Ha! I'm far to self-absorbed to take a rant like the previous seriously for long, so back to work. I only hope that when the original author finally did end his joyless life of universal contempt and loathing, it was swift and painless. Moving on!
Curiously enough, I spent most of yesterday evening nowhere near a computer game, which was a novel enough experience that I felt I ought to write about it. Not that my alternative was any more healthy or cool:
Battlefleet Gothic
Oh yes, there's a special place in Nerd Hell being warmed up for me.
Battlefleet Gothic, for you exclusively Online People out there, is a bit like EVE Online, with less economy, substantially less asteroid mining and far more shooting other spaceships. It's set in the Warhammer 40k universe (Fire Warrior, Dawn of War, "In the dark future of mankind, there is only Brooding Monochrome Watercolour Concept Art"), but despite that, the game actually plays out like an 18th century naval engagement, tacking, manoeuvering into position, letting them have it with broadsides and all that. Oh yes, and it's all done with a table, models, rulers and dice! Imagine that!
I lost, of course, but unlike online PvP, didn't seem to mind at all. Indeed, I was getting as much out of watching my proud space cruisers explode in a spectacular, if somewhat cardboard-based, manner, as my opponent.
Still, it was actually quite a pleasant evening, and despite this particular game being a bit on the nerdy side (Even Games Workshop refer to it as a 'Specialist Game'...how more esoteric does it get?), I could see a certain something in the act of 'playing a game', that we on the PCs have probably lost somewhere along the way. Something human - friendly rivalry, social chit-chat, mutal agreement on rules and boundaries, and mostly just playing a game as a pastime. Litterally, playing to pass the time, in an entertaining fashion. I rarely get any of that from MMORPGs.
For me the sheer novelty of Doing Something Else was worth it in itself. I may have to try it again some day.
(Don't worry...I expect it'll be an Everquest 5-hour self-flagellation marathon tonight, to rant about tomorrow...)