Motive, Motivation, and Motion

As one can probably gather from my first post, I like games and things that flash light and make sound. Nerdy things. There is a stigma attached to one of my favorite pastimes. I am not a jock, so I don’t play the Madden Football series, MLB, NBA, or any other sports games (although I’d play NHL if I still kept up on hockey, which I love), and I don’t play Halo. So naturally, there’s something wrong with me. My gaming isn’t just a jock hobby or mild pastime. I must not live in the real world, or I must think the virtual one more important, or perhaps my childhood was troubled, or I’m a murderer-to-be, or I might be a vampire, or I’m antisocial, or something. Although I kind of like the idea of lurking around at night, sneaking into peoples’ houses to draw a bit of their blood to sustain me, I can assure you I’m not a vampire (and this would only be cool using Oblivion’s vampire rules, so one can’t transfer vampirism to others through the bite, and feeding regularly allows exposure to the sun). Even most of the other things are untrue.

Sure, I don’t go to many social gatherings. I’m not comfortable not knowing anybody around. However, I’m quite willing to hang out with people that I have only recently met, attend gatherings in which I know the attendees, and generally enjoy the accompaniment of my friends. Other than the half-truth of my antisocial behavior, the rest of the stereotypes are utter horse crap to me.

Why is any of the above social justification relevant? Other than my closest friends, I don’t usually even mention my absolute favorite pastime. At best, when I meet a new person, I tack “gaming” onto the backend of a list of favorite activities which is littered with more respectable things (music, eating, guitar, long walks on the beach, etc.). Granted, I go through phases during which playing guitar and listening to metal are my favorite pastimes, but ever since I was old enough to know how to use a Nintendo controller, the virtual world has kept my attention longer than anything else. While I often discuss gaming and technology with my closest friends, I am not always satisfied. As far as I know, no campus gaming groups exist (although given the option, I’d be a founding member, even though I’m on year 4 of projected 4.5). So where can I place my thoughts on the latest PC RTS game? Where can I discuss the infinite superiority of The Orange Box over Halo? Where can I turn to express my undying love for Castlevania?

The internets have me covered.

That’s right. Plural. For humorous purposes and/or Ron’s personal enjoyment, I shall refer to the internets in plural. Because I can. The internets will allow me to do so.

Another reason for my desire to write a gaming blog is because I can’t always have meaningful discussions with my friends about certain games. Roy, for instance, plays FPS almost exclusively. I was playing Final Fantasy XI (the online one, for those who go, “Final Fantasy what?!”) the other day, and Roy was going to dinner. I told him I was in a group (“group” for WoW and EverQuest-ers, “party” for FFXI and Guild Wars-ers), and that I’d be another twenty minutes.

He responded, “Come on, it’s an RPG. It could practically play itself if it had to.”

No more RPG discussions with Roy.

Similarly, Ron doesn’t play PC games with few exceptions, and especially doesn’t like MMOs (he acknowledges the concept as good, but the execution is poor and ends up being a level grind). Jimmy plays a variety of games similar to my tastes, but he no longer plays FFXI very often. Maybe a month here or there. Spencer plays Halo and sports games.

Motive established.

I’m on break. And somewhat bored-ish.

Motivation established.

Mattjew came back from Austria and during one of our discussions, Halo 3 was mentioned. He and Spencer (another suitemate of mine) are both getting Xbox 360s over Winter Break. I nearly crapped himself when he mentioned that he was more excited about getting The Orange Box for Team Fortress 2. Neither Matt nor Spencer play FPS games; they play Halo. It doesn’t count in quite the same way. But I’m so stoked that he’s going to get that. Roy mentioned the “extreme likelihood” (his Mom told him) that he would also be getting The Orange Box for Christmas. Jimmy played and finished Portal on my Steam account, so I hope he eventually picks up The Orange Box. I dunno if it is multiplatform, but if Spencer gets it for 360, that’d be good, too (he doesn’t have a PC capable of gaming).

Now I just have to convince Matt that his Steam account name and TF2 tag should be Mattjew.

I wrote another post.

Motion established.