I Want to Be the Hero Again
Apr 7, 2008 Games
As a computer gamer I’ve played a lot of role-playing games. I’ve virtually rolled-and-saved my way through sci-fi, fantasy, steam punk, post-apocalyptic and even a few modern ones. None of these games were perfect. Some of them, like Baldur’s Gate, Deus-Ex, System Shock and Fallout, were pretty dang close to it. Some of them were, at the very best, “challenged.” Yes, that’s right! I’m looking at you Battletech: Crescent Hawks Inception!
But regardless of whether or not the games were near perfect or nearly nausea-inducing, each of them did something that none the MMORPGs of today just can’t do: they made me the hero of an actual story.
I wasn’t the DPS of the group, or the Mezzer or the Nuker. I was the leader of the adventuring party destined by my mysterious past to make a band of strangers into living legends. I was the star-fighter pilot they could rely on to come through when the chips were down. I was the center-point around which the fate of a world revolved around. I was the kind of person that grandfathers told their grandkids about while sitting around the hearth. I was a hero. I wasn’t one of many, I was one of a kind.
Nor was this some simplistic story pieced together with little bits of quest descriptions. It wasn’t some flimsy construction of text boxes you clicked through in your hurry to go kill 10 more rats. No, these were stories. These were Stories about thousand-year destinies and prophecies. Stories of struggle and survival and betrayal. It wasn’t the game that held the filmy pieces of the story together. No, it was the story that game the game its life and that kept you playing over and over. The stories had their characters and so many of them had depth and life and really became alive as you progressed through the story. Minsc and Boo, Maniac and Angel and even HK-47 all became more than just pixels, they became part of a complex living, breathing universe.
When I look back on these games, some of them not so long ago, I realize how empty the games of today really are. No matter how many elves and dwarves I can kill giants along-side or how many comrades-in-arms I can stand beside under the onslaught of the enemy, they cannot take the place of a story that makes us want to play. We don’t play MMORPGs to find out how the story ends. We play them to level-up. We play them to get phat lewt. We play them for the social aspect. Some people use them as what basically boils down to cybersex for LARPers. No matter why we play now, it has nothing to do with the story.
Unfortunately, MMORPGs are pretty much all we have to look forward to these days. I’ll play them and I’ll definitely enjoy some of them but each time I play them I feel the goodness that used to be the CRPG slip just a little bit farther away.
Tags: MMORPG
Pets and People: Sometimes you guys Frikken’ Scare me.
Apr 7, 2008 Pets & Animals
I’ve been owned and adopted by several generic domestic animals through out my illustrious career as a fat, geeky woman. Cats, dogs, birds and hamsters have all lived with me and have allowed me to continue living with them.
What gets me is the blatant lack of common sense from other people who are also owned by pets. Here are some of the things that make me wonder how these people function in day to day life.
The: My cat is vomiting up blood, so I decided to post about it on the internet instead of frantically searching to find a vet clinic open this time of night. It’s okay to just give her aspirin, right? -girl.
I’ve read so many horrific signs and symptoms of something being dangerously wrong with animals via forums, websites, e-mails and posting boards online; it boggles the mind.
To give credit where credit is due, I know that animals do not behave in the same manner we do when they get sick. They can’t sidle up to us and tell us in plain spoken English what is wrong with them. Animals are pretty much programmed to hide being sick for as long as possible. It’s a defense mechanism that tries to make them not-so easily picked off by predators.
But, honestly? Replace “cat vomiting up blood” with “kid vomiting up blood”. What do you think the reaction would be? Would you sit at home (most of us not drooling at the keyboard wouldn’t, okay?) and ask an internet forum what to do?
The: Why can’t you people just tell me some cheap, easy alternative to treat my cockatiel which is wheezing and twitching at the bottom of the cage? Aren’t you all experienced bird veterinarians’ on the intarwebs? -guy.
What I’m about to type may just shock and awe all of you who expect the internet to be a collection of experts in all fields, all at the same time who just so happen to be looking at your forum post right now—The internet, nay, dare I say it? Even Google is not always right.
Yes. I hear the gasps, but it’s true. What you read online via a search and what advice you are given by Joe Shmoe, hell, even I am not always going to be correct. (Shocking, I know.)
If you aren’t one, trust your veterinarian. They aren’t all “out to milk you for every dime.”
Self-diagnosing and self-treatment could lead you down a dangerous path of making your animal sicker! I’m not saying this because I’ve been some how brain-washed by a dark cult of greedy Vets, I’m saying this because it’s 100% true. Think about it. Animals, like people, could be allergic to anything—not to mention their entirely different systems which handle allergies and sickness in a different way than we do. Self-treating could lead to countless more issues making whatever is wrong with your pet from bad to deadly.
Take your pet to the Vet. Trust your Vet. Before it is too late.
The: My cat, which is a predator born and bred by nature and genetics to hunt small things—is the bestest friend ever of my two hamsters, three chinchillas, cockatiel, and sugar glider!111! -couple.
I’ve been on hand to witness the tragic event of a cat who had never attacked anything in it’s entire life—a very lazy, loving cat whose owners often photographed him with his pal, a rat, together—turn around after several years of companionship; crush the rat to death in its mouth while shaking it.
You cannot be 100% sure that your cat will not do what it is programmed by breeding and nature to do—which is hunt and kill. Even a cat mock-playing with a smaller animal, can turn into a heartbreak. Cat’s often play with us and other creatures as they would another cat, and cats tend to have thick fur over thick skin which protects them better from bites and scratches.
It’s kind of like watching a mother drop her kid onto a polar bear’s back in a zoo and wondering why in hell it got eaten. We know you love your cat. We know you love your hamster, but this isn’t really the best course of action. No matter how cute it is on youtube.
The: My brand new animal which I just brought home seconds ago isn’t being friendly to me! I want an animal that’s immediately my best friend! – lady.
Let’s say I pick this woman up and then throw her into the home of people she doesn’t know. Specifically, into the lap of some stranger she’s never met before in her entire life, in an environment she’s never been in.
What do you bet her first reaction will be? Hugs and smooches on the cheek to the random stranger she’s now sitting on? Or an ungodly shriek with an attempt to get the hell out of there?
I’d go with choice number two, Alex, and so do most animals when you just bring them home. You can’t expect trust to happen in one day. You have to give them time to adjust and you have to show them you’re worth trusting. That takes more than a few hours.
The: My dog behaves terribly, but I’ve never attempted to ever train him myself, or take him to a trainer, or set down some sort of ground rules to show him I’m the top dog around here and I never crate! - person.
I honestly don’t think the fallacy and illogical thought pattern needs to be explained. However, I’ll try my favorite game of comparison for you for those of you who might not be pet owners anyway:
Imagine you have a child. Imagine you never bothered to instill any sense of right or wrong for that child, at all. Not even the barest scrap—you’ve let that child do whatever he or she wants, whenever he or she wants, however. Imagine what kind of adult that child will turn into.
Probably a pretty horrific adult with no ability to fit into the social scheme of things, acting out badly, ruining as well as destroying things just because.
You get the gist? A dog is only as good as his or her owner. If you don’t care to teach your dog right from wrong, it’s not the dogs fault. He or she can only learn from you. It’s behaving in the manner you taught it to!
An animal depends solely on us for its every need, behavioral, guidance, pack-leadership, food, water, shelter and affection. They are much like new born babies in some ways. It is our responsibility to take care of them and learn how to take care of them.
It is also our responsibility to be able to have the intelligence, strength and courage to realize when we shouldn’t own a pet—I just wish more people out there did. Those that cannot come to these conclusions on their own frighten the bejeezus out of me.
What are some of your pet common sense lists you get, but everyone else seems to not get?
Tags: Feathers and whiskers, Flora, Pets
