Monday, June 6, 2011

It’s All Fun & Games Blogfest!

For this Blogfest, hosted by Alex J Cavanaugh, I am supposed to list three of my favourite games and why. Computer games have played a huge part in my life. My brother used to program games and I would test them for him. I spent much of my childhood (and more) playing games. For a long time they were better than books, especially when they became story-based. I even met my husband through a game.

The real passion for computer games started with Zork. It’s an old text adventure game. No graphics. It was brilliant because it immersed me into a fun story with puzzles to solve. It was far better than Space Invaders. Zork evolved into games like Myst and Riven -- same type of game only with lush graphics and wonderful music. These games got me into computer art and animation.

Red Planet, Virtual World offered me another massive turning point in my life. Along with BattleTech, I played this game in fully enclosed cockpits with multiple screens, switches, joysticks and control peddles. This is where I met my husband. I entered the Australian National competition for Red Planet and won. I travelled to Pasadena, California to compete against the Americans and Japanese. I was the only girl competing and I won. My official title is International Grand Master. Hahahaha.

World of Warcraft is currently my favourite game. I’ve played it for 5-6 years now with many different characters. This game eats time because it’s so fun and immersive. I’ve met many new friends and learnt a lot about people through interaction. Unfortunately I’ve seen and conquered the majority of the content now. It’s probably a good thing, though. I can’t afford to give it as much time as I used to because I’d rather put that time into writing.

So now you know a little more about the geekiness of me. I promise to get back on topic on my next post.

What games have influenced your life?

51 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

You met your husband at a Red Planet tornament? Now that is total geek love!
I almost listed all computer games, but I spread my picks around. You'll see them early tomorrow morning.
Thanks for participating in my blogfest!!

Theresa Milstein said...

I'm old school, starting off with those first video games. But my later favorites were the first Sonic, QBert, and Klax. Tetris too. I don't play video games much. If I did, I'd never have time to read and write!

Jill W. said...

I met an ex online, writing Final Fantasy X fanfiction. [g]

FFX was one of those Games That Changed My Life.

Another one was, strangely, Shadow of the Colossus. I can't put my finger on why I connected so much to it, where the dialogue in the entire game might not fill up one page; maybe it was the quietness of it.

Also strangely -- Gallop Racer, a series of horse racing games. I participated (and staffed) online tournaments for this series.

Sigh. I love video games. I don't get the chance to play so much now that I'm busy with school and writing though.

Michelle Gregory said...

my first video game at home was Pong. yes, that dates me. my boys both play Starcraft 2, which i think is by the same company that does World of Warcraft. neat concept.

Arlee Bird said...

I've never invested the money to play video games and other than a few older ones have never been around them enough to play. I'm sure I'd love those games with the high tech graphics and the stories. I'd probably get lost in them.

My list will be up tomorrow.


Lee
Tossing It Out

Denise Covey said...

My nephew met his wife at a Star Wars tournament. You continually surprise me. I'm going to look like an old fuddy duddy with mine, and I'm not talking Pacman. I won't be posting til tomoz.

Denise<3

Suze said...

I am so glad I read this, International Grand Master. :) I feel like I have a much clearer picture of you, now.

Anonymous said...

very interesting geekiness!

Old Kitty said...

Er... scrabble and trivial pursuits?

LOL!!!

Take care
x

Ellie Garratt said...

Why haven't I heard of Zork? I think my geekiness factor has just dropped to less than 10%!

Great choices!

Fun & Games Blogfest

trump said...

CONTEST.....My blog Amish Stories is having its first ever contest this week. The First prize winner will win 2 tickets to tour the farm where the 1985 move "Witness" staring Harrison Ford and Kelly Mcgillis was made in Strasburg,Pa . This farm is now Amish owned, and the family has given permission for folks to tour their farm. This may be the last time anyone will be able to walk and see the same things that Harrison Ford and the other actors saw during the making of "Witness". The Witness tour should last about 2.5 hours. In addition to the Witness farm tour tickets, 1st prize winner will also receive 2 tickets for Jacobs choice. There will also be a 2nd place prize, which will be 2 tickets for the Amish Homestead. Please go to My blog www.AmishStorys.com for contest details, and more information on the prizes. Richard from the Amish settlement of Lebanon county.

DEZMOND said...

you playing Warcraft!!! I'm shocked, stunned and flabbergasted :)
But my people do have a saying which goes something like this - there are sometimes hundreds of devils hiding behind a peaceful angel :)

Terri Tiffany said...

Oh, not a question for me--lol-- I whine everytime I have to play a board game with my daughter--so going Way Back-- I would say Monopoly--love to win!

vic caswell said...

wow! that's awesome to be the winner of the whole international thing! wow!
so cute that you met your hubby gaming! :)

Carol Riggs said...

You won at Red Planet--how COOL is that!! You must be really good! My mom plays EverQuest II; she's gotten tired of WoW (but she played that too). I've never gotten into games--I definitely don't like the battles. My daughter plays WoW and likes it. Altho she's switched to Forsaken, I think it is--it's free!

Donna K. Weaver said...

Wow, that Red Planet games sounds fun--doubly so that you met your husband doing it. =D

D. U. Okonkwo said...

I'm definitely more the video game geek. Mario, Packman, Fighting Games, yeah. loved 'em!

Timothy S. Brannan said...

Awesome!

I joined this Blogfest because of your participation.

I have not played any WoW myself, but maybe one day I'll give it a try.

Anonymous said...

I have yet to play video games. Its not that I don't like them. I just don't have the time. Maybe when I'm finished with my current WIP I'll go to the store and buy a video game to play.

Jeff Beesler said...

When the original Sims game came out, I became so heavily addicted that I stopped working on my writing for the most part. It had a negative impact on my life back then. Now I'm back in the writer's seat!

Donea Lee said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Donea Lee said...

You're a gaming champion? How cool is that! :) And found a hubby from it to boot!

I don't seem to have the patience for computer/online/gaming games, but am in awe of those who can master them. Maybe one day, I'll try again.

Anonymous said...

Please stop by to pick up an award I nominated you for.

Ciara said...

Found your hubby at a Red Planet convention. Now that is just Geek cool. Great pics.

Mark said...

Oh gosh, Myst...that takes me back. I always liked the plots of some games more than the games themselves...but then again I'm a writer:)

Hart Johnson said...

Oh, the hubby story is great. I am just too only (erm... and possibly a technotard) for all these computer games. Space invaders, Pac man, Frogger... that was as far as I got...

Golden Eagle said...

Wow. I've never heard of Red Planet before--but how cool that you met your husband through the game!

Anonymous said...

Nice to meet an International Grand Master!

I tried World of Warcraft for a bit. I know what you mean by its addictive nature.

Thanks for sharing!

Michael Di Gesu said...

Zork?

Now that's not one I head of.... What fun games. I missed out on the computer game craze...

M Pax said...

I remember Myst. I liked those old role playing games.

Lynda R Young as Elle Cardy said...

Yesterday I had internet troubles so I'm a tad behind...

Alex, listing only 3 was difficult ;)

Theresa, Gotta love Tetris

Jillybean, my hubby loved Final Fantasy as well.

Michelle, oh yes! Pong! I was terrible at it but it was cool

Arlee, that's the problem with them. One DOES get lost in them.

Denise, I loved your picks!

Suze, some friends still call me the IGM lol.

Old Kitty, I love Trivial Pursuit too but I was only allowed to list 3.

Lynda R Young as Elle Cardy said...

Ellie, because Zork is ancient and was created before the internet. (I'm showing my age).

Dezzy, why so shocked? (love the saying) hehehe

Terri, I played a lot of family games of Monopoly and my brother ALWAYS won.

Aspiring, hehe we were made for each other ;)

Carol, I will admit I won Red Planet by 1 point, but it's still a win.

D U Okonkwo, I'm terribad at fighting games lol.

Tim, I always recommend people not to play WoW because it's too addictive ;)

Stephen, nope, when you finish your WIP you'll have another one to write ;)

Jeffrey, that's actually why I've avoided the Sims.

Lynda R Young as Elle Cardy said...

Susanne, thanks for the award.

Mark, I think that's why I like the story-based games the best.

Hart, ha, I'd forgotten about frogger.

Golden, Red Planet was a big geek thing in the 90s before being a geek was cool ;)

Bryce, yep, way too addictive ;)

Michael, Zork is ancient, made more ancient by the fact it had no graphics.

M Pax, Myst and Riven had glorious grpahics.

Nicole Zoltack said...

Myst was such an awesome game!

Sean said...

I don't play WoW but I hear its really time consuming

Unknown said...

World of Warcraft was the only one I recognized... Looks like I'm going to be Googling the others!!!

Happy Monday! It's been far too long since I visited! So glad I'm able to finally get back to it!

WritingNut said...

One of my best friends loved Warcraft, and I sort of, kind of, got into it for a bit, and it's very addictive!

Stina said...

There's been a few games today I haven't recognized, but in this case, I know none of them. :P

Precy Larkins said...

I'm not very familiar with those video games, though I've heard good things about WoW from my super addicted friends. ;)

Dave Handler said...

Nothing wrong with a bit of geekiness!

I think that games are a valid art form too. In fact, I wrote a post about it over the weekend and published it yesterday, same time as you [simultaneous, unintentional idea-swap :)]. Games can be an amazing platform for storytelling - Bioshock, FFX, Mass Effect and Braid are just a few of the games that changed the way I look at life, the universe and everything.

I've never played WOW, however, but I hear it's a lot of fun!

Reid Kemper said...

I haven't played "Red Planet, Virtual World" but it sounds interesting.

Anonymous said...

My son plays World of Warcraft. As far as computer games, I occasionally play spider solitare or majong.

Trisha said...

Games I remember most are: Donkey Kong Country for the SNES, scrabble, a few types of card games, and pictionary. :)

Trisha said...

Ooh, I also meant to say - thank you for your vote!!! I really appreciate it :)

Unknown said...

I didn't know you did computer animation and art. What a little geek you are and I love it. I'm a geek at heart but I don't have much time to do coding between writing and editing.

K.C. Woolf said...

Computer games played a big part in my life as well. I've heard great things about Zork but never played it myself.

I was an Everquest player rather than a WoW-er, but stopped playing a few years ago. :-)

Rachna Chhabria said...

I use to play board games:ludo, chinese checkers, scrabble as a kid. Then I started playing basketball and badminton. Now its computer games.
Its nice to know how you met your husband. Did you beat him at the game ;)

Anonymous said...

Gosh an interesting selection of choices.
I adored Manic Miner when it came out in the old days of Spectrum computers. The only other PC game I've played was a shoot em up game and while I didn't like the concept, the skill of achieving the hits was satisfying. :O)

Misha Gerrick said...

Role-plying games on instant messaging platforms helped me to learn hands-on about characterization and character interaction. (Way too time consuming though.)

I think my current favorite game is Dragon Age, but I can't get my lap top to load it.

:-(

Anonymous said...

I love old school Atari and Nintendo games. They fill me with nostalgia. I found a few sites that have them.

Lynda R Young as Elle Cardy said...

Thanks so much for all your comments. I'm still having Internet trouble (bad timing for the blogfest grrr).

Jen, Hi and welcome back.

Dave, I agree! Oh yes about the art. I love Bioshock for the steampunk more than the game itself.

Clarissa, time is a HUGE factor now :(

K C Woolf, many Everquest players aren't WoW players and vica versa.

Rachna, I beat him at the game ALL the time hahahaa (not really lol).

Misha, my hubby plays Dragon Age on the xbox. I'm thick in the middle of revisions so I don't have time :(