Are You THAT Blind?! A View on Society

OK, so I know by the title this doesn’t seem like it’ll be a very interesting post but trust me true believers, it will be.

As many of us that have “friends” who know that we are gamers, especially table top roleplayers, can attest to, there are people in the world that are bigots when it comes to a segment of society. That segment would be ours, of gamers. Now I know that in the decade or so since I was in grade school people that are gamers have gotten more welcomed and acknowledged (i.e. G4, XBox Live’s Major Nelson & e, etc.) But there are bigots and shortsighted people that still believe most of us live in a basement at Mom’s, alone, obese, poor complexion, and (my favorite) are devil worshippers, especially if you play D&D.

Now, I don’t know about anyone else but quite frankly I’m getting pretty pissed off about it. If you want to live your life thumping a bible and believing that YOUR way of thinking is the right and only way, I think it’ll be best if you go to the mountains, find a nice empty cave, and go have your way with yourself. Otherwise, here’s a suggestion: Get your Borg-Infused oneness out of your ass and get with the 21st Century!

So, my thoughts are a little direct today. It happens. I just think that people, mostly in general but especially for some, need to take their assumptions and throw them right out the window. Now, I’ll admit, that I do tend to assume I know how someone’s sentence will end, jump right in and finish it for them. Bad habit and I’m doing better at correcting it. But I know there are people out there that seem to have maximum strength blinders on 24/7/365. Now I’ve come up with a term for this and its called The One Foot Sphere of Influence. Picture it like this: take a magazine, roll it up, and set that magazine against your body extending outward. Imagine that outer edge of the magazine as the end of a shield, film, veil (whatever term you’d like). Now, these smallminded saps believe that if something happens outside of this barrier, it doesn’t affect them! Prime examples of this effect and these people are the person that walks up to a cash register when the lights are off or red, people that slip right up to the counter (ignoring the very obvious line now behind him or her), and moron drivers. I think if we can start diagnosing people with this ailment and toss them a freaking clue, maybe, just maybe, this might start having an effect on the gaming bigots. Just an idea.

Well, now that I’ve completed class for this week, I’ll be working on a much more enjoyable post for next week, may even do an early one if the spirit moves me. TFCO!

Awash with the Glow of the New Year

Ok, I know I already did a New Years themed post but since we’re about 3 hours til zero hour here I figure its time to toss something into the fray. For anyone not catching my last post yet, here’s the short version: Make a resolution but set a goal that’s achievable and time sensitive.

With a new year comes new beginnings. Yes, cliche but appropriate. Personally, I will be shedding the skins of my “life” as I’ve lived it since losing my focus on gaming. If people around me can’t understand why I’m returning to my roots then that’s a distraction that I will remove to keep me centered on my goal.

I hope to be able to complete all of my resolutions for the year and even improve on other things I haven’t mentioned. To everyone I wish upon you the joys of the New Year, the time where we can look at the compass of life and get our bearings straight again. And I leave you all with this quote from Ben Franklin via Major Nelson of XBox “Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each New Year find you a better man.”

Resolutions: Fact, Fiction, or Total Bullshit

Now that Christmas is just about through in one form or another for the majority of the world, it’s time to start thinking about the most infamous gift of all, New Year’s Resolutions. I think almost everyone has started one at some point in their lives (some every single year and the SAME ONE!) and every year the vicious cycle begins again. So why do we do it, why does everyone shoot for a goal that many don’t keep longer than a few weeks?

I’ve admittedly been one of those people that have made goals like “lose weight” or “be more sociable” and those resolutions end up failing miserably. I think one of the problems with those kinds of resolutions is that they aren’t specific enough. Now this may be from too many years in the corporate world but we need to make goals that are a lot less vague and more time specific. Now if my pal Jon were to say “I want to find a great publisher for my books by June” now that would be a resolution I could stand behind. I would like people to think about that when you think up resolutions this week.

As for myself, I have made some resolutions, ones that I will fulfill and keep up with. As of the 1st of the year, I need to lose at least 25 lbs by Memorial Day, become reaquainted with the gaming community by St. Patty’s Day, and of course, be preregisteted and possibly volunteering at GenCon. I know I can accomplish these goals, I hope everyone else can find their achievable goals too.

Gaming: Where Does It All Begin?

While watching the Video Game Awards on Spike this evening a thought had popped into my head: Where exactly did my fascination with gaming actually come from? While that sounds like the name of a book (yes, we all know it. Get your laughs from the thought and we’ll continue.) it really is a good question. If I’m going to find that pure, unfiltered joy for gaming again, I need to find out where that spring is.

It’s very likely that we were all raised by playing games with our parents or other children which were meant to give us our “social skills”. So when did playing with Jimmy or Dorothy in the yard take the drastic turn towards battling orcs and beholders in a cavern? I think for me and others of the generation it was because of the early gaming systems, specifically Atari and Nintendo. I remember playing games on those systems for countless hours, days, and weeks just for the fun and adventure. I feel that it is because of these early, rigid games that a call within me was formed to look for something that was more flexible, more stimulating, and (most importantly) more enjoyable.

I know that right now my gaming of any sort (pen and paper, console, or board) is limited at best and non-existant for some. While the internet has created a more social world in which to live in, I still find difficulty in finding others of a like mindset. While more and more people flock to the masses of MMOs that exist (I’m not bashing them by any means, I swear), I start to wonder how large the community of down-and-dirty pen and paper roleplayers still exist in our new world. I know we’re out there, I just need to find some to help me recover that which I lost, the love of the game.

Relationships… isn’t it obvious?

It’s been a while in the making but I finally have to bring up the subject of personal relationship, also known as hibernation to my gaming. I’ve had my fair share of intimate relationships and for the majority of them I’ve felt that they went well. Two of them went so far as to get to the point of marriage. Needless to say, they haven’t been the longest lasting relationships I’ve had in my life. Thinking over it all just makes me wonder one thing: Is it really worth it to turn away from your passions for the sake of a relationship?

As I think into my past I almost always go back to my core group, the four of us guys that would game together. Thinking about where we all are now, I know one has been married for close to a decade after meeting his wife while online RPing (and let’s just say it wasn’t Everquest), one is married, divorced and now dating again, while the third has been single the entire time. Honestly, back in the day, I had expected myself to be the first married and lead a normal life but now I look back and realize that the ‘normal’ life is just the illusion you make it to be. I see that the life that I was striving for was just the candy coated illusion I was giving myself. And for what…. at this point, nothing!

From this point forward I’m going to lead my life towards striving to have personal relationships that have meaning to me. In the decade plus since I feel like I’ve left the gaming community, I can really see and feel that I’ve turned my back on my real existence, the gaming, the roleplaying, everything, and settled for what I though was ‘normal’. Now, I don’t want anyone to feel that I’m leaving this post as a rant against marriage or long-term relationship. This is more of a cautionary tale that should leave you thinking this: Your life is what you make of it, how you want it to be. Changing for another person is living your life for another person but if you don’t live for yourself, then what’s the point?