Reflecting back on how my love (my wife would call it an obsession) with gaming started, I have to start with my memories of my brother, friends and I in a basement playing Dungeons and Dragons for hours on end.My younger brother and I would go over to our friends house, Bryan and Greg who were our ages and we would order pizza and setup for an adventure.
Starting out, my friend Bryan was the Dungeon Master, and sure enough a rock would fly out of nowhere and kill his brother just for fun and to make Greg mad. Greg would then block the rock (even though he was supposedly already dead according to his brother the DM) with his somehow newly acquired +25 speed ultra sword which would then turn into a snake (according to the DM Bryan) and bite him and kill him. I just have to laugh, good times.
We got tired of that game for some reason, and started rolling characters in the TMNT universe. I think that I was a wolverine and we always somehow ended up with characters that were 10 times more powerful than they were supposed to be due to fudging our rolls.
My pages with all of our characters and weapons are probably around my office somewhere or in a box in the attic.
Gradually, we moved on to Palladium which stuck with me well into my college days and I proudly display the 8 or 9 compendiums and resource books that I own on the bookshelf in my office. I need to get my pewter skeletons and dragons out if I can find them as well.
It was getting harder and harder to find willing and able friends to go out and slay pencil and paper dragons, so I ended up looking online at the games that were available there. All of the MMOG's and MMORPG's are just pen and paper adventures with the DM being the programmer and the pen and paper being replaced by a keyboard and monitor.
I still miss the old paper and pencil nights around a table looking through a dungeon for some super powerful bad guy. However, then I remember why I enjoy the online versions after writing with a pencil and erasing it for 8 hours straight.
So there I was, in college and I heard about a game called Everquest. A friend of mine was on the game already and asked me to join in. I created Vron, a wood elf druid, and started grinding away.
Vron seemed to always be just below the highest level and would get to that point as a new expansion would come out and then I would have to start grinding again. I played that game off and on for a few years (5 - 6) and ultimately had to give it up due to never being able to accomplish anything. That truly was a never ending quest. By the end of the game I had 10+ characters with a few of them being the highest level and geared somewhat well. Nothing that the top players had but I was a casual player and liked exploring more than just sitting and gaining experience.
I tried the other games such as World of Warcraft and enjoyed them but they all present the same scenario. If you want to get to the top, you have to quit your job, divorce your wife and kids, and stop eating. It isn't that bad but when the group that you join requires you to play nightly for 4+ hours a night you run out of time for a lot of other things. Most of which are in reality more important that getting the upgraded weapon or piece of armor.
That is when I was shown online strategy, RPG, and adventure games and started into those. They seem to be the best of all of my worlds. I can do them at work during my down times, and they do not take a lot of time to do well.
I do miss those games though of Bryan and Greg and mysterious rocks and swords.
Good times.
