On my Tumblr Ask Me thingy, someone asked if I played online games.
As it turns out, I’ve been enjoying a wider than usual variety of games, and was just this week thinking about posting a little blog about it. So I answered:
I am so old, my formative experiences with video games were all single player. When multi-player online arrived, it was text-based MUDs (I helped run one, when 28.8 was fast) and that was all the social interaction I ever needed.
Put another way, I prefer my gaming to be quietly alone, or couch co-op with one of my kids. I have found every single online multiplayer gaming community to be so toxic and unwelcoming to new players, I honestly don’t know how anyone can endure that shit to get to the good stuff, but like I said, I’m old.
For the last year or so, I’ve split my time among:
- NHL 22 Create a Pro. Blaine Gretzky is in his 8th season of a game that was never intended to be an RPG, but EA vastly underestimated how far a weird nerd will go to make that happen. (What’s up, #Blainiacs?)
- Baldur’s Gate 3. I’m in the final battle of my second play through because there is no such thing as too much Karlach. But I took a break because I loved the Fallout TV series, so…
- Fallout 4 has been my jam for about a month. I loved New Vegas so much I have played all of it I think three times, plus I did all the DLC in a weekend awhile ago. But I never played 4, because I was playing RDR2 or something when it came out, and I never got around to it. But I saw that it was part of the Playstation Plus thing, so I’ve been playing the hell out of it, and I’m completely obsessed. The world is so much bigger than I expected, and I love building, maintaining, and putting disco balls into all my settlements. I have no idea how far into the story I am, but every night something new and fun happens when I play.
- And, finally, Stardew Valley. I am years late to the party, but I wanted something gentle, slow, and meditative for the change of pace from all those other things. I actually came to it because I wanted something like Animal Crossing that wasn’t Nintendo-exclusive, and it was like 4 dollars on Steam. I think I have 40 or so hours in it. I’m about to start my first Fall season, and I fucking FINALLY caught a fish. I love how it forces you to pick one or two things to do each game day, so I’m like, “Well, we’re clearing trees and rocks today, then I’ll water the garden and go to sleep. Tomorrow, I’ll take gifts into town.” And so on. It shouldn’t be as satisfying as it is, but it just works perfectly for me. I never would have expected to love this kind of game the way I do, but I’ve been experiencing some major growth, change, and healing, recently, which has opened up so much more space for activities.
Thanks for asking. It’s always fun for me to talk about stuff like this long after everyone has lost interest.
I’m not the only nerd who is asked a very simple question like “Coke or Pepsi?” and is still talking about the history of RC Cola an hour later, right? It can’t be just me.
Please say it isn’t just me.
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Being the same age and having a similar gaming background I totally get this. Live service always online games are a mystery to me. Right now I’m looking forward to the new Dragon Age for my next big solo gaming experience.
Enjoy Fallout 4! As a Bostonian myself it was a hoot to see their interpretation of many of my old haunts.
It is NOT just you. Also, I now have try and dig up some diet RC in my area.
Your NHL game play reminds me of the time I got really into Madden many years ago. Not because I love football, I think I simulated every game, but instead I treated it like a municipal stadium sim and moved the Minnesota Vikings to Las Vegas when the city wouldn’t fund my stadium. The new Las Vegas Pink Panthers ultimately became Super Bowl champs.
I remember text-based MUDs! I first really got touch-typing into my system, playing an AberMUD located in Sweden, while in California. (Combination of typeahead immediately after a world-reset, with significant lag….)
I find it bewildering how many games there are now. I have a steam account and when I look for a new game(not very often) the number of options is just too much. I am about the same age as you, retired also(I retired, the second I could, seriously, on my birthday the first day I was eligible). I played all the way back to the Atari 2600, then apple II and so on. I knew a guy that had a 1200 Baud modem in 1981, and he was man. My wife has a Ph D in astrophysics and has built lasers, so it is very hard to out nerd her. She plays eve online extensively, I played a bit, but as a former accountant , the economics of the game just reminded me of work. Since I find socializing pretty hard anyway, the toxicity of many games is off-putting. I then just go into out apple orchard and whittle.
It’s … not just you.
My daughter and I are big fans of Stardew Valley. I like how you can join the game, putter about for an hour or so, and then put it aside for a while. We’re also fond of Minecraft for the same sort of reasons – you can just build up or explore or whatever, and then logout and things will pretty much stay where it was until you rejoin the game.
It’s not just you! You should play Life is Strange. It’s a little different from what you’ve been playing but it’s so much fun.
Hello, fellow Emily. My daughter plays Life is Strange (or more accurately watches other people’s playthroughs because she gets nervous making decisions) and we just went to Oregon for her senior trip, in part because she wanted to see Garibaldi. Cool game.
I would happily read a blog post about the history of RC Cola, just sayin’! 🙂
When I was young RC was the only cola in our tiny country store. Later we had more choices and I really liked Dr. Pepper and still drink it. But we have 3 bottles of (2litre) Royal Crown in the pantry.
This is not related to the blog, but is totally a Tumblr thing. Please trust me.
Look at the June 4th sign. https://loen.design/sign/
Fallout 4 is a fun game.
I’ve been playing a lot of Far Cry 4 lately, mainly because you can get a “fangs for hire” teammate, a dachshund named Chorizo. If you’re injured, you can pet him to get healed. It’s great.
About the only online games I’ve ever played extensively are World Of Warcraft (stopped playing around 2014) and Overwatch. The only way I can keep playing Overwatch is because I basically never use a headset. No chitchat.
Other than that. I’ve been pretty much exclusively playing single player games since my earliest memory of going to an arcade around 1982-ish.
I’ve got Fallout 4 in my Playstation games list. I played the hell out of Fallout 3, and a bit of Fallout: New Vegas, but haven’t given #4 a try yet. I’ve got about 20 hours of Stardew Valley under my belt, but haven’t touched it in a couple of years.