It is indeed a dark day...
Something inside me has died this very day. An integral part of my very essence, in fact. It left me quietly and almost without me even acknowledging its departure, the way something slides out the back door whilst one might be occupied with the days tasks. No, this was a gradual thing. And yet it surprises me nonetheless.
My friends and colleagues, I have lost my will to game.
Surprising? One might ask exactly HOW such a thing is possible. Is not the enchanting lure of another world full of action, adventure, and endless gore man's only reprieve from the dregs of society? I would normally tend to agree. Yet it is the very nature of this generation of gaming that has ruined those fantastic worlds for me. It started with my gradual lure into the world of MMOs. Running around with my friends in Lineage 2, World of Warcraft, and The Matrix Online. Through all of these I had my fair share of joyous experiences, and a fair amount of respect for the skill I possessed in such games. But it was not the games that dulled my enjoyment of them. Nor the systems even though they were flawed in many ways. No, it was not the world of games at all.
It was the fact that society itself crept into the games.
Now, I acknowledge that human beings are social creatures. I as well enjoy the good time had with friends and family. But the multitude of people that lie waiting in these cesspools of games are the filth of society. And by filth, I do not mean criminals and sports nuts as one would normally categorize it. I mean the gamers of today. These are truly the lowest forms of life on the planet. With a stunningly low social IQ of -15, these misfits wander aimlessly through the world of games and congregate in mass pools of stupidity. What is truly shocking is that many of these are our "bright young youth" of today that are very good at academia and have useful skills. It is simply that their brains have not adapted to the great looming (and mainly invisible, today) entity known as COMMON SENSE. It is a little voice in your head that tells you when you are about to be a total "fucktard". To put it in terms of the D&D crowd, these people tend to have a modestly high INT, but an abysmally low WIS and especially CHA. However, the cruel infestation of these tapeworms in the belly of the good gamer does not stop there.
I am a geek, as categorized by my interest in unusual things and ability to tell my head from my ass. I enjoy fantasy and sci-fi literature. I am a big fan of medieval recreationism. I know how to properly turn a computer on and operate it without problems for more than a year. I enjoy a good tabletop game with close friends. I read WEBCOMICS. These things make me who I am. But it is one thing that seperates me from the normal geek of today. And that is patience and an abnormally long attention span. And as if it were not enough, it appears that the sensible geek is being shunted out of my beloved realms of interest as well. In my medievalist group, it seems to be that everyone wants to do nothing more than thrash each other. They talk of WoW and the latest munchkin tabletop game, or how they are not dealing enough damage or got killed by another player. And when they hear of discipline and responcible martial activity, or gaming with PLOT, their eyes glaze over and they begin whimpering because that takes the fun out of it. This would be fine if I had a small amount of people to support me in this, but no. I am alone in a sea of idiots. The plague of MMOs has followed me into real life, and its shadow has crept into every game that I now play.
Although it might be a cardinal sin in the face of what is considered to be acceptable entertainment today, but I do not like to compete with other people. I used to enjoy the friendly competitive game of starcraft or tac ops, but that spirit has left me in the past few years. I have no desire to be "the best". Or even better than anyone else. I want to play WITH people, not against them. I have no desire to dominate the people I loathe in a virtual world because such competitions never have a true victor. Truly, it is very difficult to be a geek when the thing you loathe more than anything else is OTHER GEEKS. It is rare to find another geek that has sensibility. One does not find much solace in a social world where you despise your own kin. Especially when these "kin" have poisoned the very things I love and live on...my games. I find I enjoy even my single player games less and less now as well. My sword art is emptier by the day.
And so my friends, it is a dark day indeed. I find myself desperate to engage in some type of online activity with my friends, some type of game that would bring me back to the days when it was still fun. Rise of Nations. Starcraft. Diablo 2. Neverwinter Nights. Something...ANYTHING to put be back into contact with my old buddies without the horde of morons imposing on us. Being here so far away from my hometown makes things all the harder. Especially since I am surrounded by the very morons I seek to escape. My only solace lies in Kim, the one bastion of light amongst the darkness. And still I am about to lose hope, as even my games have abandoned me to the younger and less wise of today.
For those of you that are my old friends back home that read this, I need to play something with you guys. Anything. Lest my passion for life be lost forever to the swirling vortex of the l33t era.
My friends and colleagues, I have lost my will to game.
Surprising? One might ask exactly HOW such a thing is possible. Is not the enchanting lure of another world full of action, adventure, and endless gore man's only reprieve from the dregs of society? I would normally tend to agree. Yet it is the very nature of this generation of gaming that has ruined those fantastic worlds for me. It started with my gradual lure into the world of MMOs. Running around with my friends in Lineage 2, World of Warcraft, and The Matrix Online. Through all of these I had my fair share of joyous experiences, and a fair amount of respect for the skill I possessed in such games. But it was not the games that dulled my enjoyment of them. Nor the systems even though they were flawed in many ways. No, it was not the world of games at all.
It was the fact that society itself crept into the games.
Now, I acknowledge that human beings are social creatures. I as well enjoy the good time had with friends and family. But the multitude of people that lie waiting in these cesspools of games are the filth of society. And by filth, I do not mean criminals and sports nuts as one would normally categorize it. I mean the gamers of today. These are truly the lowest forms of life on the planet. With a stunningly low social IQ of -15, these misfits wander aimlessly through the world of games and congregate in mass pools of stupidity. What is truly shocking is that many of these are our "bright young youth" of today that are very good at academia and have useful skills. It is simply that their brains have not adapted to the great looming (and mainly invisible, today) entity known as COMMON SENSE. It is a little voice in your head that tells you when you are about to be a total "fucktard". To put it in terms of the D&D crowd, these people tend to have a modestly high INT, but an abysmally low WIS and especially CHA. However, the cruel infestation of these tapeworms in the belly of the good gamer does not stop there.
I am a geek, as categorized by my interest in unusual things and ability to tell my head from my ass. I enjoy fantasy and sci-fi literature. I am a big fan of medieval recreationism. I know how to properly turn a computer on and operate it without problems for more than a year. I enjoy a good tabletop game with close friends. I read WEBCOMICS. These things make me who I am. But it is one thing that seperates me from the normal geek of today. And that is patience and an abnormally long attention span. And as if it were not enough, it appears that the sensible geek is being shunted out of my beloved realms of interest as well. In my medievalist group, it seems to be that everyone wants to do nothing more than thrash each other. They talk of WoW and the latest munchkin tabletop game, or how they are not dealing enough damage or got killed by another player. And when they hear of discipline and responcible martial activity, or gaming with PLOT, their eyes glaze over and they begin whimpering because that takes the fun out of it. This would be fine if I had a small amount of people to support me in this, but no. I am alone in a sea of idiots. The plague of MMOs has followed me into real life, and its shadow has crept into every game that I now play.
Although it might be a cardinal sin in the face of what is considered to be acceptable entertainment today, but I do not like to compete with other people. I used to enjoy the friendly competitive game of starcraft or tac ops, but that spirit has left me in the past few years. I have no desire to be "the best". Or even better than anyone else. I want to play WITH people, not against them. I have no desire to dominate the people I loathe in a virtual world because such competitions never have a true victor. Truly, it is very difficult to be a geek when the thing you loathe more than anything else is OTHER GEEKS. It is rare to find another geek that has sensibility. One does not find much solace in a social world where you despise your own kin. Especially when these "kin" have poisoned the very things I love and live on...my games. I find I enjoy even my single player games less and less now as well. My sword art is emptier by the day.
And so my friends, it is a dark day indeed. I find myself desperate to engage in some type of online activity with my friends, some type of game that would bring me back to the days when it was still fun. Rise of Nations. Starcraft. Diablo 2. Neverwinter Nights. Something...ANYTHING to put be back into contact with my old buddies without the horde of morons imposing on us. Being here so far away from my hometown makes things all the harder. Especially since I am surrounded by the very morons I seek to escape. My only solace lies in Kim, the one bastion of light amongst the darkness. And still I am about to lose hope, as even my games have abandoned me to the younger and less wise of today.
For those of you that are my old friends back home that read this, I need to play something with you guys. Anything. Lest my passion for life be lost forever to the swirling vortex of the l33t era.