Seeing as I spent yesterday morning playing Age of Empires III instead of writing, I thought I’d write about my love-hate relationship with MMORPGs computer games today. AoE III is not a MMORPG – Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, but a RTS – Real Time Strategy – game. And no doubt some of you are reading this and rolling your eyes thinking “Gawd she is going to talk about video games this morning…!†(Sorry.)
I realise I am slightly unusual, being a woman who likes computer games. I’ve always liked certain types of games – card games like Freecell (M even wrote me my own version so I could change the card decks) and Spider Solitaire, puzzles like Tetris and Pandora’s Box, management simulations like SimCity, turnbased strategy like Civilization, and MMORPGs like EverQuest, EverQuest II, Dark Age of Camelot, and World of Warcraft. And of course I’ve played the Sims.
I’ve never been a fan of consoles like the PlayStation or Nintendo. (I do have a colour Gameboy for Tetris and Galaga.) I’m no good at fighting games like Street Fighter – button mashing hurts my fingers. And I’m HOPELESS at first person shooters like Doom or Quake – I don’t think you’re supposed to scream when you get shot, nor are you supposed to keep running around trying to avoid shooting or getting shot.
Have I ever mentioned that M LOVES games? I think he’s played just about every single game there is. I liked games before I met M – I was enjoying Yahtzee, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, Lemmings, SimCity and Civilization. I think we both have some character trait that predisposes us to like spending hours building, or wandering around in, virtual worlds. (That’s my excuse, and I’m sticking to it!)
What do I love about games? My favourite genre is the turn based strategy game – Civilization would have to be my all-time favourite game. This type of game presents you with a world that you have to build up from scratch. Developments (the discovery of pottery, horseback riding, nuclear fission) happen as numbers of turns. Culture, economy, military, politics.
I think I have secret delusions of grandeur that manifest themselves when I play these games… As a mild-mannered librarian by day, I enjoy building these massive empires and leading the quest for Total World Domination – on the weekend.Categories: games, Civilization, obsession, discipline
6 Comments
I like Tetris, Freecell and Yahoo!’s Bookworm – tfp got me into the last one. I’ve yet to get into The Sims.
It does amuse me how much you and M. love your computer games.
Wow you wrote your own version of Freecell!? I’m bloody impressed. 😛 All I ever did was a Blackjack game in C++ but was only a text-based one. Heh.
That’s a lot of games in the house. I don’t much like turn-based games because it’s not “realistic”. I’d much rather RTS because you got less time to think, everything is happening at once and the adrenalin rush is bigger.
The last game that sucked me in big time was Warcraft 40K: Dawn of War. I’d gone to sleep around 3am every night including weeknights. Shit. 😛
And now I watch TV instead. Hah!
I used to play lots of psx, n64 and gameboy (Pokemon), but during my Honours year I weaned myself off all console gaming. Once in a while I still like Wip3out and a few rounds of Tekken 3.
I love The Sims, but have two expansion packs I am yet to install (again, not enough time). I haven’t allowed myself to play Sims 2.
I’m pleased I don’t play games so much now – the time and money became a problem. Now I just spend all my time and money on the computer and on DVDs :).
One of my students last semester gave a tutorial presentation that was supposed to be about Orientalism but somehow managed to be predominantly about WoW! It was interesting, anyway.
Ahh games, how could I not comment 😛
CW is under the common misconception that women don’t play games. See: http://www.theesa.com/facts/gamer_data.php
Mind these are statistics and from the surveys I have seen women are more likely to play flash based games and such but there are a lot more women playing games than most think.
Also the majority of players are in the 20-35 age bracket. Games are becoming a general entertainment medium much like movies, books and tv.
I myself got quickly addicted to acade games by watching tabletop machines (space invaders and donkey kong) in the shopping malls at the age of 6. It’s all been downhill since then 😛
I don’t watch tv at all though. I like my entertainment interactive.
I spend on average about 30-35 hours a week playing games.
Cherry it amuses us too. I mean the games amuse us 🙂
Mooiness ya M wrote his own version of Freecell. He also wrote a version of the Rubik’s Cube which gained him a lot of interested email back then…
tfp you don’t happen to have access to that presentation, do you? Sounds interesting!
MW well I wish I knew more women who play computer games. All the women I know (aside from Cherry and ftp) seem to think it’s a stupid affliction.
No, unfortunately, it was just her tute presentation on the day and she didn’t provide any handouts (although the tutor encouraged everyone in the class to provide one! :))
I still have M’s rubik’s cube prog running on the old P233 box here!