Gamer/"geek" parents?

[darkpear]

DP and I can't be the only ones!

We are into all sorts of gaming. We used to do pencil-and-paper RPGs, but our last group broke up shortly before I became pregnant with dd, and we haven't looked for another one - I just can't see myself sitting at the game table, rolling dice and moving minis around while dd's happily latched on and nursing away... or more likely yanking my nipple to heck, trying to see the action!

DP manages a comics/gaming store and plays CCGs, wargames, Mage Knight, Heroclix etc. We are in the process of babyproofing our apartment and the hardest part is tracking down all the various little game pieces AKA horrible choking hazards :rolleyes:

All we really manage to play at this point is Anarchy Online. I am a veteran of Everquest and Dark Age of Camelot also, but both of those are just too time-consuming for a new mommy. AO is nice because I can log in and play for an hour or two while dd is napping or nursing, and it's something dp and I can do together without leaving the house. We belong to a wonderful player org/guild that has been together for about 4 years now; very small, but close-knit, and nobody minds our frequent AFKs to change diapers and such :p

Oh, also I love to read, mostly SF, fantasy, poetry and nonfiction but I'll read just about anything that's put in front of me. I enjoy working with computer hardware as well; I build all my own PCs. I have dabbled with programming in the past too but really I prefer the hardware end of things...

[Throkmorton]

No, you aren't the only ones!
My best friend owned a gaming/ ccg store. I was the resident WOD expert. Obviously, we play plenty of pen and paper games, occasionally we will even have a one-night-only round of Ctuthulu with some other geek parents we know.
DH and I are big Civ III players, and often sit up until the wee hours playing hotseat. Yes, we built our frankenstein machine too.
We read a lot of sci-fi. I am currently working my way through the Discworld series, albeit slowly because of the boy. I also love trashy horror novels.
Wow, when I write it all down like this, I am a geek!
Those little warhammer figurines are terrible. Just wait until your monster is 2, and he spreads them all over the floor between your bed and the bathroom!

[Throkmorton]

Wow, apparently we are the only ones. :)

[kimmysue2]

Nope not the only one.

Right now its star wars online. Well not me but DH. I love my metroid game. Did everquest for 2 years but no time for hard cord online games. Now grand theft auto....:D

[darkpear]

Well it's good to know that there is proof outside my own little family that contrary to popular belief, geeks do indeed have sex :D

Throkmorton - hearing about WOD and Cthulhu brings back a lot of memories. I only ever played the old Call of Cthulhu game (who was it that put that one out, Chaosium? I forget). Do you play the old game or the new d20 version? We did the Civ 3 thing also but got burned out on it after a while. Have spent varying amounts of time playing most of the WOD games. Mage was always my favorite. In the past couple of years it's mostly been 3E D&D for us though.

kimmysue2 - I tried Star Wars Galaxies but couldn't get into it - lots of neat ideas but I don't think the game is really finished. Used to be more into console games but now I'm pretty behind the times on em - our PS2 gets more use as a DVD player :rolleyes:

[Guava~Lush]

I am so new to this board, but when I saw this i just had to jump in! DH is a gamer and for him it's the Star Wars game too as well as everyone he works with. ok just the boys. We both work at a bookstore.
Is there any support group for the wives or partners of gamers? lol. I mean, I'm glad he has an outlet but... ds and I need some attention too.
Every Tuesday night is his D&D game. That leaves one night a week he has off for us. How do you guys strike a balance between gaming and family obligations? Seriously, for dh, it's like an addiction. After work the game goes on. Bed at 4 or 6am, wake up late and game on until work. Yikes! What is everyone else's schedule like?
What I am really grateful for though as that dh tries super hard ( mostly succeeds) to not play any real violent games and no games with guns if ds is in the room. And we both agree on the content and what's appropriate. He wont let GTA in the house.

So we compromise, I guess that's the best I can do right?

[kimmysue2]

Yep me too. After everquest and now with a 16 month old its like no time or interest for Star Wars. Though the idea of have a Raincore(sp?) as a pet sounds cool :D

Oh my dh sets up his keyboard with a spoon and bowl so he can get experance while he is sleeping HAHA, scary it works.

My dh was SO in to D&D when I first ment him. But that was while he was living on campus and had tons of other guys to roll play with. Now it is pc games he plays with his cousin.

I liked Magic the card game and vampire the card game but those too lost the appeal.

[darkpear]

I've always been much more into online games than dp; he didn't really play much at all until recently. We only had one computer for most of the time we've been together, but MIL gave me this one (well, paid for it - I picked out the components and put it together) for my first Mother's Day :bgbounce

I used to be a real addict. EQ was the worst, what with all those 8+ hour raids, having to spend an hour or more just assembling a group for plain old xp'ing, etc. It got to be pretty destructive to my life as I would just sit around playing EQ while the house got filthier and filthier, and it was hard to keep a job when I was always falling asleep at work because I'd been up till 5 AM raiding. So I just quit playing, cold turkey. No other game I've played before or since EQ has that same 'addictive timesink' quality, and really it's been pretty easy for me to balance AO with taking care of baby, because I play at most 3-5 hours a day. When we went to pick out computer chairs I took my Boppy along and sat in all the chairs with it till I found one I'd be able to nurse in comfortably :D When both dp and I are playing, dd is usually on one of our laps - she loves to watch! As far as the pen-and-paper stuff, we just don't play anymore :crying It was always something we did together, and I'm not sure it's even occurred to dp to seek out a group on his own - I think he knows I'd feel left out.

lotusbirth - there are indeed support groups, though AFAIK they're mostly for 'EQ widows', for the reasons I mentioned above - Google it!

[Guava~Lush]

Thanks for the search info:D dh has informed me also of a support group. I have to laugh when I think about how it might be helpful to join one! I told dh to come joing your tribe, that way he can talk games and babies! teehee!

[*~*SewHappyNow*~*]

Greetings fellow roleplayers! :p Actually that's a little joke, as I suck at RPing, but anyhoo...

Dh and I have been playing Everquest since 1999 on the Innoruuk server. After becoming pregnant I lost interest in it and have no time for it with a 5 month old. Plus I was into the high end game (Ashen Vendetta) and just cannot keep up with that kind of hardcore raiding at this point in my life.

In my past I did some D&D and some magic the gathering. Dh is a fan of strategy and miniature games.

I really do no gaming atm, but I hope to maybe again in the future.

[Throkmorton]

darkpear, I play the old-school Cuthulu. We find what works well is that the GM makes up 5 or 6 characters, assigns them to people, and then stay up until you all die. Ok, usually it's 2 hours of playing, then we just hang out, with the kids flopped down in the bedroom for the night.
In WOD I much prefer to play Mage than anything else. I have never been a big fan of D&D, but DH sure is. He is also going to head up a Rifts-based PBEM here soon enough.

[Dot.dad]

Dot.mom (DW) forwarded this one to me, so I figured I'd register and post a reply. Might as well be counted, even if I'm only really a lurker by proxy (she shows me the better threads on occasion)

While DW is not really interested in gaming, I've been an avid gamer for the bulk of my life. Mostly pen and paper RPGs (most recently a homegrown one) and a fond love of painting and sculpting miniatures.

I spend usually an hour per day in the workshop with DD, painting and playing with minaitures (we both paint and then she plays while I paint some more) and try to play once a week (which usually ends up once or twice a month.) Past that, I maintain a number of gaming and/or miniatures related websites and occasionally get some time for a miniatures game (GZG series mostly)

[StarMama]

Hi there :) Can I join? :D

Dh is the computer geek, we have "modded" our computers (need pics of his. but mine is on our website if you're interested), and we both enjoy gaming together! Its really hard to find good co-op games though, he's SO much better at video/computer games that I am...

We haven't played in a very long time, but we do love D&D (I've played all 3 editions, my ex-bf who is older than I got me into it, so I got to see all the first edition books and play with those too)... I DM for a small group of friends, but we're all so spread out, and now that I'm having a baby, I know its going to be really hard to carve out time to play, much less the hours upon hours of time I put into designing the game, and reading and such...

I love reading fantasy books, and love dragons and fairies! Before they were packed the top of the entertainment set was fairie-land, and I still have my dragon art hanging on the wall...

Just thought I'd say hi to everyone and join in! :D

[UlrikeDG]

DH plays Warhammer. He tried to get me to play, but I didn't get into it. :confused: LOL

I did play both Baldur's Gate games when they came out. Does that count? :D

[eilonwy]

Wow, I'm so happy there are other gamer geeks here! My dh and I actually met each other playing Vampire the Masquerade. I have even brought ds to games and nursed him while rolling dice; dh is very helpful :D. I'm sorry I don't have time to write more right now!

[kimmysue2]

Ah Vampire the Masquerade. Was that the LARP or the table top?
I kind of liked LARP but at the time I was too poor to really get into the outfits.

[darkpear]

Good to see there are so many of us, especially gamer moms - nothing against you gamer dads of course! I get to feeling rather isolated at times, because I don't really have a lot in common with other moms I meet; neither with regard to interests/hobbies nor parenting style. I get such weird reactions when people learn I'm breastfeeding, I don't even bring up other AP stuff :confused: I do have a good circle of friends online, but they are mostly male and all childless. I am working on educating them in advance though :D

After reading that some of you still game with nursling babes, I'm tempted to put up a notice on the bulletin board at dp's work about forming/finding a baby-friendly pnp gaming group. Hmm!

Lea - I actually played on Innoruuk as well! Small world...

[EnviroBecca]

I'm not nearly so much of a geek as most of you! :D I only play the easier games w/low addictive potential. I like most of the Looney Labs (http://www.looneylabs.com) games and I work for them at cons running a recycling program (http://www.wunderland.com/LooneyLabs/Origins/2003/recycling.html). I also like Bohnanza, Set, many of the Cheapass Games, and all games where you build a board out of tiles...except sometimes I refuse to play the game in favor of just playing with the tiles. :bgbounce

[kimmysue2]

darkpear popped a memory cap.
When I first had DS, DH and I would go over to play Dark Relm and the males of the gourp would avert their eyes when I nursed where the females of the group where like WOW thats how those work. :D

[MoonLissa]

I've even gone so far as to create two D&D characters. They have yet to see action, though. I'm sure ds will be brought in. There is lots of talk of Risk, Axis & Allies, D&D regular games back on. Dh's current game is Freelancer, but there was EQ, Magic the Gathering, Diablo....I could go on.

I've always had this "thing" for the bad boy, Harley-driving, musician, long hair or hippie....I marry pale, short-haired, geek accountant boy. :rolleyes: Go figure (no pun intended).

We couldn't be happier!

^^Liss

[Mamaste]

DH still manages to run a pen-and-paper every week, but he's down to Battlefield:1942 online and I'm down to ... nothing -- I couldn't even manage to keep up Mario Sunshine! :rolleyes: I too was a hardcore EQ player on Inny, but I quit that when I got pregnant again. (I have pretty strong feelings about not playing that type of game with young children around because of the timesink/attention factor.) I played D&D until a couple of months after DD's birth, when things just got too loud for her to sleep through in our then-apartment. I also tried DAoC for a while, which was easy because it was painless to just die and quit when DD would wake up ... but it was pretty boring, especially after so many years of EQ at various levels. :zzz

Now we mostly focus on the creative side of RPGs. DH writes for the industry and I do spats of editing here and there for various projects. In fact, I need to pry my arse off MDC and get editing the latest stuff ... :o

[redtentmomma]

I'm an addict too...EQ...3 years...still level 37...because I can't play for hours at a time and get to raiding levels. These days I'm ingame twice a week max, for a couple of hours. It's so much fun, but ya...the timesink is something else. Puts TV all to shame.

What's fun is shocking teenage boys...sorry, can't group now...have to nurse...yes, again :rolleyes: . Missing the event on Tuesday...LaLecheLeague Meeting. No, no! A doula is a REAL LIFE THING! Not fantasy! Not magical (well, not quite!).

(PS Tunare Server...Shadow Striders--how was I supposed to know the AP party was on Innoruuk!):D

[eilonwy]

Back to this thread at last!

I used to play a Wheel of Time mud online all the time, but after Eli was born I had to force myself to stay awake, and it didn't work out too well, in large part because of Dh's fierce Gemstone III addiction. :rolleyes: (I've actually got major issues about that game.. but I digress).

We played a very small tabletop until we moved to Carlisle; it was too long a trip to make every week. While I was pregnant, I played a lot more games.. I was going to a LARP every month, but for the first 4 months of my pregnancy I would stop playing partway through to take a nap, and after that I'd stop everything to go inhale some food. *laugh* Ah, the memories!

There were three other women in the group who had had babies and even nursed them, but none for more than 4 months, and I only saw one of the babies at a game (one of the other woman's 2 kids were older, the other had joint custody). I thought lots of gamer geek women would nurse and even carry babies around at games; I'm a little surprised that the concensus seems to be that they don't. :confused: I mean, geek=researcher=find the best thing for baby=breastfeeding... right? *shrug* Maybe I'm even freakier than I thought.

Incidentally, the last game I was at I brought Eli and when he began to fuss I just sat down and started to nurse. The gm, who is a very sweet, baby-friendly guy said to the group "Just in case you're not used to babies being around, Rynna's nursing in the corner. Just thought that some of you might like to know before you looked over and got a surprise!" It was cute. *laugh*

[N2theWoods]

Raising hand to join in!!

My DH is a geek from way back, I'm a convert. He played D&D when he was a kid, but gave it up because he simply never found another group of people who were interested.

We have that problem. *sigh* We were into MtG for awhile, but got tired of the time consuming deck building part, though we played the computer game duelling against each other until the PC OS grew beyond the defunct game's ability to run properly. :(

We play TONS of word games and card games, and used to have a couple we got together weekly with for "game night", but they divorced and now we're secret loner geeks.

DH is addicted to an ascii game, NetHack, which I play a lot too, but am hopeless at.

We're both Ultima Online players - I like because you can stop for periods of time and it doesn't matter. Can play for FAR too long, though. Met a boy yesterday (and it IS rather fun to surprise them with "well, I have to go b/c it's 4PM and I need to make dinner for my husband..." and we went exploring together for HOURS - was late before I knew it! DH and I have "play dates" where we'll go treasure hunting or Daemon slaying or sailing for water elementals, whatever.

Yay! There are mom geeks! I won't be the only one! Have never played EQ, and after my UO addiction, I'm rather afraid to!

[StarMama]

*Sigh* I just packed up my D&D books, binders, figurines, dice, ect to be moved to the new apartment and realized this is the first time I've touched any of them in 10 months! I wish my gaming buddies lived closer... not like it would be an easy feat anyways, since one of them now has a 4 month old and my little one is on his way soon...

Dh has wanted me to make a game just for him for a *long* time, and while I could think of a couple of ideas he's such a hack 'n slash lover (he does play out a good barbarian though with his viking helmet from halloween that is currently residing on Cartman) I think I'd get bored as a DM making a game for him where he's only *really* interested in killing things, leveling, and finding goodies.

Oh well, LAN party tommorow!!!! :banana I shall stun all the guys with my sniper skills! :D

[abimommy]

Hi!

Dh and I play all kinds of paper games. Dh and I were even playtesters for the Spycraft rpg. :D I work at a comic/game shop/computer network place.

I suck at sniping, I cannot aim at all. I get annoyed and just start throwing grenades which is effective and amuses my teamates.

Dh and I met playing Magic :o.

[eilonwy]

this is too much fun! if i had the time or energy, i'd have my best friend write a mud for us to play & chat on. *hehe* maybe i will anyway.. i wonder if he's got the time :) any interest?

[darkpear]

I used to play MUDs, in fact I did a bit of world building on one or two. Seems like many years ago now...

I would definitely check it out but don't know that I would be able to commit much time. Of course I expect most of us have the same problem :rolleyes:

[kimmysue2]

Man I tried to play my favorite game today (Metroid) no go with DH playing star wars and my 16 month old using me as a jungle gym. :D

[abimommy]

I would certainly try the MUD out but I tend to get lost in MUDs. Can he put in a code for those of us who get lost? Like we hit a command and it tells us which way things are?

I end up in the middle of nowhere and get killed by random small animals. :(

[N2theWoods]

am with ya, abimommy - am a terrible "mapper" lol - my DH's great at it, though, so whenever we play a game where navigation is required (we're on Myst III finally,) he does the navigation or I'd be running in circles.

[abimommy]

Ya, but when you get lost in Myst a band of Kobolds don't kill you. :(

Ooohhh...the humiliation....:o Course, I only tried Myst I and not Myst III so maybe there is a band of Kobolds pillaging their way through the country side. :)

[Nemmer]

Wow... I'm not near as into some of these games as most of you, but I love MUDs... I never dared try EQ, since my best friend's hubby played, and got sucked in really bad. I haven't played anything much at all since DS was born, but before that played 2-3 different MUDs for about 3-4 years. The last one I was at, After Exile, I was a co-owner until DS was born, hehe. Nice to know others here like them too!

[Ravin]

the only computer role playing game I've been able to get into is Neverwinter nights. Haven't had the attention span lately, though. We still do some tabletop gaming, though DH is converting his campaign to online IM-based because we haven't been able to find anyone to join in close by, it was down to just me and his brother playing. So BIL found someone else, and my sister (who lives in another state) will be joining us as well...

pretty bad that we have the 3 computers that makes this possible, isn't it?

Anyway, DH's been into D&D since it was invented, pretty much, and I discovered it at 16 when I was in college (one of the reasons I found myself back in high school the next year, lol!). Not going to let a little thing like a baby get in the way of gaming fun! I'll nurse and roll dice at the same time, no prob!

I'm really more concerned with how I'm going to manage standing in line for 12 hours and sitting through a 3 hour movie with a 3 month old so I can see the first showing of Return of the King...I may have to concede and see it the following opening-day evening rather than the midnight show (and send DH ahead to the midnight show so he can leave with the baby if necessary to change a dipe or somesuch, lol)

[eilonwy]

OMG, that's so funny! I took ds with me when I went to see Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I wanted to take him to the Two Towers too, but dh insisted that a)we should have a date and b)we'd be very close to his parents anyway.

for harry potter, Eli was about 7 weeks old.. I nursed him through the opening credits, then he fell asleep and slept right through till the closing credits, when I nursed him again. i was the only person in the theater who sat through all the ending credits, so it was all good. the biggest problem i had was figuring out what to do with the diaper bag and carseat; my sister solved that problem by sitting us in the handicapped spot (there was no one in a wheelchair there ;)).

i saw star wars in the theater when i was 6 months pregnant, and wore a poise pad so i wouldn't have to leave in the middle. :LOL :blush :LOL I didn't actually use it, but it did give me some peace of mind. :LOL

[Sylith]

Just discovered this thread. I'm a chronic lurker, but HAD to post here.

DH and I would never have met if we weren't super gamer geeks. We ran into each other for the first time ten years ago when we were teenagers, playing Shadow of Yeserbius on TSN... anybody remember that game?

We both love old school pencil & paper RPGs, though in our experience it gets harder and harder to find a good group as we get older... sigh.

We played EQ together for awhile (one of the racewar servers,) but ultimately quit because Verant Is Evil. We liked AC pretty well, played on Darktide. I beta'ed AO and that experience left such a bad taste in my mouth as to kill all interest in that game. We played DAoC hardcore for awhile after it first came out, really enjoyed the realm combat... as you might be able to guess, DH and I are pretty much in agreement that we need some form of PvP to enjoy an MMORPG.

Wow, look at all those acronyms.

We also play single-player computer RPGs and stuff -- my favorite single-player computer games ever are probably Planescape Torment and Thief 1 and 2 -- and read tons of sci-fi and fantasy books. And all I wanted for my birthday last year was to go see The Two Towers, so we bundled up our then-eight-week-old DS and went =) We did wait til a week after the movie came out, and went to a matinee, so as to avoid the very most avid fans who might have really freaked out if he fussed (though, as it happened, he was remarkably quiet and neither DH or I missed one minute of the movie.)

I really have not been able to game hardly at all since DS was born, since he is a pretty needy little person and is *really* glued to his mommy. He's starting to sleep a little better at night, now, though, and DH and I have been checking out Star Wars... we both really miss gaming together, though of course anything we played would be on a much more casual basis than the pre-baby obsessions we used to get into ;)

I enjoyed reading all your posts! Frankly, the last year or so I've been feeling like a lonely freak with no friends... the other mommies I meet think I'm weird, the gamers we used to hang out with don't really relate on the baby issues...

GTG, baby woke.

[Indigo73]

Wanted to say hi. I am a retired gamer (although I still sneak time on the PS2 & PC) and dh is just discovering the joys found in the local comic/gaming shop. LOL

DS is 18 months old and wants to do eveything I do, so most of my PC time at home is spent with his games, that kid can work a mouse.

[abimommy]

wow, Sylith, you have played all sorts of games I like.

I loved Torment, it was so much fun. I didn't like Baulder's Gate as much (kept getting lost and killed by random animals in the middle of nowhere) and Thief ws fun too..I never tried Thief II.

I don't play online games as I had a serious Diablo I addiction (way before I had dd) so I never tried the newer cooler online games as I was worried Iwould want to play them all the time. I did get Diablo II when it came out but I just didn't play it online so it wasn't as bad. :)

[eilonwy]

i had a serious diablo II addiction, too! it was eventually broken when we got a new motherboard that refuses to run a soundcard at all. :( i tried playing again, but without the sounds of random violence it just wasn't as much fun :( i still miss it, though. *sigh*

[Amandzia]

Gee, I wish I'd have met you all long ago. I used to RP game when my 11 yr old was little. She'd be nursing on my lap while playing Warhammer RP. My single guy friends just had to deal with it. Then I did RP online on aol for a while. They had the free form gamming forum. But, alas, that was in another era. My husband is not and never will be a gamer. :crying
It was nice to remember, though.

[Nemmer]

Originally posted by Amandzia
My husband is not and never will be a gamer. :crying
It was nice to remember, though.

That's pretty much my situation too. *sigh*

[VanillaBean]

THis is my first post on this board and this seems a fitting thread. Lotusbirth I so know what you mean about the Star Wars. My wonderful Dh is so into that game right now. My Dh also plays until 4 in the morning...then gets up for work at 7!!! I have even helped dh click away at some xp one night.
I used to play cs ( Counter Strike) but that game just was taking up to much of my time that I had to stop. Wasn't able to have enough time for art and guitar.
It is nice though that Dh has found something that he enjoys and I already know what craft I will master when I have the time to start myself.
VanillaBean
:)

[kimmysue2]

Star Wars online? My husband and his cousin both are SO into that. The cousin has gotten his Jedi slot and my DH is close to it. I really don't mind them playing it but I hate it when dh gets mad at the game and swears. Its a stupid game no need to use bad words. Just what I want my sons first word to be, NOT.

[darkpear]

I got bored with Star Wars Galaxies before my free month was up :zzz

Currently playing Final Fantasy XI, it's fun but so hard to find the time, especially now that dd's crawling and I'm chasing her around half the day :D

[kimmysue2]

I had no interest in Star Wars online. It just looked boring to me. I am a die hard Metroid fan anyways.:D

[eilonwy]

My dh is totally addicted to Gemstone IV, the latest incarnation. I call it his Mistress. He doesn't like that much, but come on! He spends more time with that game than most men would bother spending with another woman!

[prouddfofscorpio]

ive been playing video games since atari first came out. also got into d and d, and star wars rp. my wife and i played in shifts when diablo2 came out. we play LOTS of card games. chez geek, lunch money,scrabble, some marble board game thats homemade and inculdes using a deck of cards, i like to play knightmare now and then, munchkin is a fun game as well, cranium,rage, spellfire, and of course..... MAGIC THE GATHERING!!! we also have a a TON of xfiles game cards if anyone is interested in them. oooooo anyone ever play xxxenophile card game? haha its a insane game. and of you gamers from CT? from waterbury? we'd looooove to get together for a gaming night or something.
- kev

[kimmysue2]

Ah magic the gathering. I have fawn and not so fawn memories of it.:rolleyes:

[VanillaBean]

Yes kimmysue Star Wars online. I understand about the cursing thing. Dh did that while we played Counter Strike for a while.
The only thing that makes him upset is when the server to Wonderhome goes down in SWG. Then he goes to the SWG forums and calms down. Dh would like the Jedi slot but he has way more fun talking smack ( all in good fun) and Pvping ppl.
Hear that Jedi slot is hard to get. Cheers to your cousin and good luck to your Dh on the Jedi thing.
VanillaBean :)

[Erin Pavlina]

Whoa, I had no idea this thread existed. I hope it's not too late to join in!

I've been role playing since high school. Turned hubby on to role playing when I met him 10 years ago. He was a video game freak.

In fact, my husband was so into gaming, he became a game programmer and started his own video game company (www.dexterity.com) and now makes his living developing games for the PC. :)

We met online too.

We're into the XBox (I could be one of the higher ranking female players on Halo ever to exist...certainly the highest ranking NURSING mommy to play Halo I'll bet!)

We play PC games like King's Quest, Myst, Kyrandia.

We had a role playing group up until about a year ago. I love being a geek and also into gaming. I wish I had more time for role playing... that was the best!

[StarMama]

Originally posted by Erin Pavlina
We're into the XBox (I could be one of the higher ranking female players on Halo ever to exist...certainly the highest ranking NURSING mommy to play Halo I'll bet!)

*Sigh* I miss Halo... i'm npt great at it overall (how in the world do you shoot WHILE strifing?? yeah I don't know how to spell that...), but I'm a great sniper, and Dh is great at shooting games all around, so I'm great support :D We're a good team like that ;)

Originally posted by Erin Pavlina
We had a role playing group up until about a year ago. I love being a geek and also into gaming. I wish I had more time for role playing... that was the best!

I missrole playing too! Its too bad that none of my friends DM, because I could play while ds nursed... I've even been pondering how I can DM while taking care of ds... I think I could do it if I had a co-DM to look up thing and write for me! :LOL

[Erin Pavlina]

When I had Emily I continued to role play. We would start at 6pm and she was sleeping those days at 5:30pm. When she cried I would go nurse her until she fell asleep again and then we would continue playing. it wasn't that bad actually.

Halo... Love that game! My husband taught me how to throw grenades a lot better by taking me into the multiplayer section and letting me use him as target practice. He taught me strafing as well. I had such a hard time with the whole concept of moving and shooting at the same time. I'm much better now.

But for the most part, he's in charge of the grenading and I follow along behind him mopping up what he leaves behind. It's a lot of fun playing with my husband. We totally bond over it. :)

[darkpear]

I miss roleplaying soo much! Our last regular group broke up shortly before I found out I was pregnant with dd, and we haven't been able to find another.

However, there is a local con coming up in January, and I'm planning to go and sign up for as many games as I can :D It's gonna feel so good to roll the ol' 20-sider again, if only I can keep dd from trying to eat it :LOL

[kimmysue2]

My brother got all the old nitendo games on the computer. It totally brought back memories. Me, my brother and our cousin staying up until 2 am trying to beat those silly games.

[StarMama]

My Dh has the nintendo emulator too! He wants to take apart our old nintendo and make it a computer and hook it up to our tv so we can play the games like that!

[kimmysue2]

That could be so cool. My brother and I had all the different nintendo machines. We would trade the old one in to get the newer one.
Okay I need to stop playing bubble bobble and write my last essay for this semster.

[CorasMama]

Oh, you all have me itching to go to a con and find all my old friends, so I could start gaming again! I haven't gamed much in years, but I miss it.

I loved Mage, and sorta Werewolf, but not Vampire or the other WOD one. We had a kick-ass game of Cybergen going for a while, and I also enjoyed a game that we played with a board, and we'd design vehicles (ala that show that's on lately where they build stuff and then trash each other.) That was 10 or 11 years ago. OMG. That was 10 or 11 years ago!!!! :jaw NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Maybe I will go to that con after all...

OT... a few of the Jyhad cards had pictures of friends of mine on them! The WoTC guys were just a bunch of poor gamer geeks back in the day. I hung out in their basement with them while we all tested it out. Of course, being gamers, they all then got the worst case of big-head the con/gaming scene had seen in years!

[Achelois72]

My husband and I met while I was working for one of the larger gaming companies :D :D I was working in the office and had never heard of rpg's before, but then started playing them so I'd understand all the properties and what all the hype was about. How fun! DH was a friend of a coworker and a freelance writer for my former employer. My favorite experience was playing Exalted actually--we had a great storyteller!!

I do miss gaming, but don't see how I could get involved with a game right now (we do tabletop rpg's, not LARP). DH was just invited to be in a Mage game and I told him to go for it--but I don't think he will.

I miss cons, too. Last year I went to Origins in Ohio, GenCon (the last year in Milwaukee) and to DragonCon here in ATlanta. And this year? Well, the little one came right in the middle of con season.

And we're both in sci-fi/fantasy literature, too!

Ah, nice to see fellow geeks, er, gamers!

j/k
:D :o :love :love
Susan

[eilonwy]

I'm very excited! A friend of ours is just getting ready to start a new LARP. It's Vampire, so it's not my favorite, but dh is so much more reasonable when he gets to LARP on occasion. He plays a lot less Gemstone. :LOL I can hardly wait. I'll probably bring Eli along to a few games, and wear him in a sling until I'm hugely pregnant, then I'll leave him with my mom or with MIL and just bring the big belly. :LOL Gosh, I miss gaming so much! I'd rather play a tabletop (even if Eli would try to eat the dice!) but I'll take what I can get! :)

[kimmysue2]

Larp boy its been awhile since I have played that

[tinksmommy]

DP is actually more of a gamer than I am. He was manager of a comic book/gaming store for awhile, but had been out of that for several years when we met. I got him started playing Everquest, and we played that for almost 3 years (on Saryrn and Firiona Vie). We retired from that in June. Started playing Horizons as soon as it was released and we're enjoying it so far.

Lexi loves sitting on our laps, watching the scenery go by especially...when we're in 3rd person view. She just started the "banging everything" stage which includes the keyboard. Luckily, she usually hits just the space bar. ;)

[kimmysue2]

We played on Firiona Vie. What is Horizons like? is in online?

[dandelions2]

Hey, we're geeks over here too! :) We used to play D&D all the time in college and even after whilst preggo with dd...but after she was born I couldn't keep my eyes open no matter how hard I tried (is it an unspoken rule that all dungeons begin after 9pm?) So I quit playing while everyone still gathered at our house to play for about a year. Then everyone got busy in their "adult" lives and we haven't played since...very sad. I miss my fighter dwarf, Bella McBrewman....*sigh*...so much fun hacking it up.

Hubby still plays a lot of PC games and nintendo and I just don't have the time anymore...although I did jump on the new MarioKart Sunday for about 15 minutes till someone wanted to nurse...that's what happens when you tandem nurse...the first one who sees you having any kind of fun wants to latch on and make it impossible to use your hands. :D

[Mona]

I used to be a HUGE Dark ages of camelot player.
even got the upgrade, isles or whatever it was called, after dd was born- thinking optomistically.
:crying i just cancelled my account after not playing for about 8 months. 42 heroine down the drain.
:LOL

[darkpear]

*blows the dust off the thread*

[homemademomma]

just wanted to chime in- my dh (who i am trying to get to join mdc) just finished being a dm in a year+ long d&d campaign, and he also plays a character in another campaign. he will :love this thread- maybe it will comvince him to join up?

[weebitty2]

Wheee, more geeks!

I'm a hardcore DiabloII, Vampire and other WOD LARP, MUDding, Shadowrun, D&D gaming fool :D

Dh is mostly too, although his tastes run to DiabloII, Shadowrun, Final Fantasy and Evercrack.

Up until January we were running our own MUD for a bit, before that we were running Ethereal Mists .. until the owner flopped his bisquik and fired the entire staff with no notification. Weener.

[karen ann]

I just read this, hit reply and THEN looked at the dates. Anyone still wanna have a geek fest??

I don't do any online gaming ('cept a couple of freebies at Rinkworks), mainly just single-player stuff. But many many MANY moons ago I was into MUDS (back in the BBS days). I also love the old text-based "Adveture" games (and was doing the happy dance when I found free downloads of them). I used to do pencil-&-paper RPGs; loved the Babylon 5 one, but I don't have anyone to play it with anymore. I was Lyta ALexander for Halloween three years. I saw Star Wars ep. 1 four times the first day it opened (yeah, it was lousy, but my ex bought the tickets ahead of time, didn't want to waste them, and I wore my Princess Leia slave costume to all 4 shows, so I got SOME use out of it before my boobs got too big for it).

[Aura_Kitten]

:banana

hi! we're a happy geek family here. :D

** subscribing to thread **

[darkpear]

I was just bumping this up b/c of the thread in TAO about SW:G, nice to see so many responses so quickly!

As I said in the other thread I am just playing City of Heroes at the moment... it's good for when I have an hour or less (ie most of the time!). Pencil-and-paper gaming is just a distant memory for me :( We were hoping to go to DragonCon this year and get our PnP fix there but it looks like it's not going to happen, we're broke as anything and dp hurt his back... maybe next time...

I hope I don't get kicked off MDC for this :hide: but I'm planning to teach dd (17 months) to play games Real Soon Now. She's already fascinated by them, loves to pick up a gamepad and fiddle with it, or whack the space bar and watch my CoH character jump :D

[eilonwy]

OMG, I'm totally waiting for BeanBean to stop eating dice so we can teach him to game! :LOL My best friend and husband are also eagerly awaiting his "coming of age". :sheepish

[prettypapa]

this is my first post. my dw has been buggin me to join and this was just the thread to convince me. i have been playin d&d 3rd editionfor the last year or two. as dm and as a few characters. its just so gosh darn awesome. :thumb i hope all of you who have stopped playin will one day find time to play again before the clearing at the end of the path.

[Leatherette]

My husband and I have played many games together - all PC or X-box - the most addictive and long-term have been Age of Empires, Diablo (I and II) and Baldur's Gate (I and II). I can't do Halo or serious sam, I get dizzy. I have to be looking down from above - maybe it's a complex. ;)

L.

[darkpear]

:greet prettypapa! I'm in Gainesville too!

I miss PnP gaming sooo much. I've been bugging dp to bring home some of the jumbo d6 (waaay too big to choke on) they carry at his store... maybe if the munchkin has her own dice she will leave ours alone :D

Anyone else checking out the Dawn of War (Warhammer 40k RTS) beta? You can get it from Fileplanet, dunno if they still have keys or not... it's pretty fun if you're into RTS. Does get a little bit graphic at times but the audio's great, esp the Orks :D

[bec]

Ok, this is not a thread I expcted to find here. Yes, I am a gamer too!

I play in a face to face game every other week if D&D 3rd ed. It's mostly a hack and slash game, with some cool puzzle solving. And yes, there has been nursing at the gaming table, and also pumping. It's a great group though and no one has ever said anything, or even looked uncomfortable.

But, for my real creative, get into the character and make them live sort of experience I use an online gaming site called Hero Central (http://www.herocentral.net/home.htm) . It is mostly Hero System, but I am in a Call of Cthulu campaign as well. I am currently in 4 campaigns. Byakhee (the CoC), Wildcards (a 4 color super heroic campaign. The oldest one on the site. 4 years and counting.), Hogwarts (a Fantasy Hero campaign about guess what?), and The Interregnum (a Star Hero campaign).

It's a true play by post, or play by email. The site was actually created by a friend of mine, and opened it up a couple of years ago to the public. It has since blossomed to 57 campaigns and hundreds of users. And the best part is that it is completely free.

All right, I've gone on enough about this. I just love spreading the word to fellow gamers!


Bec

[darkpear]

That looks like an awesome site bec, must spend some time checking it out! :love :thumb

[ProtoDad]

wow my wife brought this thread to my attention good to know that there are other parents playing these games!!!
i used to play d&d 2nd edition, mtg, vampire, and dragon dice.
I wish i could find a group in my area that i could join to play some D&D but untill then i play starcraft bw and Daiblo II LOD.
well if anyone would like someone to quest with my acct name is DF_proto on us west. hope this thread continues!! :thumb

[tripleaces]

Wow, hi everybody! Old time gamer here. Been MUDding for 13 years, been an Internet junky just as long. I don't play games much anymore, but I've played just about everything mentioned here. Except Cities of Heroes, everyone been bugging me to, but I don't have much time with a 5mo old! I just gave up Lineage2 and Ultima Online completely a few months ago, ebayed my accounts. :eek I am itching for Worlds of Warcraft when it comes out of beta, though. But in all honesty I don't want my DD to grow up behind a computer screen as I did, so I'm trying to resist! :nut

[weebitty2]

We were hoping to go to DragonCon this year and get our PnP fix there but it looks like it's not going to happen, we're broke as anything and dp hurt his back... maybe next time...


I wish I'd known, I gave away my family 4 day passes, since D*C booted two of my fave bands this year :( I would gladly have sent them to you, now a friend in the Marine Corps has them :(

[bec]

Simone - It really is great. There are some awesome stories on there. My friend just got finished completely reworking the entire site. He was just adding little bits and pieces of code to add functionality, and it had become kinda patchwork, so he did a complete rebuild. I don't think he ever imagined it would become as big as it has.


Bec

[darkpear]

I wish I'd known, I gave away my family 4 day passes, since D*C booted two of my fave bands this year :( I would gladly have sent them to you, now a friend in the Marine Corps has them :(

I appreciate the thought, but the hotel room is the real sticking point :)

[mthomas]

sorry to burst in on your thread guys, I have a question. My dh is trying to sell a couple of his EQ and DAOC accts. I know you can't sell any reg. to Sony on Ebay. Is there anywhere else you can get rid of them under the radar? Dh doesnt have time to strip and sell, then try to sell the plat, so he was hoping to just make some $$ off of it at least.
Like I said, sorry to burst in on the thread. I'm not a geek, but my honey is :LOL

[darkpear]

sorry to burst in on your thread guys, I have a question. My dh is trying to sell a couple of his EQ and DAOC accts. I know you can't sell any reg. to Sony on Ebay. Is there anywhere else you can get rid of them under the radar? Dh doesnt have time to strip and sell, then try to sell the plat, so he was hoping to just make some $$ off of it at least.
Like I said, sorry to burst in on the thread. I'm not a geek, but my honey is :LOL

DAoC accounts are easy to sell - Mythic does have a policy against it but they are very lax on enforcement, also the policy doesn't actually apply to accounts created before a certain date (early 2002 I think - not 100% sure). I've known many many people who ebayed and not heard of a problem.

EQ is harder but people still do it. Try http://playerauctions.com/

ETA another place to look for potential buyers is IRC.

[Cyneburh]

Dh plays Mechwarrior. He's 'Engineer' on the Wizkid's forum.

[Gilamomster]

gamer here

Dh and I play or played at some point; EQ, DAoC, SB, Lineage 1/2, AO, SWG, AC 1/2, CoH, and I enjoyed the WC games.

We are waiting for EQ2 and WoW online to come out.

[gethane]

Oh my! Found another tribe I fit into!

My dh and I have played EQ, DAoC (just recently quit after playing since Beta), did beta testing on Shadowbane, Horizons and Lineage (didn't care for any of them that much).

Since the birth of the babe, however, we've pretty much had to scale back to games we can PAUSE. We played EQ and most of our DAoC life before the birth of the babe. And my other children were older, as you can see in my sig.

I am ANXIOUSLY awaiting the release of Sims 2, Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, and Children of the Nile (spiritual successor to Pharaoh, Zeus, and Emperor).

My children are little gamers too. My son and youngest daughter play Graal, a simple online game. I have mixed feelings about it, but they get off when their computer time is done, and do still play outside, do other activities, so I think they are treating it like a game, not a life. My two daughters play Sims, almost always together, and like to use the journal to tell stories about it. My son played DAoC with us once in a while, but not regularly.

[halfdozenscrambled]

Nice to know that some gamer geeks find a way to *stay* gamer geeks after parenthood takes over! :thumb Dh and I used to D&D, sometimes he'd DM, back in the day. I think we even did it occasionally when my oldest was still a babe; we'd been playing with the same group for a couple of years by then, though, so no one acted weird about me nursing. (Mostly single guys, though, so lots of averting of eyes...) ;)

Dh is the real gamer geek in our house, though. I love a face-to-face RPG, and he just loves to game! He's been involved in tons of stuff over the years, A&A, Diplomacy, Kingmaker, and a few others, not to mention various PC games. But since he found EQ (I call it EverCrack too! :rotflmao ), he's been addicted. :irked: A constant source of friction around here-- I mean, we have six kids! And I can hardly find time to spend an hour a day on the computer, but *he* can spare 4-6?!? :argue: He's a true addict, though, and I love him in spite of his love for "the other woman"... :shrug

I even made a couple of chars to play with him, a couple of years ago (that long? wow...), but found it too time-consuming. Go figure. We play on Tunare, and I still blow the dust off my L20 Barb Shammie now and then to go hunting mammoths in Everfrost... LOL That's where I get my kicks, when I have half the day to spare. Which is, ummm, oh yeah-- NEVER. :eyesroll

Anyhow, I don't think he's planning on playing EQ2... yet. He loves his chars too much! Maybe when he hears from his old buddies how great it is, he'll try it out, but I don't know whether it would be a good thing or bad-- I'm somewhat hoping that he'll "outgrow" his addiction to EQ once he's got all his chars levelled out at 65. I just want him to stick to the rules around the house (not getting on til kids are IN bed, no EQ on Sundays). Then I won't feel like he's indisposed all evening while I'm working my @$$ off with kids/homework, supper, cleanup, baths, bedtime, and he's on EQ saying, "Not now, honey-- the Emp's about to spawn!"

<sigh> I need to go find me one of them EQ Widows groups... :crap

[AmandasMom]

I'm currently still playing Star Wars Galaxies. I can't wait for the space expansion to come out. Used to play EQ and I beta tested and played DAoC till a few months ago. Looking forward to EQ2 to come out, hopefully they took care of some of the issues from EQ.

DH is playing some football game on his Xbox. It's fun to watch, he plays actual games against other players with Xbox's.

DH and I met playing Quake 5 years ago. He joined MY Quake clan:)

[bluenail]

Ooooh - I feel like I've come home. :D

So nice to know that there are other gaming parents out there. Actually, I read a really good article on this a couple of days ago on womengamers.com - I wear my t-shirt from there when I go to the game store. :)

Darkpear, I'm playing CoH these days too - what server are you on? As for recent past addictions - Baldur's Gate I and II, Neverwinter Nights, Diablo, Dungeon Siege (still play that with DH on our lan...it's as close as we get to a *date* sometimes), Star Wars KOTOR, Final Fantasy vii, viii, x and x-2, Tropico I and II...

Actually, funny story with Tropico - when Sam was a newborn, the only place that he would sleep was upright on my chest. So, there's not alot to do when you're pinned by a little guy. Tropico II was the answer. So I would play for *hours* while he slept. And now, whenever he hears the music from the game, he calms right down. :D I kid you not, we have a tape of the music in the car and that + car vibrations still knock him right out. Who says that video games are bad for you?

[eilonwy]

Nice to know that some gamer geeks find a way to *stay* gamer geeks after parenthood takes over! :thumb Dh and I used to D&D, sometimes he'd DM, back in the day. I think we even did it occasionally when my oldest was still a babe; we'd been playing with the same group for a couple of years by then, though, so no one acted weird about me nursing. (Mostly single guys, though, so lots of averting of eyes...) ;)

:laugh: when i played briefly after beanbean was born, my best friend was our gm; he had been at the birth, so the boobs didn't phase him one bit. :laugh: he'd already seen way more of me than he ever wanted to, and to nurse i was pretty much dressed. :laugh:

He's a true addict, though, and I love him in spite of his love for "the other woman"... :shrug


mike used to get really mad when i referred to gemstone as "the other woman." he'd say "i'm not having an affair!" and then i'd tell him that men having affairs spent more time with their families than he did. :eyesroll i exploded at him late in my pregnancy (or was it after boobah was born?) and told him that if he didn't quit playing that game that i was leaving. he's since cut back drastically and has, for the most part, limited himself to games he can pause. it's much, much easier to deal with then tohave him say "i'll be there in a minute!" and then leave me for five minutes with poop all over everything because he can't be bothered to bring me another wipe. :eyesroll i'm still angry at that game, i seriously hate it. one of these days, i'd love to get back to mudding... i miss it so much! :crying

[darkpear]

I'm on Freedom... theoretically... generally just play late late at night after the babe's asleep. Busy with hurricane prep today :eyesroll

[gethane]

I don't suppose anyone else is in the Children of the Nile beta?

[eilonwy]

I'm not involved in any games right now.. only the game of nursing constantly. :LOL

So here's a question for you geeky types-- I've got loads of geek paraphanalia here, and so does Mike. Some of it will probably never get used again, so how do we go about selling it? We've got Magic cards, Rage cards, loads of comic books and I have no idea how much any of it is worth but god knows we could use the cash a lot more than the boxes of stuff taking up space in our apartment. How do I find out what it's worth, and where can I unload it for a decent price?

[darkpear]

eilonwy, I will ask my dp when he gets home, he manages a comic shop and is pretty knowledgeable.

The short answer is probably going to be ebay.

gethane what is that? Can you give us a link? I love to check out betas :)

[korinthe]

Hello, I am Jason, partner to Simone. Yes, eBay is one of the best tools, for sure. But first, I'd bring your comics to a local comic shop and ask if you can see a price guide, preferably a copy of Overstreet's Price Guide (this year's...issue 53 or 54, I think). You can also go to Mile High Comics' website. They have a massive site with most anything you can think of. Keep in mind their prices are a little high, but is the condition of their books. You might also want, after going through the prices yourself or with a shopkeep, to ask if that store is buying right now (for the whole collection).

Most shops can go through the guide with you (we don't charge anything, I wouldn't pay anything for it), and help you grade the books, white is a scale from 1.0 to 10.0, but don't expect anything to be graded above a 9.0, as a 10.0 means it is really, reallllllly mint. As in, it is from the factory floor and never read, and put in a bag and tucked away, no creases, no discoloration, no misaligned staples. Yeah, really mint :)

For Magic cards, check store web sites for the prices of mint condition cards. Or go to any book store or comic store and buy a copy of Scrye or Inquest magazine (don't listen to anyone, they are about the same quality a price guide). The very beginning of the price guide section will describe how to tell what set a given card is from. Some comic stores also deal in individual cards, so you might be able to sell your Magic collection to them as well.

Hmm. Rage cards are strictly gonna be an eBay thing. The game isn't made any more, so just check what whole collections go for and auction them off for what the minimum you want to get out them is.

There ya go. And yes, I can ramble. Whatever :).

[umefey]

I've always been much more into online games than dp........ As far as the pen-and-paper stuff, we just don't play anymore :crying It was always something we did together, and I'm not sure it's even occurred to dp to seek out a group on his own - I think he knows I'd feel left out.

I don't quite get the initials yet, but my wife Amanda and I play 3ed D&D 1-2 times per week. We just wait till our daughter (Amelié - kinda like yours :) hehe) goes to bed, and we have the sessions in our living room. I'm the DM, so it works out well!!! We just have the one compy, so no computer gaming...which is fine with me:)

[gethane]

gethane what is that? Can you give us a link? I love to check out betas :)


It's a city builder game by Tilted Mill, who is staffed my many people who left Impressions (makers of Pharoah and that genre of games)

http://www.immortalcities.com/cotn/

Also, my Sims 2 game shipped last night and I should get it this afternoon! Yay! My daughters and I will have such fun :)

[Whisper Wulf]

Yowza! Lots of geeky parents out there! Anyone in SOCAL looking to game? my dw and I have one single friend we game with, and had another couple that we were gaming with, but they got kinda annoying. We live in So Pasadena and would love to find others to game with. We are currently playing D&D v3.5. I am DMing a mega complex, to be long-running campaign. The other couple, the single friend and the two of us had just started this campaign that I had been working on for over a year...everyone was still first level, so bringing in a couple more players would work great! :thumb

[mgmsmommy]

So gethane give an update on Sims2. Do you love it as much as I do? I think it is so much better than the first one. And I like the aging life cycle. It is addictive though.

[Whisper Wulf]

we are starting to have withdrawals here! we need more people to game with that live in this area! any ideas? :love

[darkpear]

Sorry Whisper Wulf, would love to help you with that but we are in Florida. :greet anyhow!

Sooo what's new with everyone? Still getting my fix in City of Heroes, loving the latest update. Have pretty much given up on finding a pnp campaign, between super active toddler and various other stuff I don't even want to go into :eyesroll

[Cloverlove]

Wow- I can't believe I missed this thread!

We are into board games here- Illuminadi, Civ, Talisman, Cosmic Encounter, Junta....Dh has been collecting for a looong time, so I've also played a lot of games that aren't that much fun. ;)

We just met some neighbors from around the block that play Settlers of Catan! And they have the same age kids!! We are pretty excited (in that desperate for a girlfriend kind-of way!).

I also like Ravensberger games for kids. We seem to play those more than anything these days, although ds (almost 7) likes to play Talisman. We also play card games like Magic (of course) Grass (only with DH) and Harry Potter (!).

Dh is more into computer games. Do you guys have to play them until they are finished?

Just to be honest- I am not a geek in the strictest sense, but I love to play games!

[eilonwy]

I have to play them until I'm finished with every possible character on every possible level.. but I'm rather compulsive to begin with.

I miss my games so much! I think I'm going to go looking for Diablo 2, it's somewhere in this house...:scratch

Still working on selling the Magic cards, though we're not working very hard at it. My life is unbelievably busy. I love it, but at the same time... I wish I got more sleep. :LOL

[bluenail]

Re: playing computer games to death - yup, I'm another one of those gotta-try-every-variant-will-eventually-buy-game-manual. Mind you - I tend to play RPGs (I *love* the Final Fantasy series) and those lend themselves to obsessive gameplay.

Well, City of Heroes is slowly getting out of my system (and into DH's) :LOL as I've been playing more and more Sims 2. (I'm really just biding my time until Grand Theft Auto 3 comes out).

Hey Cloverlove, I'm totally with you on Settlers of Catan - isn't it a great game? DH brought a copy over from Germany when it first came out and slowly got everyone we know into it. Actually, it's kinda funny - when we went back for my 5 year university reunion, we played Settlers with some of the kids living in my old dorm. They had their own copy - it's apparently quite the fad there. Boy, did that make me feel old.

Darkpear, have you considered running an online campaign on Neverwinter Nights? It's as close as I get to a pnp campaign with friends. Mind you, if you run it and someone else runs a TeamSpeak server at the same time, it's pretty fun. DH, I and a couple of friends run a Dungeon Siege session every two weeks or so - with TeamSpeak on a spare computer - so we get to yell at each other for ninja looting. :)

[darkpear]

Yeah, I'm a completist too... sometimes it backfires on me and I suddenly become utterly bored with the game I've been obsessively trying to 'finish' and put it down for weeks or months. Still sporadically working on a perfect game in Final Fantasy X-2 :p

Re NWN, I actually did that for a while, but I can't seem to find my CDs now. I always found that NWN lent itself better to hack-n-slash play than RPing anyhow.

[fljen]

I thought we were really the odd parents out until we checked out this thread. *whew* /me feels better :)

I've gamed for years, doing live action like amtgard as well as magic the addiction, white wolf, DND ed 2/3, cyberpunk, gurps, etc.. Met my husband in the sci fi club in Ireland :D Got him hooked on gaming too... Ah the many hours of Diablo I/II on a network. Always great being married to a major geek who builds computers.

Just recently he got me Diablo I running again as a prezzie :love

We'd love to get back into rpg just about anything, anybody located near Orlando, FL? :thumb

Oh, and we can't wait for the Firefly movie to come out and Long Live SG1!!! ;)

[barefootmamma]

My husband and I are both D&D players. We play all the time now that our son is a bit older and can be watched by his great-grandparents once a week. We intend on teaching him to play when he gets older. :)

[abimommy]

I'm not involved in any games right now.. only the game of nursing constantly. :LOL

So here's a question for you geeky types-- I've got loads of geek paraphanalia here, and so does Mike. Some of it will probably never get used again, so how do we go about selling it? We've got Magic cards, Rage cards, loads of comic books and I have no idea how much any of it is worth but god knows we could use the cash a lot more than the boxes of stuff taking up space in our apartment. How do I find out what it's worth, and where can I unload it for a decent price?

Here ya go. This is one of the better sites online for CCGs.

http://www.find-ccg.com

Korinthe gave Scrye and Inquest as good mags...I prefer Scrye for Magic.

Rage isn't made anymore and I am not really sure you could get much out of it.

I will play anything as far as RPGS go. (work in game store so I have played most RPGs :LOL)

I mostly do WOD. (yeah LARP too :LOL)

[RubysMom]

I started playing Dark Age of Camelot after threatening to divorce my husband for playing too much. He started a character for me, an infiltrator, and taught me how to kill things. I never played any computer game before. I became more of an addict than he was since I was home all day pregnant. Later, my dd napped profusely and was content to sit on my lap and look around and play while I solo leveled my lonely inf. On the day after I got to level 50, she turned 2 and needed me more and I never got to play anymore. Dd is now 5 and I still have my account, hoping I can one day rvr or go on a raid or something, though now there all kinds of things like master levels and legendary artifacts and buffbots which I am useless without.

[Mona]

nak

ohhhhhh i miss daoc!!!!!

sob sob

[RubysMom]

Wait a sec, my timeline for daoc is all messed up... Mommy brain at work! Maybe I started infiltrator after babe #1 was born and played til preg w/#2 and soloed gazillion dunters for months and even when #1 was in preschool, still don't get online for more than a game of Boggle now and then but the point is I am only realm rank 2 after 3+yers getting killed a lot, not an infiltrator at heart shoulda made an ice wizard, no a cabalist wait a paladin!

[Destinye]

This thread makes me miss EQ :(

[darkpear]

I sometimes miss EQ too, then I remember what it was actually like :LOL

[AmandasMom]

I took advantage of the "come back to camelot" and play for 10 days free. I went back, was fun for a few days, but that was all. The same with EQ. The same with SWG. I guess I can't can't capture the intial fun I had in all the games, even with lvl 50s and master levels. I just don't like sitting in front of the computer anymore. Now if I could play any of those games via Xbox... playing from my bed with babe sleeping next to me would be ideal:)

[Destinye]

I sometimes miss EQ too, then I remember what it was actually like :LOL

LOL thanks for the reminder!! :flipped

[Sylith]

:wave

I'm just ducking into the thread to say that if anybody plays COH, Victory server, I'd love to chat sometime, or even meet up and run a couple missions together. DH and I play together, we're about to be lev 30 Controller (him) and Scrapper (me,) and my character is named Sylith (yeh... I use that handle a lot...)

COH has been DH's and my main fix for months now, but we are currently supplementing with Fable on the Xbox.

[darkpear]

So do any of you other gamer mamas (and papas!) feel a little out of place here at MDC?

DP and I are totally into AP but not as much NFL (though I do cook from scratch and try to avoid chemical home/body cleansers :wink ), we have multiple computers and don't really restrict tv time. And we're very far from being a "no weapons" or "no plastic toy" household... dp brought home a very realistic purple lightsaber the other day, and dd is already fascinated although she can't even lift it yet. DP also has a basket-hilt broadsword which is locked up in a closet, since it's quite functional and quite sharp. And of course we have no end of collectibles, plastic and otherwise.

Personally I don't have a problem with fantasy violence. I myself grew up fantasizing about fighting dragons (or sometimes about BEING the dragon, for that matter) and otherwise having 'adventures;' I had toy swords and toy guns, and I'm not a violent person at all. I think it's healthy for kids to act this stuff out in context, whether through old-fashioned pretend play with toy weapons or roleplaying, which I'm certain we'll be doing with our kids just as soon as they're old enough. Now, we don't do gory video games, but neither of us has ever been inclined towards them anyways, so it's not an issue... again, the cartoon type violence doesn't bother me, because it's obviously pretend.

Thoughts? Flames? :firedevil

[eilonwy]

Simone, we don't have a lot of violence in our home (fantasy or otherwise) because BeanBean is so freaking sensitive to it it's not even funny. I tried to listen to a Niel Gaiman play and it got to be a little violent and my son nearly flew into my arms, already in hysterical tears. :bawl He was in the other room, and I didn't have the disc that loud so I didn't think he could hear it, but he heard enough and he totally flipped out. I've been trying to watch shows which I used to watch, or a movie that's rated more than PG-13, but he gets upset every time, even if he's not in the room to be bombarded with images or sounds. I saw about three minutes of "Charmed" before he freaked out; I had to wait until he was asleep to watch the rest.

Even so, there is, to some extent, something natural about violence. In some ways, I don't fit in at MDC because of my tendancies toward TCS-- Taking Children Seriously. I don't believe in restricting violent or sexual television simply because it's violent or sexual; in our house, I restrict violence because I respect my son, who gets upset at the merest suggestion a lot of time. Still, he was the one who made that decision-- when your child comes to you shrieking and bawling with their hands over their ears and tearfully asks you to nurse, what can you do? :shrug

TCS is something which comes (for the most part) very naturally to me, so much so that I had no idea my parenting style had a name until I read about it. It has a strong influence not only on how I raise my children but how I relate to adults. I start off treating them with basic human courtesy and I expect that same courtesy to be extended to me; in fact, I'm still surprised when it isn't. :eyesroll I guess I"m somewhat naive that way.

I will definately be teaching my kids to roleplay, starting as soon as BeanBean can be relied upon not to eat the dice. :rolleyes A friend of mine suggested getting some huge dice, but we really don't have the cash to invest in such a set just now. :LOL

[Sylith]

So do any of you other gamer mamas (and papas!) feel a little out of place here at MDC?

<lots more snipped>


Yeah, for sure... not just at MDC though. I have yet to find anyplace that feels totally accepting of my AP-ing, game-geeking, SF-reading, garish-hair-dyeing, scratch-cooking, SAHM, atheist, introvert, death-metal-listening, non-leg-shaving self. Go figure :eyesroll

DH and I have had many discussions about our kids' exposures to violence, and we never have completely resolved the issue. We are sort of hovering around the place you describe, where non-graphic fantasy violence is okay with us, as long as DS seems cool about it. My major ambivalence right now is that I think he's probably too young to distinguish what *is* fantasy from reality (he's only two.)

When he's just a little bit older, we absolutely intend to encourage him to game with us, to read tons of good fantasy stories, kill pretend dragons, etc. In fact, I think that's one of the main reasons DH wanted to have kids in the first place.

I can't remember right now -- is it Bruno Bettleheim in The Uses of Enchantment who talks about children using fantasy to process real-life stuff? That most definitely includes fantasy violence. Battling pretend mosters can have a deeper significance, YK?

Like you, though, we have multiple computers, as well as an Xbox, DVD player, and an extensive collection of anime. Our family as a whole spends quite a bit of time involved with various kinds of screens.

[Indigo73]

Yeah, for sure... not just at MDC though. I have yet to find anyplace that feels totally accepting of my AP-ing, game-geeking, SF-reading, garish-hair-dyeing, scratch-cooking, SAHM, atheist, introvert, death-metal-listening, non-leg-shaving self. Go figure

Oh my, sounds so much like me - just replace atheist with pagan. LOL

Haven't posted much here but been reading since just about the beginning of this thread.

My DH is a manager for EB Games so you can imagine what place gaming has in our household. Especially when he get free games and systems handed to him at the annual managers' meeting.

I think he married me cuz I didn't look at him cross eyed about his baseball cards, comic books (my collection was actually bigger) and love of games.

Haven't done anything tabletop in eons (although I keep thinking about asking at the local comic store), but I can hold my own with just about any game he brings home. He brought home a 30 day EQ thingy but I haven't had a chance to sit and mess with it. I think I'd like to get involved with MMORPGs again this winter when I won't be interested in my yard, besides planning next year's plantings. Maybe EQII or World of Warcraft when they come out in November.

[eilonwy]

My DH is a manager for EB Games so you can imagine what place gaming has in our household. Especially when he get free games and systems handed to him at the annual managers' meeting.

That store depresses me so much... ever since I bought the King's Quest collection (nostalgia :love) and found that I had disc 3 and disc 2 but no disc 1. :crying They wouldn't exchange it for me because they didn't have anymore and they couldn't order it. I was so depressed that I don't think I've been in an EB since. :crying Of course, I was really psychotic at the time, but it made a huge impression on me. I've searched eBay every time I have two bucks to rub together but I've never seen it up for sale. Boohoo!

:blush I'm such a dork. :LOL

[Indigo73]

eilonwy, sorry about your bad experience at EB Games. The store must have had a rotten manager. Long before dh worked there it was our preferred video game store because of the customer service. Course DH is the type of manager who would have tracked it down for you. I can't believe another store in the district or even nation didn't have a copy of it, even used - not to mention that they used to have a lifetime guarantee on all games.

[darkpear]

I guess a bunch of us are misfits, huh? Maybe that's part of what makes games and fantasy so alluring - it is for me, at least. Can't find a niche that fits in the real world, so I'll just dream up a world of my own :D

Rynna, what you said about restricting violence bc your son is sensitive to it makes perfect sense. I wouldn't force my daughter to be exposed to stuff that bothers her, either. Thing is, we haven't actually found much that does yet - she's a very easy-going kid. Again, we don't really care for graphic violence for the most part ourselves, but she's seen all sorts of movies and anime and has even been to a very loud Pixies concert (with earplugs of course!) and she just has a blast with it all. TCS sounds similar to what we already do (I have strong feelings about taking kids seriously because I wasn't taken seriously myself as a child, but that's a whole other thread :eyesroll ) - I will have to look into it more.

About the King's Quest missing cd, have you tried downloading it from P2P? The legality shouldn't be a problem, since you bought the box.

Sylith (and Indigo73), that description could fit me too, just replace the death-metal with goth :love How is Fable anyhow? I've been a fan of Molyneux's games since, well, Populous. Don't have an Xbox though... wonder if like Halo it will eventually come out on other platforms?

[Indigo73]

I highly doubt Halo will come on PS or Game Cube, maybe PC. PS is too annoying to program for and more & more titles are going to jump ship to XBOX like Square's FF.

We had a game buying moratorium which ends on Nov 1 so I haven't played Fable yet, but it's on my list with StarOcean.

[Damien]

I highly doubt Halo will come on PS or Game Cube, maybe PC. PS is too annoying to program for and more & more titles are going to jump ship to XBOX like Square's FF.

Halo isn't on many platforms because it is a Microsoft game, and they aren't about to write games for their competitor's platforms - remember it took a year+ for Halo 1 to be released on the PC when an XBox is only a slightly modified PC to start with so Microsoft are going to attempt to control their investments (Halo, XBox) as strongly as they can.

[darkpear]

I highly doubt Halo will come on PS or Game Cube, maybe PC. PS is too annoying to program for and more & more titles are going to jump ship to XBOX like Square's FF.

Halo for PC came out some time ago :)

Where did you hear that FF might jump to Xbox? Just curious. I know FFXII is already in the works (though it's been pushed back a couple times) for PS2.

[WomynTruth]

This is just so cool, womyn!! :jammin

Long live those of us who "just don't fit". We are the totally most awesome folks on the planet!! :love

~WomynTruth

[Sylith]

<snippage>

Sylith (and Indigo73), that description could fit me too, just replace the death-metal with goth :love How is Fable anyhow? I've been a fan of Molyneux's games since, well, Populous. Don't have an Xbox though... wonder if like Halo it will eventually come out on other platforms?

Well actually, I have some goth-ish music too, but lately the metal has been winning cos I get depressed if I listen to, like, Lacuna Coil on gray fall days.

Jeez. Any of you wanna move to NJ and be my friends? I'll make you cookies if you come game at my house :thumb and you can even borrow my anime AND my complete set of Sandman graphic novels AND my out of print, impossible to find, but really good Tim Powers novels.

Fable is really cool so far. It's a little more in-depth than your typical hack n slash console game. DH has been hogging it a lot, though. :angry

[Indigo73]

darkpear,

I knew Halo was originally on the PC, I have a cold and half the time I smush 2 or 3 ideas together. It's been interesting reviewing my work.

FFXII is rumored to be the last FF for PS2 according to a couple of the venders that dh is friendly with. They (Square) apparently didn't renew their contract with Sony because the XBOX gives them much more flexiblity. I haven't seen anything in writing yet but most of the rumors dh gets from certain vendors are dead on. I have been watching boards and mags to see this in writing. I know back in May I read this on http://www.ffshrine.org. So yes, it's just a rumor.

"Yoichi Wada, president of Square Enix, recently answered some questions about their future involving the Xbox. Wada did not mention anything about actually working on the Xbox hardware, but, he seems to be interested in Microsoft's XNA tools. XNA is Microsoft's set of development tools that can support development on many platforms like the PC, mobile devices, and of course the next Xbox system.

This, of course, doesn't mean anything about Square Enix developing for the Xbox, but it does leave a window of opportunity. And of course, it does not mean that they are going to completely move out of Sony either."

[darkpear]

Ahh okay, interesting, thanks!

I do hope that rumor turns out to be wrong though, I'm an FF fan from way back but I dunno if we can afford an Xbox :LOL

[AmandasMom]

DH and I are big gaming fans, in fact we met online when he joined my Quake2 clan 5 years ago:) Both of us played togther after we got married EQ, DAoC, SWG, CoH. He's playing some NFL game on Xbox Live now, and I play Xbox Tetris. With a 4 year old and 35 weeks pregnant, my MMRPG days are over for a while :cry .

DD (age 4) also loves video games, but I don't like the amount of violence in the Xbox games, and having her play a game on the computer is a pain cause you have to be AT the computer with her. It's amazing how violent console games are, and even the playstation games, it's hard for her to use the controller.

Last month I saw a gaming system in Hellmart called V.Smile, it's a console gaming system for kids 3-8 or so. I bought it for her, and this thing is brilliant! Has a wide variety of games that are educational and fun with absolutely no violence in them. It comes with a controller that after a day she got the hang of. The games all have 2 settings (easy/hard, and lose/no lose) and 2 people can play. I got her Winnie the Pooh and Lion King games, and it comes with it's own game when you buy it. We are really happy with this. She can play games just like mommy and daddy, it's easy for her to operate (no help from us after a few run throughs), and the games make her think. You can learn about v.smile from this link. (http://www.vtechkids.com/?qs=vsmile&flash=true) It's an annoying flash site, but all the info is there:)

[bluenail]

So do any of you other gamer mamas (and papas!) feel a little out of place here at MDC? l

Hmmmm. Evidently, I should look out of the diapering forum more often. :) Could someone please explain to me what NFL is? Re: fitting in - yeah I don't fit in either, but at least I'm used to it by now. :D Seriously, you would think that I have a second head or something judging from the looks I get when I start quizzing computer store employees about videocard specs. :shrug

Fable is just about the only reason that I can justify buying an XBox right now...but boy oh boy is it a tempting one. After all, the PS3 is coming out relatively soon...but all these AMAZING games are coming out for the XBox (Jade Empire, anyone?). Sigh. What's a girl to do?

[bluenail]

So, what's everyone playing these days? I'm playing Evil Genius on the PC (think Dungeon Master meets James Bond), and DH is playing Grand Theft Auto San Andreas on the PS2 (after ds goes to bed, of course). Any other good games I should be looking out for?

[Mona]

anyone doing beta test for EQ2? my housemate is playing this right now, and really digging it.

no gaming for me these days :(

[eilonwy]

Hmmmm. Evidently, I should look out of the diapering forum more often. :) Could someone please explain to me what NFL is?


NFL=Natural Family Living. :wink

I really want to play something. I couldn't get diablo II to run on my computer, though. :crying I just wanted to kill some demons and stuff...waaaaah! :bawl

[Indigo73]

Not playing anything at the moment. Between the Word Series and rewatching the Stargate series (dh & I watch about disk a night - Netflick rules) I haven't been able to get near a gaming system. Although I played Qbert, while my pasta water was coming to a boil, on Yahoo yesterday - how about that for nostalgia? Totally brought me back to my days hanging around the arcade at the beach.

DH brought home FFXI last night but that isn't getting hooked up for a couple weeks or so, we are converting from DSL to Cable so it doesn't make sense to get that set up til then.

[Sylith]

We (DH and I) are gearing up to do World of Warcraft when it's released. My friends in the beta tell me it's very casual-gamer friendly, so I'm hopeful about that.

Still playing City of Heroes for now. Honestly, though, I'm gonna lose interest if the City of Villlains expansion doesn't come out soon, or if the PVP turns out not to be so great. I like MORPGs, but they need to have good PVP to hold my attention for very long.

[Arduinna]

Still playing Champions of Norrath and dh and dd are also playing Prince of Persia. Yeah we are a little behind the times. Dh has got his barbarian to level 44 or something and I have my wizard to level 31. Now he is playing a champion level game and is in Act 3 I think.

Can't wait for Call to Arms and the new charecters.

[darkpear]

Still dorking around in City of Heroes mostly. It looks like my guild will be heading to WoW when that comes out... am hoping to get a CoH character to 50 before then but who knows, my highest toon (fire/fire tank) is only 32 at the moment.

EQ2 is sounding like a total train wreck now that the NDA has been lifted :eyesroll

Stinky diaper, gotta go :bolt

[Mona]

what is the NDA?

[Indigo73]

Non Disclosure Agreement

[darkpear]

Nondisclosure agreement...

crossposted :blush

[kimmysue2]

Is anyone playing/going to play EverQuest II? I was on EB games for the next online Starwars (hubby plays) and saw it. I am kind of in the mood but didn't know what is different from the first EverQuest.

Also I SO wish I had time, I see my favorite game is out with a new one again, Metroid. I haven't even finish my other metroid game.

Darn adult life taking away from game playing. :D

[Mona]

EQ2 is sounding like a total train wreck now that the NDA has been lifted

can you explian this? i'm a bit clueless sometimes. :LOL

[darkpear]

Check out this thread on the Druids' Grove (http://eq2.forums.thedruidsgrove.org/showthread.php?t=7973&page=1&pp=15) for EQ2 info...

Honestly it does sound like a game with some potential but several of the downsides are of the game-breaking variety for me. I don't like being forced to group (and being penalized for a groupmate's death is absurd), lack of PvP is really a glaring omission as is limited avatar customization. A lot of the challenge that made EQ special has apparently been sucked out of EQ2; /consider gives way too much information and encounters are forcibly linked so pulling is meaningless. Subclasses of a given archetype (ie cleric, druid, shaman) share most of their spells. Also it seems that EQ2 will basically demand a high-end, latest generation computer for any kind of decent performance - people with tricked out 3Ghz+ systems are actually reporting poor performance in the beta - and that is not something that's in our budget right now, especially since we'd need two of them for dp and myself. Perhaps worst of all, I get the distinct impression that the EQ2 team is dedicated to their vision of the game above all else, especially players' concerns, and I had enough of that sort of thing in EQ to last me a lifetime.

[kimmysue2]

Thanks Darkpear. I got REAL tired of the first EQ and was more then happy to end my service. Wasn't sure about EQII.
Sigh...still looking for something fun to play.

[bluenail]

<insert excited girlish squealing>

I just saw a trailer for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Due out in Dec for XBox (damn you Microsoft), and February for PC...oh, this isn't fair.
There's nothing else good coming out until Feb, which means that I *really* just might have to buy an XBox for DH's Christmas present. Nuts - I was holding out for as long as I could...Someone save me from myself by suggesting another game to take me through the long dark wait...PLEASE.

[Liliana]

I went hunting for this thread. I don't think I actually posted before. I've been playing World of Warcraft WAAAAAAAY too much. How much do you let toddlers see video games? Sometimes I want to keep her away from any violent images/ideas, but she's in the room for our D&D game. So she hears verbal descriptions of all sorts of things. (We try to inforce a no swearing rule since you never know when she will repeat a part of things she hears.)

And how do you explain to other gamers online (typing quickly one handed) that yes you can join a party, but you are slow cause one arm is under the nursing squirmy half asleep 2-yearold?

[eilonwy]

And how do you explain to other gamers online (typing quickly one handed) that yes you can join a party, but you are slow cause one arm is under the nursing squirmy half asleep 2-yearold?

:LOL I did that when BeanBean was 7 weeks old. The little boys blushed virtually when I mentioned breastfeeding. :LOL :laugh:

I can actually type pretty well if only one kid is nursing (like now). It's when both kids are nursing that I crawl and only type lowercase. :LOL

[gethane]

I went hunting for this thread. I don't think I actually posted before. I've been playing World of Warcraft WAAAAAAAY too much.

And how do you explain to other gamers online (typing quickly one handed) that yes you can join a party, but you are slow cause one arm is under the nursing squirmy half asleep 2-yearold?

Me too me too! :) I'm playing Horde on Hellscream and Alliance on Llane. My dh plays as well, so when i am only one handed, i just make him type what I want to say :).

[MammaMel]

I'm a gamer. Dh plays one computer and I am at the other, usually after the kids go to bed unti 1am. It's such an addiction!
Right now it is Battlefield Vietnam online. It all started with Doom2, and then Quake.
Any other Vietnam gamers out there??

[Xie]

Another gamer mom here. It all started with D&D in high school and from there moved to EQ, then DAoC, then StarWars galaxy and now I'm playing EQ2 and having a pretty good time. It is hard on my comp though, at least in the cities. Outside of the cities I can run the game pretty well. I have a pentium 4 2.4ghz ASUS board with a 9800 128mb radeon pro vid card, with 512 rdram (upgrading that to 1536 for christmas ) and Audigy 2 sound card. Prior to EQ2 I was running a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz audio card which rocked and was way cheap for it's quality but unfortunately almost no games support it and it caused a ton of crashing in EQ2. I'm hoping with the ram upgrade the lagging in cities will decrease, which is the only real problem I'm seeing.

My personal feelings on EQ2 are that most of the changes are good. It feels like a mix of DAoC with EQ. It's more quest oriented which I enjoy and I do like the way character progression works.

I find the group death penalty actually a good thing. Let me tell you, playing a shadowknight or melee in general we've almost always taken more deaths then everyone else. The group penalty gives better incentive to try and keep me alive plus I don't end up the only one with exp to make up when everyone else gates out. All players automatically get a gate back to there hometown but as a melee I'm still expected to try and hold off the mobs while casters and clerics gate out. In the first EQ that made a lot of sense because either the melee didn't have gate and couldn't escape anyway or they held off the mobs while the wizard/druid tried to get everyone out. Now the melee is basically just self-sacrificing because we have an opportunity to try and escape just like everyone else. We stay and hold off mobs because we feel it's our duty as those with the most hp/ac to try and let as many others escape death as possible even though it basically means a certain death for us. The group penalty sort of evens this all out to a point. Though I have no hard numbers, from experience it seems the penalty is pretty minimal. It also keeps battle clerics to a minimum (the bane of all melees) because even if they kill the mob if they don't work to keep me alive they are still going to get a penalty. Oh what sweet revenge that was the first time I found myself in a group with a battle cleric.

The only thing I actively dislike about EQ2 is the shard you leave behind when you die. Yeah it's nice and all that you keep your equipment but it hardly matters. The penalty to your hp/ac/mp is so high that you might as well not have any equipment on. In fact, even though in EQ all your equipment was left behind at least you could keep some spares in the bank and still have a fighting chance of getting back to your body. Plus you already get an exp penalty while regaining the exp you've lost and if you have a shard out you get an even larger exp penalty for 3 RL days, until the shard disappears.

Wheee, quite the book for a first post but glad to see some other gaming moms around!

[eilonwy]

:w, Xie! :)

[Whisper Wulf]

It is hard on my comp though, at least in the cities. Outside of the cities I can run the game pretty well. I have a pentium 4 2.4ghz ASUS board with a 9800 128mb radeon pro vid card, with 512 rdram (upgrading that to 1536 for christmas ) and Audigy 2 sound card.

The ram will make all the difference. Your proc is plenty fast for gaming, and you have a great vidcard. 512m works for normal computing, but if you are =gaming, at least a G is neccesary. Have fun!

I don't really compy game much, though I frequently build computers for people that do. I'm much more into D&D and other tabletop roleplaying games.

Currently looking for more people to game with in LA area.

:eyesroll

[darkpear]

Hi folks, welcome newbies!

I am still here but I have been utterly and completely sucked into WoW. Having more fun with it than I have with any game for... geez, I don't even know how long. Have an Orc Huntress on Ner'zhul and a Gnome Mage on Cenarion Circle. Love the RP server climate but hate the PvE ruleset, so my Huntress is much higher level.

[SirPentor]

I've never been in to the pay-per-month games. I just don't have the time to justify it. However, several of my friends were on the WoW beta and I've never seen people so obsessed. Even more so now that it's out.

My favorite computer game by far is KOTOR. I don't have an X-Box, but KOTORII is out for that now, and comes out in February for the PC. Holy Jeeze I can't wait!

[RubysMom]

Boy, I can understand the WoW obsession! Well okay, I can't understand it but I sure am sucked into it. I tried a warrior, priest and warlock, but I guess i am just a rogue at heart (have a 50 infiltrator in DAOC). My slinky (slutty-rp) nightshade kicks ass! Quite low level, but with a newbie toddler taking fewer naps, it's slow going. I think the quests are fun and i am even enjoying crafting more than that other game. Once the free month is up come the hard choice to give up mmorpgs or raise my kids (with cooked food in a clean house)...

Julie, et al.

[AmandasMom]

ok, i've been sucked into Everquest 2, I have a Druid/fury on Crushbone server, name is Freezy. EQ2 is 1000% better then EQ1 ever was. I'm only lvl 16, hard to find the time to level with a 6 week old and a 4 year old, but I get in a few hours before bed each night.

I had a 50 enchanter and a 50 bonedancer in DAoC, a 54 Druid in EQ1, and a master creature handler in Star Wars Galaxies. I miss my bonedancer .....

[eilonwy]

I'm totally jealous :( :crying. I wanna play games!

[SirPentor]

I'm totally jealous :( :crying. I wanna play games!

Why don't you?

[eilonwy]

Well, playing games requires a few things that I don't have at the moment; time and money being foremost. :rolleyes It's a real bummer.

My FIL (a man who believes that RPG's bring the devil into the hearts of young boys) has recently become addicted to Settlers of Catan. :LOL He doesn't seem to realize what a gamer's game it is, he just wants to play all the time. Well, my ever-geeky husband started messing around with the little die-cuts, spreading them out so that statistically the board was more balanced (FIL had been setting them up incorrectly, leaving the board very lopsided). He was counting and making lists and it was just so adorably *geeky*. :love It made me happy, and I realized how much I miss my old, geeky life. *sigh*

[SirPentor]

Yeah, time and money can be killers when it comes to gaming. I've been able to carve out one DnD session a week for the last few years. Actually, some guys and I play at work at 7:30am on Tuesdays. Since my boss's boss is my GM, I think I won't get in trouble for it:)

So your FIL doesn't dig on gaming, huh? I actually have some in-laws that would agree with him. Check out http://rpglibrary.blackgate.net/inspiration/darkdungeons/index.html for a cool parody of Jack Chick's treatment of DnD.

[Mona]

bump

i finally got WOW installed and have been playing it for a week.
I love it!!! i'm not on a role playing server, as my housemates decided not to go that route this time. so it is a bit wierd for me to get used to after being on a role playing server on DAOC.

Anyway, any more Wow players here?

:love

[gethane]

Anyway, any more Wow players here?

:love

Me! I've been playing since open beta! I have a 40 hunter (alliance) on LLane and a 17 druid (horde) on Hellscream. I've been taking a bit of a break last few weeks though. The run to 40 was pretty time consuming.

I've never played on a RP server. I always feel silly, and never know what to say.

[AmandasMom]

bump

Anyway, any more Wow players here?

:love


ME!!!! I've been playing for about 5 days now, and I totally absolutely LOVE it. I can level in decent time! I have a 16 night elf hunter on Cenarion Circle (RP) server. Love this game, love it! No more EQ or DAoC for me!

[Mona]

darn, i'm on the eonar server.
i have a lvl 14 hunter. it's taking me awhile to level as i only get to play 1 hr a day, or sometimes not at all.
but it's been great getting back into it!!!

[darkpear]

My orc hunter on Ner'zhul is 59 now :bag:

[Trinitty]

We don't have kids yet, but, we are geeks!

Have all of you taken the Geek test?

http://www.innergeek.us/

It's really fun, it takes about 20 minutes!

Trinitty.

[StarMama]

Oh oh oh!! Me and Dh play WoW too! We've got seperate computers, so we play @ the same time and group. I've got a lvl 26 orc warlock in Khagdar! :D

Its SO fun, but SOOOO time consuming! And considering its me AND dh playing together it is hard to find time. It seems like everytime ds is asleep and we play he wakes and needs a lot of my time, or if ds's really having a blast playing solo and we jump on, he'll of course need me RIGHT in the midst of a huge battle. Never fails. LOL!

[AmandasMom]

I forgot to add to my previous post that my dh plays too, we also have 2 computers. he has a gnome warlock. I wanted to make an Undead warlock, but the guild I've been with since EQ1 days were all alliance :( .Have any of you with alliance characters done For Love Eternal quest in Darkshore? I was crying at the end it was so touching. The quest starts with Cerellean Whiteclaw in Auberdine who tells you:

"In the aftermath of the battles at the Well of Eternity, I heard that Ameth'Aran had been destroyed, its people dead, including my love, Anaya. I would never have thought, thousands of years later, that memories of Anaya would still haunt my dreams. Wandering the woods of Darkshore in a stupor, I found myself in the ruins of Ameth'Aran... where I saw the haunted spirit of my beloved. She must be freed, but I lack the heart to do it. Her spirit must be destroyed."


So I had to find her and kill her, returned to Cerellean to finish the quest. When you finish it, Anaya's ghost shows up and she and Cerellean try to embrace and he starts to cry asking for forgivness for having to set her soul free, she cries and says her soul is free now, she loves him and she must go. He cries "No! I cant live without you!" As she is drifting away she says she will never forget him....


:bawl :crying :bawl

[StarMama]

Awww that is so sad!!!

My only alliance character that I actually play is lvl 5, so haven't quite gotten there yet ;) Its not as fun playing by myself...

[Mona]

kim- i should be getting to that quest soon. i have done the early stages of it. (i thnk)

my dh isn't playing bc we could just afford to buy one wow.
:(
but he hasn't been as in to gaming as he used to be so i guess it all works out.....

[eilonwy]

78.50099%- Dysfunctional geek. And the geekiest part: I wish it was more! :LOL