This piece is an edited excerpt from James Hsu‘s recent book, Magic: The Addiction: My 20-Year Gaming Journey. James is a life-long gaming enthusiast and technophile. He currently lives in Beijing.

Addiction is perhaps most often associated with things like drugs, alcohol, or gambling… but what happens when it takes the form of a seemingly innocuous card game? Can you rehabilitate? (credit: Ullstein Bild / Getty Images)

Magic: The Gathering has opened many cultural doors for me. A game with the international reach of Magic allows its players to compete in locations around the world. In places like New York, Amsterdam, and Munich, I have played Magic with strangers, armed only with our mutual love of the game as a shared language.

This became an unexpected benefit in my early thirties as I relocated halfway around the world, from Canada to China, in search of a new beginning.