What a frakked kinda week!

[lunadelcorvo]

I don't know where to start. For one thing, I've been sick as all get-out. Blech! Head feels like concrete, gunk in my throat and chest, coughing like a demented seal - I think I'm finally starting to shake whatever bug it is, but I'm exhausted.

My classes (taking) are meh. Only they are actually kind of meh with a vengeance. No really, something can, in fact, be aggressively meh, trust me. On the other hand, the ones I"m teaching are going great. I even got nominated for a faculty favorite award by a sorority on campus... o_O Never heard of it before, but it's kinda awesome!

Getting ready to buy a new iMac - w00t! So I'm combing over files and junk accumulated on my HD. I am a packrat! But cleaning house feels kinda nice, even if it'sonly the digital variety; I've been too sick to do the real kind, and I"m not looking forward to getting caught up once I fell better. And how much does that suck, anyway? "Feeling better? Great, here's the mop!" *sigh*

In game world I may be late to the party (seems I usually am, sadly) but I am so very deeply in love with Dragon Age:Origins. This game - if you remember my squeeing over Neverwinter Nights 2, this is much the same (same devs, even) but times a thousand! The depth and complexity of the plot decisions and the characters - I find it truly impressive. I just adore it. The world, the people - just wow. It is similar, I understand, to the connection a lot of people feel for the Mass Effect series (also same devs). I have not played that, because I'm kind of a Sword & Sorcery gal, but I might have to check it out.

What is bugging me is that the hubby totally does not get it. At all. To him, video games are a big waste of time and energy. If I were to try to explain to him how difficult it is to choose which contender to put on the dwarven throne, or told him that I really, truly cried when my character's parents died, he'd say that was the stupidest thing he'd ever heard. If I showed him that hundreds, thousands of people who felt similarly, or that spoke of how profoundly that game affected them, he'd say they were all losers who needed to get a life. And he wonders why I get defensive about my games?! Alas.

OK, wasn't trying to make this the game-angst post, so I'll leave it there for now....

(And yes, OK, I am very much smitten with Alistair, what does that have to do with anything? You know me and those paladin/templar/warrior types....)

Comments

[miss_scarlet_letter]

I'm also buying a new computer in the near future. I love cleaning up my hard drive. It's weird. All these files take up next to no space and yet putting them in folders and backing them up feels.SO.good!

Oh, btw, I saw this and I actually thought of you. You're probably aware of it, but it made me laugh so... <a href="http://www.cracked.com/article_20248_5-miracles-deleted-from-bible-being-too-awesome.html>5 Miracles Deleted From the Bible For Being Too Awesome</a>.

[lunadelcorvo]

It is satisfying, isn't it?

ANd yes, I did see that - good stuff!

[cmcmck]

There seems to be a lot of this infection about.

Your hub is not alone- I don't get video games either! :o)

Feel better soon.

[lunadelcorvo]

Getting better; still parking like a seal, but *feeling* much better.

For me, the appeal of a well written, well-crafted video game is similar (but in some ways superior to) that of a really good book or movie. After all, what makes a book or movie 'good' is that it offers a compelling story, complex and engaging characters, surprises, conflicts, challenges, to the characters and the reader. A good video game offers all of that, but it also puts the story in your hands. True, there is a different sort of satisfaction to a basic 'hack n' slash' kind of game, and there is a place for those. But a game that presents characters you really come to care about, hard and complex choices that affect not only the world of the game but the characters you meet to me, at least, provides the same visceral satisfaction of a really good novel, and then some. There is of course, a suspension of disbelief, but there is with a book of film, too.

[lucretiasheart.livejournal.com]

I don't see what's so weird about loving a really well worked out video game. Its an interactive form of fiction. Actually, it makes MORE sense than loving a book or movie.

[raven-moon.livejournal.com]

Agreed! It's like a really good novel, but you get to be part of the story. There is one company that is known for putting ut really compelling games with complex interactions between characters, All my favorite games are from them; they are the same ones that put out the Mass Effect Series.

(And when you get some lovely eye-candy, that you can even have a romance with... well, it doesn't hurt.)

[lucretiasheart.livejournal.com]

Heh!!

[toll-booth.livejournal.com]

Cool, congrats on the award!

HAHAHAHA now that is some serious role-reversal right there. The woman loves her video games, and the man can't stand them? That doesn't happen too often!

[raven-moon.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

ANd yeah - we tend to have that role reversal thing a lot! I'm also the one who fixes the plumbing, owns and uses the power tools - do not let my husband anywhere near a power saw! LOL