There Just Isn't Room for You

So for the past few years I have been a notorious online gamer. I have dozens of friends that I met on the Interwebz and I used to just rush right home and burst online, ignoring everything else around me to plug in and get the fix.

Some of you out there know what I'm talking about...

Well, far be it from me to say whether this is a positive or negative change, but of late I have lost interest in these MMO-type past times. I used to be a Guild Wars girl through and through, but I got my uber-rare armor and enough titles for a rainbow phoenix (happily named Fawkes), so there wasn't much there to keep me going. I switched to WoW for the boyfriend, but I was years behind the curve there. While I was plodding along trying to level, all the "cool people" were off raiding all day and all night and I got lonely and frustrated. I even tried arena-type games, like TF2 and, to some extent, Killing Floor, but those got old fast. Especially when you take into account how bad I am at the FPS genre in general. Regen, run in a quick circle, get ganked, *poof*, repeat. Yeah, not my thing. I'm not brutal enough.

Even now I still enjoy a great co-op game. Left 4 Dead remains my favorite go-to "group" game, though it gets a bit repetitive after awhile. And I absolutely adore Resident Evil 5, not only because the RE franchise will always have my heart, but because the way that you teamed up with a friend to play the entire original game (not some stupid co-op quest built separately) was to die for. If they would make more games like that, I would have all of them. In fact, if you know of any more like that, let me know!


All that being said, I find myself turning more and more to my huge list of single player pieces, and console gaming as a whole. I love console gaming. I like laying on my couch and holding my controller, rather than sitting at a desk or table with a mouse, feeling connected to my laptop. Plus, although my new laptop is absoposolutely fantastic, prior PC limitations left me feeling stuck when a 2-minute cut scene would jump and skip and I'd miss half the dialog. Most importantly perhaps, I enjoy that I can play single player games at my own pace. I'm a slower gamer, and with my Bean here running around I often have to get up and stop mid-crisis in game. It happens. I pause. I reload saves before I died while I was across the room. Stuff like that. And honestly, I'm far from the greatest gamer ever. I lack skill, and often relish in talking to every single character in every village or outpost in RPG and adventure type games. And side quests. I'm on them. All of them. And let's not even start on collectible items and achievements.

So you may be wondering, so what's the big deal? Well, remember those friends I mentioned? A lot of them miss me it turns out! Who'd have thunkit? I'm not even a good gamer, so in my mind, what is there to lose? But I get asked all the time to jump in on this, please make time for that, I've even been gifted games I don't have time to play - let alone any actual desire or interest to play - just to try to peak my interest.

Well, I guess my interest isn't there.

Right now, my gaming style is mostly solo. I feel bad, yes, I miss my friends (sometimes), but these are the games I want to play. Dragon Age has my heart, followed by Zelda and Fable and quite a few others. I'm sorry everyone. I do love you. There just isn't room for you right now.