After thinking about it for a few days, I have decided that I am precisely narcissistic enough to start blogging about my gaming interests and activities. I have no illusions that people are going to actually read this -- and I'm not even entirely sure I want anyone to.
I'm doing it anyway, though.
A little about me: I'm a 40-something dude living a pretty nice life in the USA. I've got a great wife and a great kid (pre-schooler). I've spent a lot of years in school and had a lot of different jobs (including some military time), but right now, for various reasons, I'm a full-time stay-at-home dad.
And, I'm a gamer. I'd call myself "avid," and I guess I am, but the reality is that I spend more time thinking about games and reading about games than I spend actually playing games. This blog is something of an outgrowth of that fact -- i.e., another way for me to think about games.
"But what games, Greywing?" I can almost hear the throngs demanding. Well, you imaginary throngs are being pretty cheeky to start demanding stuff midway through my first post. But, anyway, here's a brief synopsis of my current (and past) top interests:
Computer games: I never was much interested in "video" games, but PC games -- now that's a different story. In fact, for years and years, that was my number-one hobby. I mainly went for strategy titles. My favorites include the usual suspects: Civilization, Master of Orion, Master of Magic. My all-time favorite is probably X-Com (sweet, sweet X-Com).
I also have/had a soft spot in my heart for RPG's, going back to SSI's "gold box" D&D games. So, I was a natural target for the MMO scene. I started playing EverQuest in 1999 and it sort of swallowed my leisure time whole for the next six or seven years. I dabbled with City of Heroes and (of course) WoW, but no game ever grabbed me the way EQ did (there's no time like the first time).
I got over it though. I've been clean of MMO's for months. Not saying I'll never play again, but I'm honestly not interested in that kind of thing right now. Beyond that, in general, I just don't spend too much time with the computer these days; I've been much more focused on real-space gaming for the past few years. And that brings me to:
Miniature games: This category is probably my top interest at the moment. I am hampered in this pursuit, however, by the fact that I just don't enjoy painting all that much. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a "necessary evil" -- I like it, I guess, I just wish I liked it more. I love having miniatures that I've painted, but I don't love the process of getting there, if that makes any sense. Plus, I'm not very good at it. I have a basic grasp of and use three techniques: base coating, dry brushing, and washing. That's pretty much it. And, to top it off, I'm amazingly slow at it.
To recap:
- Not crazy about doing it;
- Not very good at it;
- Extremely slow.
But, still: I love my little soldiers/tanks/anthropomorphic dinosaurs/etc.
I know I'll talk a lot more about this stuff in later posts, so I'll leave it at that for now.
Role-playing games: I've been playing D&D since I was about 9. (That was the '70s, kids!) I loved 3.5. I ... do not love 4th Edition. I remain pretty bummed about that whole thing.
But! All is not lost. I feel roughly the same about Pathfinder as little girls feel about unicorns. I'm lucky to be in a solid group with a standing Pathfinder Society game every other week. We've also recently revived a very long-running Mutants & Masterminds campaign that had been dormant for a couple of years. More on both of those things later.
Board games: Yeah, I do these too. I stumbled upon Board Game Geek about a year and a half ago, and it has cost me a lot of money since then. I'm not too much of a Euro fan, but I do enjoy hex-and-counter war games and that category known as "Ameritrash" -- a term I loathe and will not use here again. Of all the gaming categories I've mentioned, this is the one I'd most like to be able to spend more time with.
So, anyway, that's me in a very tiny nutshell. This is way longer than I intended, and I'm running out of steam for now. More later. Or maybe not! Probably. But we'll see.
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