Started playing WoW on Scarshield Legion and lead the hardy dwarf Branan through to 20th level. He's a monster (not!) but he has a funny little run!
Then went to see Ice Age 2: The Meltdown....*yawn*....I have serious over-exposure issues with animated films at the moment. Same old same old sadly - and trailers for three or four more inevitable child-sponsored sorties over the summer to the exact same story again and again and again.
Checked into PC World and indeed, I can conclude that there are no other PC games I am even halfway interested in. Bugger. D&D Online just has too many people saying baaaaaad things for me to even show a spot of interest. Oh, and there are no books I want to read in Borders. Damnation!
Then returned home and *wham* - WoW exploded around me. Essentially two friends having a rather heated spat-ette (one of those 'full and frank' discussions that can only be had when one has lost all real attachment) and another making a suggestion that was ... less than sensitive.
Upshot? Well, the first two have left the guild, seperately, for their own reasons. I had a big long phone call with the other guy, we sorted stuff out and well, I came to a rather wonderful epihany.
Essentially, as I am not raiding, why ON EARTH should I care about how we raid? And if the main activity of the guild is going to be raiding, and I'm not going to be doing it, it makes no sense in me getting worked up about it. I've already reconciled myself to not being an officer - time to cut loose, ala Raw Deal and go wheres happiest.
So, despite the upshot being the result of a rather silly unnecessary (on all counts) snarl-fest, the upshot itself is rather pleasant. No worries for me, just plain sailing. And in fact I'm happier now than I have been in weeks. And thats a good thing.
So then, Dave comes over and we play some hands of Raw Deal. And we played some more and before you knew it, we had played for three hours and we enjoyed it. OK, he enjoyed it a little more than me because he was whipping my ass, but you get the idea. It was a good thing too. So it looks like I have my tournament buddy back and I can, casually - and I mean CASUALLY - begin to get back into the swing of the RD-thing as a civilian.
Raw Deal as a civilian
WoW as a civilian
Noticing a pattern here? I am....
And finally, The Idea Factory managed to find a wonderful little RP quiz which he linked to in his blog. It's one of those really ropey yet horrendously accurate psych quizes that identifies what 'type' of roleplayer you are - so lets see shall we?
You are a STORYTELLER
Storyteller 100%
Method Actor 83%
Specialist 42%
Tactician 42%
Power Gamer 25%
Butt Kicker 17%
Casual Gamer 17%
Hmm, lets see? 100% Storyteller - hey, who'da thunk it? Mr 'Iron DM' gets the max points out of the storytelling stuff. Sarcasm aside, I think it underlines how my attitude to GMing has changed over the years, totally embracing the collective storytelling methodology (although I still struggle with the game vs storytelling medium aspect). Then Method Actor? Well, OK, I'll take your word for it but as I rarely play, I'm working from guesses and memories here. That said, I do like to 'play' the character rather than being a cardboard cutout of the same old stereotype, so maybe yes.
Next tactician and specialist tied? I'm not really sure what a 'specialist' is in this context, but I'm stunned at the tactician thing as I abhore tactical games and whatnot. Give me the sparkle of the unknown and the rampant disregard for logic that is swash and buckle any day of the week. Then we get into Powergamer and Butt Kicker. The last one is no shocker as I hate RPG combat and get absolutely zero real pleasure out of senseless encounters of that nature. Powergamer is another matter - when I need to, I can be a right little minimaxing swine. Rather than doing it to bend to rules to rule the game, I usually end up doing it to squeeze every last iota of gaming utility out of my characters concept. The meaning of the powergaming may be different but the upshot is the same: a character that is sometimes far more capable than he should be, simply due to a few bits of numeric jiggery pockery.
And I am not a casual gamer - well duh! Hence the gaming blog, one would think?
And so, to bed. But lets see what we have learned from today.
1. A change can be as good as a rest with WoW.
2. The animated animal film genre is stuck in Groundhog Day.
3. Whilst there are many other MMORPGs out there, I'm not sure any are for me.
4. Sometimes a moment of madness can bring about amazing clarity of thought.
5. Friend ALWAYS > Silly Computer Games
6. Sometimes it's nice to be an indian rather than a chief
7. Dave is still better than me at Raw Deal
8. Those quizzes are horrendously accurate
And I bid you all a goodnight, for tomorrow is a new day... one in which I fully intend to take my 100% Storytelling score and start using it on P&P!
Neil
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