Monday, April 17, 2006

Hobby Loss


Since the day I canceled my World of Warcraft subscription, I haven't had the urge to play any games at all. None. This is strange because I've been addicted pretty much non-stop to some sort of online game for the last 8 years or so. And now, nothing. No game on the market interests me at all -- I suddenly have have 2-3 hours a day that used to be filled with a certain kind of activity now utterly empty.

Why does your love of a hobby suddenly stop? Why do things that used to fascinate you lose their allure? Am I getting older, more mature, simply jaded, or what?

Whatever it is, I need to figure it out soon before something else permanently takes the place of the previous addiction. Last night I was watching "Oprah" with Annie, and for a few seconds I enjoyed it.

Shudder.

Somebody better fetch me a flying gryphon and a "Dire Nail of the Monkey" real quick, because I think the monkey that used to be on my back is dead.

4 comments:

Rob Rogers said...

I'm a big fan of PBeM superhero games. What about trying out for a campaign sometime?

Here's a good game universe and set of campaign's that's just starting up and expanding, if you're interested:
http://www.thismutantlife.com/uberworld/

Or check out the Yahoo group: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/uberworldforum/

Jeff Hebert said...

Thanks Rob, I'll check that one out. I am actually in two D&D PBeM's at the moment, which are a lot of fun, but the gaming is so sporadic. You have a few minutes every now and again of thinking about it, but once you click "Send" it's all over. The nice thing about a persistent world is that you can always visit and do stuff, instead of waiting on someone else to make a post.

Don't get me wrong, I've liked PBeM gaming for a long time and love the writing part of it, but it's just so brief. I miss the big blocks of time I could get totally immersed, you know?

I'll definitely check out the supers campaign though, I have been looking for something non fantasy related. I used to love Champions back in the day :-p

Rob Rogers said...

The thing I've found captivating about shared PBeM worlds like this is the opportunities to dive in deeper. Between this gaming universe and the Global Guardians Universe, I've seen tons of creativity--there's room for several gamemasters, a variety of campaigns, etc. Players build their characters and participate, but they also write up NPCs, add to timelines, flesh out the game world, write short fiction pieces, draw characters, create logos, etc. I started out in one game as a player, and eventually ended up GMing two campaigns, running at least eight PCs, and coming up with dozens of NPC characters to add to the world.

I haven't played many massive multiplayer online games because the role-playing and immersion seemed shallow to me. But in PBeMs like this world, I've found lots of both, and have had a blast coming up with tons of characters.

I recommended this Uberworld over the Global Guardians (www.globalguardians.com) because the latter one is in a bit of a state of flux this month, but the Global Guardians is where I've spent most of my time and created a number of PCs and NPCs (and where I run two games). There's lots to do in a shared world like this, if you have the inclination.

Anonymous said...

Maybe woodcrafting would be fun. I've had a blast refinishing furniture I've found at garage sales. It's satisfying in so many ways - saves money and gives you that sense of accomplishment you don't get from those computer games. Just a thought to get you out of the computer world. You could just start building furniture and carving... who knows(congratulate me for not saying "stupid computer games" - I'm learning!)