Random Observation/Comment #284: Life is too short to spend collecting materialistic things. I’d rather spend the time collecting memories and building relationships.
Love GW2
I was in middle school when we got our new computer with a 14.4k dial-up DSL modem. My brother was the typical Starcraft nerd, while I excelled in FPSs. The keyboard-mouse combination provided me with precision aim and quick bunny-hopping reflexes that just lacked in playstation controllers. It was instant gratification to run through public servers and have consistent 6:1 kill to death ratios on CS beta 7.1. My gaming name was ‘skitz’ because there would be those days the lag spikes caused 1:6 ratios during clan matches. Those were the days… Internet cafes were the only place with T1 lines and I could spend days in Flushing just geeking out.
High school came around and CS V1.3 killed my predictive spread. Long gone were the days where you could continuously duck jump and keep the spread the same predictable T-shape. I got a little bored with the typical maps and began playing around with fy_iceworld and similar deathmatch scenarios. Warcraft mods and additional skin downloads made everything more fun for an extended time, but I knew I would soon grow out of this phase.
I progressed to Diablo 2. I used the lightning bow-zon and druid fury builds. The game was more focused on getting the best weapons and collecting sets on the hardest difficulty levels. I must have killed Diablo 50 times just doing farm runs- not to mention thousands of angry moo cows. I was never amaze-balls like some of my friends, but I played enough to design my own builds and start the MMORPG mindset.
This leads me to college. Cooper was unforgiving with my free time, but 2004 spring semester in the depth of my dorm rooms, Guild Wars made my grades suffer slightly. In retrospect, it was worth it. Ascension of my characters happened overnight and I pulled off some ridiculous ele kiting builds. Once PvE was close to 100% completion, I worked on killing dragons and helping others finish quests.
The main attraction with Guild Wars was the level 20 cap and dependency on skill and traits distribution. PvP was the death match for testing builds and it was glorious until everyone realized you can’t kill any other group without a healing monk. Without guilds, the public play was just switching until you had non-noob teammates.
More than personally growing out of enjoying playing games, I just lacked a powerful enough computer to play all the games I wanted to play. Travel and work rolled along and the smart phone flourished. Large RPGs were replaced with angry birds and words with friends. I spent more time on my phone than behind my desktop or laptop, therefore there was the fall of PC gaming in my mind. Console gaming livened up a bit in competition and PC games died off a bit except for those hardcore gamers. I guess I might of also grown up a bit… how could I focus on my online character when networking, girls, and my regular drinking routine was getting in the way?
My shift into adulthood (or at least the recession from heavy gaming) had completed when my apartment only had a smart book, and my steam account had expired from not playing it. I gave away all my D2 and GW accounts to my buddies that kept playing for storage, and then focused on other hobbies like table tennis and photography. I left that life behind for a more active one…
August 2012 was the month when it all came back to me in a shock wave of awesomeness. First was D3 – I bought my ASUS G75VW gaming laptop and Razer Naga Molten mouse, spending around $1700 just to play a game. Of course, it wasn’t just one game… it was in preparation of the games to come.
I had long prepared for the trifecta of procrastination, yet no one could have expected the full force of excellence that shredded any level of self-control. A week ago, counter strike global offensive and guild wars 2 parallel released. I have since then not slept a full nights sleep from the addiction. I’m a little scared. I haven’t played table tennis at Spin for a week or eaten at a restaurant for two. Crazy….
~See Lemons Play
