Addicted @ the moment

Bejewled 3, on the Nintendo DSXL. I've nearly gotten all the badges, just two left. Bookworm. I've made it to Master Librarian. Once I missed a plane playing Samegame on my phone. Tetris. I prefer not to be rushed by a game, I get plenty of that at work. Most casual puzzle games.

Boomboom: I played WoW for quite a few years. The last expansion didn't hold my attention, and by then most of my guild had scampered off to other shiny new things. I was mainly into RP and PVP, and it became increasingly more difficult to find people to play with who were interested in both simultaneously. (I had a level 90 shadow priest.)

I'm actually (or was - until grad school got in the way) an avid gamer. My kids love that their mom actually gets it when they start in on their latest game obsessions. I have in turn taught them that there's a time and place for gaming and that there are healthy ways to be a gamer.

Currently, the only time waster I can handle is Candy Crush. It's addictive, doesn't require too much of a commitment, and I can get away for 5 minutes to play to help me focus my brain again.

wetdirt - I love it! I downloaded all of them. How neat that you can do that with Excel

Oh, I like those words, WetDirt. Haven't downloaded the spreadsheets yet. I have to find my password to Dropbox, lol.

I am going to post links to a couple of sites that generate fantasy/science fiction names and how to create languages.

Did you know that Scrivener has a name generator built in?

Dalaimama - Wow is actually more accessible and has more interesting stuff in it than it did in Vanilla, but the newness has worn off and people take it for granted. As people find other things in life they need to do and move on to games they can play on a tablet or phone, it is hard to put that much time in to MMO. One or two key people leaving a guild can deflate the whole thing, and you realize how much playing just had to do with hanging out with others and having fun. It is an interesting cycle to watch, especially for someone like me who was/is interested in telling stories through games.

I do have a big "thank you" to WoW, however. It was entering the short story contest a couple of years ago that got me writing again and interested writing. I never RPed but had planned to and do have 'toons on Wyrmrest Accord. I started a guild called Writers Guild of Azeroth there. Ended up I couldn't spend the time on it I needed to to make it flourish, but met a few really excellent writers through it. They were so good, they were humbling. I did Camp NaNo with one in April and may ask her if she would like to join this website. She can't do Camp right now, though.

I just deleted Order & Chaos from my ipad. I think it's a WoW kind of game. At any rate, I'd managed to get three or four characters to the top level, and it was not as rewarding as it had been for the last year or so. Besides, I ran out of room on the ipad ;-)

I also played online poker. I'm actually glad I never found a site that would take actual money, since I'm a pretty good player. I win and win and win, and then I don't. Too dangerous for a guy who already had to kick a slot machine addiction ;-)

Then there's Second Life. I was there 10 years ago as a beta tester, and I'm still there. However, it's gone from being a cyberspace adventure to just plain social. So, I just check in periodically to see how its going.

Bejewled has sometimes held me captive for several hours at a time. I try to stay away now.

So, really, the only game I still play with dedication is Sudoku. I rock Sudoku. I usually play at levels requiring oxygen and pressure suits ;-)



jeff

Last night, near midnight, I won the gold badge in Bejeweled Poker. The Platinum is one of the few badges I have left. Sigh.

Boom,

Yep. Second Life's raison d'être was to allow complete freedom to create whatever kind of world you wanted. And, for the first few years, it did. I've been a land mogul, builder, clothier, artist, private detective, author, publisher, nude model, revolutionary, senator, disability advocate and mercenary - just to name a few. And I got paid for all of those, except freedom fighter and advocate. (I even got several quotes in a real-world book on the effect of conflict on social development :-) Unfortunately, as the population increased, the kind of world THEY all wanted turned out to be just the same as the world they already had. They turned SL, as they already had the internet at large, into a place to hang around and pose.

I'm hoping, someday, to see a new, younger revolution try to create something exciting. Perhaps they can succeed in starting the democracy we failed to finish.



jeff

I too love to game. I've been an avid player of Everquest 2 for 7 years. I tried WoW, and a few others, but by then I was spending so much time with EQ2 that I didn't want to learn another game. Gaming taught me to say 'no' to constant request for my time at my kids' schools. I learned to take time for myself. This in tutn made it seem possible that if I spent even 1/4 of that time writing, I could complete a book!

I now play EQ2 only occasionally and have given up the time consuming guild life. Now ipad games that take short bursts of time fill my gaming fix. I play the farming/quest ones the most and refuse to pay any real money to level.

I love Carcassonne! We used to play it with our neighbours, doing several extension packs already. Great game.

Since I got kids, I haven't had a lot of chances to play computer games like in the old days. Back then, I liked The Elder Scrolls and Fallout. Anything epical. I lately managed to get through Skyrim, though, which really rocked.