Seeing as I spent yesterday morning playing Age of Empires III instead of writing, I thought I’d write about my love-hate relationship with MMORPGs computer games today. AoE III is not a MMORPG - Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, but a RTS - Real Time Strategy - game. And no doubt some of you are reading this and rolling your eyes thinking “Gawd she is going to talk about video games this morning…!†(Sorry.)
I realise I am slightly unusual, being a woman who likes computer games. I’ve always liked certain types of games - card games like Freecell (M even wrote me my own version so I could change the card decks) and Spider Solitaire, puzzles like Tetris and Pandora’s Box, management simulations like SimCity, turnbased strategy like Civilization, and MMORPGs like EverQuest, EverQuest II, Dark Age of Camelot, and World of Warcraft. And of course I’ve played the Sims.
I’ve never been a fan of consoles like the PlayStation or Nintendo. (I do have a colour Gameboy for Tetris and Galaga.) I’m no good at fighting games like Street Fighter - button mashing hurts my fingers. And I’m HOPELESS at first person shooters like Doom or Quake - I don’t think you’re supposed to scream when you get shot, nor are you supposed to keep running around trying to avoid shooting or getting shot.
Have I ever mentioned that M LOVES games? I think he’s played just about every single game there is. I liked games before I met M - I was enjoying Yahtzee, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, Lemmings, SimCity and Civilization. I think we both have some character trait that predisposes us to like spending hours building, or wandering around in, virtual worlds. (That’s my excuse, and I’m sticking to it!)
Part of M’s game collection (just the ones for which we have the boxes…)
The love-hate relationship I have with games is based on the fact that I love playing them but hate the amount of time I spend on them. I’m always trying to ration or reduce the amount of time I spend playing games, because I feel there is plenty else I could be doing. I’m glad I don’t watch tv - or else that would be yet another box to have to resist. At the moment I do think I have a reasonable balance worked out, however my nice routine is going to be completely disrupted when Civilization 4 (*hyperventilates*) is released at the end of this month. (Am I even going to be able to drag myself away to go to work?!)
What do I love about games? My favourite genre is the turn based strategy game - Civilization would have to be my all-time favourite game. This type of game presents you with a world that you have to build up from scratch. Developments (the discovery of pottery, horseback riding, nuclear fission) happen as numbers of turns. Culture, economy, military, politics.
I think I have secret delusions of grandeur that manifest themselves when I play these games… As a mild-mannered librarian by day, I enjoy building these massive empires and leading the quest for Total World Domination - on the weekend.
Categories: games, Civilization, obsession, discipline
I’ve been sitting around this morning reading blogs and following links to this blog via Technorati (I’m surprised at how many there are). Anyway, all this reading, making breakfast and cuddling Baubles the Cat means that I’m rapidly running out of time to write this morning - must get ready for work.
As usual there’s a lot I could have written about this morning:
- More on the Tablet PC
- MMORPGs, My love-hate relationship with (I keep mentioning these but have yet to write about them in any detail)
- My life as a migrant
- Writing, The Art of. Or, how blogging has improved my chronic writer’s block at work.
- Blogging. Read this great list of reminders for bloggers: All I really needed to know I learned in the blogosphere. Got me thinking.
- LibraryThing.
Now that I’ve listed these topics I might try and approach them one at a time. For now, time to get ready for work.
Categories: blogging, blogs, writing
In about six weeks’ time, my parents are going to Malaysia. They are going to spend about a month there. It will be their first visit for many years. Apart from catching up with old friends, what they are looking forward to most is the food.
Mum says she can’t wait to have some putu piring, while Dad wants to have nangka curry. Mum’s choice is somewhat unusual for her, as she is not normally a sweets fan - putu piring is a rice flour cake, steamed and served, preferably piping hot, with grated coconut and gula melaka (palm sugar). Check out EatingAsia’s description (great foodie blog!) for a far more mouth-watering depiction than mine, and the photos give a good indication of the dish, too. Come to think of it, I wouldn’t mind a nice hot putu piring myself…
Dad’s choice, nangka or jack fruit curry, is far more rustic. I’ve never had it, so I can’t attest to its goodness (or otherwise). In fact I have no idea what it would look, smell or taste like. This curry is made with unripe or immature nangka, and one description says that “The seeds are soft and taste like potatoes whilst the other parts nicely absorb the curry sauce.â€
It kind of makes me wish that I was going with them, mainly because when we moved here I was a young, sheltered and ignorant fifteen year old with only a limited sense of the culture I was born into. (Now I’m a not-so-young, still pretty sheltered and definitely ignorant thirty five year old.) Going back there with them would be interesting - I’d love to hear their views of how things were and how they’ve changed. I’ve been back to KL once, and had a great time, but can’t help wondering what a visit with locals (Mum and Dad’s friends!), or at least a guide who wasn’t relying on a map and a Lonely Planet guidebook, would be like.
Categories: food, culture, travel, Malaysia
