

What if, next time you fired up your favourite MMO, there was a new button in the interface. It says "Level up", and every time you press it, you gain a level, plain and simple.

His breakdown of the various answers seems about right to me.

1. A small percentage would press it with wild abandon.

2. A larger percentage would restrain themselves for a while, but end up pressing it all the way to the cap anyway.

3. A majority would sneakily press it from time to time, and feel guilty about it, but would end up at the cap with more than half their levels from the button.

4. A reasonable number would shun the button entirely.

I'd like to think I'd be in the fourth group, but I lack the self-control to keep myself out of the third group. I would, however, go so far as to tape a piece of paper over the button to try to remove the temptation.