Just like Conversion Diary's 7 Quick-Takes, just half as long and twice as good.
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This Is The Video Game Edition
1
One of my hobbies/vices/timesucks is video games, or any variation thereof, like PC games and on-line MMORPG’s (Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Game). Yeah, I’m a geek. I admit it.
I’m trying to cut back, truly I am. But they’re always there, calling out with their sweet siren song of seduction – come play, they call! Only for a few scant moments! And then, hours later…
2
I’ve always liked playing games – ever since I was a kid, playing board games with family and friends, such as Risk, Monopoly or Sorry! (and tweaking the rules to make the games more interesting and challenging), and Scrabble with my dad.
Then, after getting married, we got our first PC, and the first game I installed was Myst. What a great game! Unlike anything I had ever seen at the time. Yes, I solved the riddle (but never got into the sequels). For whatever reason, I’ve never gotten into the first-person shooter games, like Call of Duty and whatnot – I’ve gravitated towards the strategy and solving games. Oh, and some of the sports ones too (mainly EA Sports NHL and PGA).
Lately, the timesuck of choice has been Lord Of The Rings Online. Beyond the stunning graphics and great storyline, it’s just cool to be immersed in Tolkien’s world of Middle Earth. From Bree to Rivendell to the Mines of Moria to Rohan – there’s a familiarity to it all. And while I wouldn’t classify other on-line players as ‘friends’, there is the opportunity to interact with other players that helps make the game more enjoyable, giving you the feeling that you’re not playing alone.
In fact, with many MMORPG games, you can play with your real-life friends, and with voice-chat, actually and not merely virtually interact with them. Younger Son does that while playing Minecraft with his friends (which is a pretty neat game – just not one that I play). Other parents and I have noted that this is just a different way of “playing with friends” – not meant to be a substitute, but merely a supplement.
3
One rule Mrs LarryD and I have held fast to, is abiding by the age-level recommendations on the games for the Sons. Which caused, of course, many battles worthy of any video game, as they felt it was totally unfair that their friends played Teen and “M” rated games (I won’t even play the M-rated games) while they weren’t allowed to. Tough toenails. This was especially harder for Younger Son, but over time, he has accepted his fate of being born to “over-protective” parents who dislike the first-person shooter games like Modern Warfare or Battlefield 3. He thinks he won’t survive, but we’re pretty sure he’ll make it.
And besides, it’s been learned that mass murderer Anders Breivik played such games for hours on end to perfect his shooting skills. What if my kids ever go to Norway? Parents have to think of such things.
3½
Those who played (or still play) Age of Empires will appreciate these -
Go here to read more.
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(Because of a formatting quirk with WordPress, the links don’t show up on this page. You have to click the Blue Frog to see who’s participated. But that’s not so hard, is it? So write up a post – I’m interested in what you have to say!)
I don’t have the video games in my house. It’s not because I don’t like them, but because I would like them too much. The Batman games look way too awesome. I find they don’t kill time so much as massacre it, rape its women plunder the village and sow its fields with salt. I, personally, may as well take up smoking crack.
I do know enough about the games to know the meaning of these two words: “Leeeeeroooooy Jeeennnnkins!”
Right now the only FB game I play is Angry Birds. But I like to play solitaire or mahjohng(sp?)
Yay!! It’s Tuesday! After a very long Monday filled with “Monday kids” I was so happy to get to Tuesday’s Time-Outs. Tuesday and Friday are my favorite days of the week. Tuesday for obvious reasons and we won’t talk about why Friday might be.
My husband is a gaming freak and timesuck is the truth! His favorite is WOW. I think he could play it for hours if little kids weren’t constantly pulling on his shirt or crawling up behind him in the chair and playing the drums on his head. I tell him if that if he keeps moving it’s harder for the little monsters to find a handhold. He thinks I’m just trying to get him to mow the yard
If you never played any of the Myst sequels, you’re really missing out. Riven, Myst III:Exile, and Myst IV all rocked.
Paul – that is so NOT what I needed to hear. Tempting…tempting…
I have Riven and Exile, too. Arrrgh, dang you Paul!!! LOL
Riven, Exile and Revelation do a great job of fleshing out the back story of Atrus and his family, where they came from, what happens to Cirrus and Achenar, and how they impacted others’ lives.
Eventually, I’ll get End of Ages and play that as well.
MYST!
Did you ever play Terracide? That was the first videogame I ever played, back when I was in elementary school. My Dad played all the time, and he taught us kids to play too. Eventually we had four computers set up and an LAN so the three older kids and my Dad could play each other. Good memories!
Back in elementary school? What, was that four or five years ago?
But no, I’ve never played that game.
I could never have them in the house – as it is I spend too much time online. Once again, now I know why I never see my neighbors outside.
Myst is a lot of fun…
With such odysseys (good for the brain)
and no need to go play in the rain,
Take controller in hand
and strike up the band –
I’m the greatest of gamers again!
Oh man, how I love me some Myst! Particularly Exile. But I can’t find one to run on computer – stupid Cyan won’t make one that’s compatible with a Mac from this decade. I have Riven on my iphone though, go fig.
Looking forward to the The Secret World with great hope, myself. When my husband was still back in Japan, we’d meet up in WoW for “dates.” Sure, glorified chat room, but a gloriously pretty one!
I wish you hadn’t told me about the LOTR games. I’m not going to take it up. I’m not. The boy is sure I should take up gaming. No. No. Very few appeal to me, but that would. I’m not looking.
We don’t have a strict rating rule, but we do ban first-person shooter games. Jon played too much networked Quake back in the day. So we’re overly-well informed about the way it sticks in the brain.
Not going to help that urge: it’s free.
You go, download it, play the game, and the only time you might spend money (instead of time) is if you want something special.
Incidentally, I was on the fence about mentioning this– what ended up deciding me was that I played it when it first came out for exactly the same reason you’re tempted. It’s lovely, it’s got a lot of good stuff, and I was perfectly able to set it down. I’ve tooled around with it a bit now that Duchess and Princess are demanding but not a 28/8 job, and I haven’t been tempted to neglect them in the least for it.
They also improved the starting stuff compared to when the game first launched. If you do want to play, see if anyone you know in real life or by real name online is in the game, because they’ve got a referral program….
You can borrow my LOTR Risk and Monopoly if you need help resisting the LOTR computer game. Im a geek that still loves table top games.
You two are a bad influence.
“And besides, it’s been learned that mass murderer Anders Breivik played such games for hours on end to perfect his shooting skills.”
I really *hate* it when people make these kinds of remarks. It’s not that I am defending first-person shooter or any shooter video games or how games are rated. Yes I am a video game nerd and I have played my share of first-person shooters and I never found it to ever improve my marksmanship scores in the military. That being said we have a neighborhood kid that (my) Larry has known since he was a pre-teen and he we took him to the public range with us one day since he said he was planning on enrolling in a ROTC program with the local University. This kid has paid more FPS games than most kids his age and maybe even some adults to the point of him making his own video game blog where he reviews the games he plays with live screen footage of himself playing. You would think that with many hours he would be more than proficient on the range, right? WRONG. He was completely and utterly no different than the kid who never played a video game with guns in his whole life. (My) Larry is a former military firearms instructor and he saw absolutely nothing in this kid’s video game play that transferred over to help at all. I even at more than one point had to *remind* the kid of muzzle awareness.
http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/impact/myths.html
I believe he was being snarky, parodying the “X villain did Y thing that is New And Scary to the news source! That’s important!”
I was.
It’s hard to tell sometimes with certain crowds of people Ive never met. But I’m glad cuz otherwise I liked this g@m3r n3rd blog post….
Since you like to use memes…here is one that is relevant
http://memegenerator.net/instance/10858723
Ah, Larry! Your post is truly useful today! (Not that it usually isn’t, but for different reasons this time!)
My son also is geeking out on Minecraft… he spends every spare moment playing! I must look into this Lord of the Rings game, as I think he would enjoy it (heck, I might even be compelled to play it!)… we’re actually reading The Fellowship of the Ring right now for school, he’s read The Hobbit, we have all the LoTR movies, etc… intriguing!!!
My ‘timesucks’ these days are Pinterest, Facebook, and my word games… Words with Friends and Hanging with Friends… glad to know I’m not alone!!
BTW – for all your guys out there who are too ‘manly’ to pin things… there’s a ‘guy’ version of the site called Manteresting that has some cool stuff… but also pics of girls in bikinis, so beware it may be an occasion of sin as well!
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I stave off MMORPG’s by keeping around a clanky out-of-date computer that can’t run them properly. However, I see that it will meet the specs for Diablo 3. Uh oh. Playing L.A. Noire on the PS3 ’cause I love that time period and and those kinds of movies. It’s M because the cases you work can get pretty grizzly and it drops plenty of F-bombs I wish weren’t there (Hayes Code people!), but fun searching for clues and interrogating witnesses.
I wish you were still playing LOTRO, Scott – got my hunter up to lvl 54 now.
I have been playing the new Star Wars MMO a bit. I have yet to try LOTRO, but would like to check it out. What server do you play on?
I’m on Brandywine and Gladden. If you decide to play, email me and I’ll tell you my toon names.
DUH, what are you talking, I only play freecell and sometimes mahjong (the real game w/ 4 players).
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I was into the original RPG’s (Star Treks were my faves), but never transitioned to MMORPG’s, mostly because of time. And I can’t do FPS–motion sickness. So now I pretty much stick to sports and guitar.
I can relate to the Minecraft obsession. Yes, it’s pretty cool, but the three younger sons are hooked to the point that they’re subscribing to YouTube videos on Xbox Live. Ugh. They now have one of the younger daughters going, too.