My brother thought it was high time to enter this jungle of a blogosphere that has established itself and taken root firmly in the intertubes. He was about to go it alone when I thought back to my grade school days, where we were taught about going somewhere unknown. Buddy system baby. And we brought machetes.
So here we go.
We can all agree that there are various flavors of nerds. And I’m not talking about the candy, tasty as they may be. I attended my first PAX East along with EF and got my first dose of gaming culture immersion. Yegads! It was a cornucopia of individuals who didn’t smell quite as bad as I was preparing myself for. Maybe it was the hotel showers.
I saw indie gamers, FPS gamers, fighting gamers, board-game… gamers, MMO gamers, gamers rocking out and dancing, card playing gamers, and D&D barbarians. Of course there are countless more, plus permutations. Most do not fit into any one bucket. That’s why we go there. We can do everything we love to do in one convenient location.
I, myself, am a mix. I started out on the Atari 2600 with Frogger and I knew how to boot up games on the Apple IIGS before I knew how to properly use a toilet. An NES made its way into my life and the trend continues to this day. Goldeneye turned me into a FPS lover. Starcraft turned me into a RTS fan. Diablo turned me into an action/adventure/rpg craver. I become a “cardboard crack” addict with Magic the Gathering around when the set Exodus appeared but fell out right before Mercadian Masques/High School. I also dabbled in the Pokemon CCG. Ugh. So I'm big into console and computer gaming, but I've been shaped by CCGs, and while I'm not a collector of gadgets, I do love 'em and will probably discuss them from time to time. I do, however, collect tools that will line three walls of a garage/shed/hovel someday and will likely find something to share with any DIY nerds out there.
And even now I continue to evolve my interests. At PAX East, my girlfriend and I learned how to play Settlers of Catan with the help of a nice girl with ridiculously turquoise-colored contact lenses. I’ve downloaded the Xbox Live version and have been trying to master the game with the help of my girlfriend. She beat 3 AI opponents on Hard twice in a row the first time she held the reigns. She made the leap of logic and strategy. I over think and flop around my roads and settlements, hoping my opponents will take pity and trade me extra wool. More on this game another time.
I‘ve gotten back into it Magic since M12’s release, but now with disposable income! The more I wander the Magic Reddit page, the more it seems like those of my generation that flew the coop are coming back to roost for the same reasons .
The formula is as follows:
[(Duels of the Planeswalkers shows up on XBOX 360/Steam)*Curious Reminiscing] + (Friends who also curiously reminisced) = Everyone drops money on a box or two of whatever is in Type 2 so they can make their own decks and play at the kitchen table together.
A simple formula, but I dare you not to get sucked into it. If you listen carefully, you can hear their weeping wallets echoing in the void of their bank accounts.
I am a product of Wizard’s Formula and now have a couple decks for Friday Night Magic, several casual fun decks with terrible, unforgivable combos, and a budding EDH deck after acquiring a bunch of mixed older sets with a friend. And the next set, Avacyn Restored, is spoiled and peeking around the corner. I hope you like Angels ladies and gentlemen, cause there's a goddamn infestation of them on the horizon. And there be more Demons than you can shake a stick at. Robert Langdon didn't have to deal with as many Angels and Demons. Yeah, I said it.
I'll detail my AVR faves in another post, as well as share what I'm doing with my decks to update them. This may be like talking to a brick wall right now, but I want to hear what types of decks y'all are wrangling.
Even you, yes you, person in the future gazing at this ancient, dusty post.
It's almost Friday and it's time for a delicious Sam Summer when I get home.
Sláinte
~WF
So here we go.
We can all agree that there are various flavors of nerds. And I’m not talking about the candy, tasty as they may be. I attended my first PAX East along with EF and got my first dose of gaming culture immersion. Yegads! It was a cornucopia of individuals who didn’t smell quite as bad as I was preparing myself for. Maybe it was the hotel showers.
I saw indie gamers, FPS gamers, fighting gamers, board-game… gamers, MMO gamers, gamers rocking out and dancing, card playing gamers, and D&D barbarians. Of course there are countless more, plus permutations. Most do not fit into any one bucket. That’s why we go there. We can do everything we love to do in one convenient location.
I, myself, am a mix. I started out on the Atari 2600 with Frogger and I knew how to boot up games on the Apple IIGS before I knew how to properly use a toilet. An NES made its way into my life and the trend continues to this day. Goldeneye turned me into a FPS lover. Starcraft turned me into a RTS fan. Diablo turned me into an action/adventure/rpg craver. I become a “cardboard crack” addict with Magic the Gathering around when the set Exodus appeared but fell out right before Mercadian Masques/High School. I also dabbled in the Pokemon CCG. Ugh. So I'm big into console and computer gaming, but I've been shaped by CCGs, and while I'm not a collector of gadgets, I do love 'em and will probably discuss them from time to time. I do, however, collect tools that will line three walls of a garage/shed/hovel someday and will likely find something to share with any DIY nerds out there.
And even now I continue to evolve my interests. At PAX East, my girlfriend and I learned how to play Settlers of Catan with the help of a nice girl with ridiculously turquoise-colored contact lenses. I’ve downloaded the Xbox Live version and have been trying to master the game with the help of my girlfriend. She beat 3 AI opponents on Hard twice in a row the first time she held the reigns. She made the leap of logic and strategy. I over think and flop around my roads and settlements, hoping my opponents will take pity and trade me extra wool. More on this game another time.
I‘ve gotten back into it Magic since M12’s release, but now with disposable income! The more I wander the Magic Reddit page, the more it seems like those of my generation that flew the coop are coming back to roost for the same reasons .
The formula is as follows:
[(Duels of the Planeswalkers shows up on XBOX 360/Steam)*Curious Reminiscing] + (Friends who also curiously reminisced) = Everyone drops money on a box or two of whatever is in Type 2 so they can make their own decks and play at the kitchen table together.
A simple formula, but I dare you not to get sucked into it. If you listen carefully, you can hear their weeping wallets echoing in the void of their bank accounts.
I am a product of Wizard’s Formula and now have a couple decks for Friday Night Magic, several casual fun decks with terrible, unforgivable combos, and a budding EDH deck after acquiring a bunch of mixed older sets with a friend. And the next set, Avacyn Restored, is spoiled and peeking around the corner. I hope you like Angels ladies and gentlemen, cause there's a goddamn infestation of them on the horizon. And there be more Demons than you can shake a stick at. Robert Langdon didn't have to deal with as many Angels and Demons. Yeah, I said it.
I'll detail my AVR faves in another post, as well as share what I'm doing with my decks to update them. This may be like talking to a brick wall right now, but I want to hear what types of decks y'all are wrangling.
Even you, yes you, person in the future gazing at this ancient, dusty post.
It's almost Friday and it's time for a delicious Sam Summer when I get home.
Sláinte
~WF
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