127. World of Warcraft…Again

So I am downloading the current patch of World of Warcraft. I dont really know why, I havent played in months, but with the new expansion coming out I find I am being drawn back into the wake that is WoW. I am thinking about starting a new character, a Worgen. A Worgen is a werwolf, and surprisingly is an Alliance character. In the new expansion Worgens are with the Alliance and Goblins are with The Horde. I find this VERY odd, because I have been through Duskwood and I am pretty sure Worgens are NOT Alliance material, but I could be wrong. The idea of starting a new character in WoW after the world has been completed changed is, well, fun sounding. I know, I know I go back and forth on loving, liking, and hating the game, but I think this will be a mild like for this time around, and will bring me entertainment when I choose to play.

74. Sometimes You Have To Put The Game Down

Every Geek, Nerd or Dork out there has a passion. Something in the community of geekdom that they feel VERY strongly about. For me I have two…Star Wars, and Firefly/Serenity. I love all things about these two shows. I own several t-shirts for both, I read comics related for both, and I enjoy watching the movies/shows over and over again.

Recently I decided to try and give the Star Wars and Firefly RPG a try. I was VERY excited for both! Firefly started up, and the first thing our group realized is that the outline of the game forces someone to be the captain. Cant fly a ship and get jobs without someone being in charge. So wanting to help out the group I accepted the invitation to play the captain. It was not the role I wanted to play, but a role I knew I could do and also was necessary. I hated playing the captain! It required me (due to the way the game is set up) to really play the guy in charge. We had meetings to set up, and a crew to keep in line, and fights that needed breaking up, etc. Playing the captain was more like a JOB then it was something I did for fun once every other week. As we continued playing I liked playing my role less and less. This of course started to show up in my gaming soon enough. As a group we got together and decided we needed to reformat the group and select a new captain. I was THRILLED with this idea! So we changed around roles and shifted some responsibilities, and before you knew it we had a new captain with a new crew. Eve had volunteered to take the role as captain, and she was good! I mean REALLY good! However it didn’t take long before she was suffering the same effect of the game that I had. She was the leader and the one in charge. This made it VERY hard to actually play and have fun. As with all patterns it didn’t take long before she was also showing signs of wear in her gaming.

There are games out there that are like this. Games that we all wish we could play, because they look really cool in the movie or show. Problem is when it comes to a practical application of those games we find that real life sucks. It was hard to put away Firefly, especially because I wanted it to work! Sometimes, you just have to. You can keep trying to play, but eventually everyone realizes you are just trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.

My suggestion give it up, and find a game where you can have the fun that all RPG games are meant to bring! Our group has decided to start an Exalted game, and the excitement and enthusiasm is even higher then it was for Firefly. So who know maybe the grass is greener in another gaming system.

53. Warhammer 40K MMO

I just started getting into table top Warhammer, and if it wasn’t for the expensive nature of the game I would be hooked. As it is I am already hooked and borrowing my friends Chaos Marines Army when we play. However during E3 this new MMO trailer popped up. What do you all think?

32. Magic

Tonight I played my first game of Magic The Gathering. I remember when Magic first came out. I was in middle school at the time, and not willing to admit to myself or anyone else that I was a geek. I saw the other kids at school playing and I remember desperately wanting to ask someone to teach me, but I never did. Over the years as I became more and more comfortable with myself and came to understand that being a geek is not a bad thing I started getting more comfortable trying all the things I had always wanted to. Magic sadly was never one of them. One of the things I have loved about my group here has ben the ability to try new things, and tonight I got to try Magic.

Magic is basically set up as two magicians battling each other to the death. You can play with more then just two (we played with 5 tonight), but a standard game is two. As I understand the rules there are three types of cards. Land cards are played at the beginning of each turn. Each land card represents mana which is the energy you use to cast spells. Without enough mana or energy you cant cast a spell. The more Mana you have the more spells you can cast, and the more powerful you become.

The second kind of card is a spell card. Spell cards generally deal damage to another character or enhance something. These are generally very useful cards to have. I didn’t run into many of these cards tonight, but am told that there are some very powerful spells out there. There are even spells to counter other spells, so if you can imagin the scene from Harry Potter when Dumbledore and Voldemort duel, thats what playing spell cards is like only with cards.

The third type of card is a creature card. You use these cards to attack other players. There are so many different types of creature cards, and each one has different abilities and strengths.

That is about it when it comes to Magic. Its just a big duel game played with cards. I had a great time and I am looking forward to playing again.