Timesink or not, please note that I have posted the effects on my own creativity before, during, and after. They were *real* effects on my imagination no matter what the driving force in the game may have been, time waster or not. This is something that cannot be argued with me I'm afraid. It was a first hand account, it happened in my case, end of story.
I also explicitly noted that I didn't blame the game itself. In moderation games such as this are just fine, and don't have any effect on me personally, at least. I can log onto Team Fortress, for instance, and play for an hour or two, and come away just fine and dandy.
However as I have stated: In MY case, it DID suppress my imagination to a degree where it became a problem. Hours of sitting there clicking on buttons does not lead to any creation, or activity in my case. It actively started to wipe out any need for me to imagine because it was all just laid out before me. Even at its most 'creative' Warcraft boils down to a button masher at most and a time-waster at least. Those times when you are down to your last bits of mana and Moroes is at 6% health lead to little creative thinking outside "Which spell button should I push to drop this corpsley annoyance".
The only excitement I ever truly had in WoW was killing a boss for the first time, or successfully getting my Rhok'Delar bow (any hunter pre-BC will know just what a pain in the rear quest that is, and how awesome you feel when you complete it).
And I do completely agree with you on one point. Its an excellent way to just shut down your mind and relax. I used to work loading docks for a retail outlet and the only thing I wanted after a day of dealing with retail idiocy of all makes and sizes was to just sit and shut my mind off. Its cathartic when played in moderation. It was fantastic until I burned out on it by overdoing it.
Again, its just my toss of the copper. I'm not decrying Warcraft (Believe me, I could), and I'm certainly not decrying people who play sane levels of the game. Sometimes we all just need to run around killin' stuff in its most colourful or epic fashion.