I couldn't help myself.

I've done something. It's kinda bad. Especially since I'm not the most responsible of people with regards to time management.

I started playing Lord of the Rings Online about three days ago. I'm a level 13 Burglar. A cute little hobbit named Saffa. Now, level 13 in three days is nothing in the gaming world and it will, at most, incite a unenthusiastic "Yay for you." But in the real world, amongst people who can't understand the concept of trying to master a pretend world with a pretend person for no real benefit to real mankind, it means I've been logging in more hours than I care to admit.I just felt that I needed to come clean with y'all. So if you're running around on Arkenstone and see the cutest, freckliest little burglar named Saffa, say hi! Maybe we could chop down some spiders or bears together...

Relive your childhood. (Or maybe mine.)

So I'm sure that with all these gaming posts, I'm alienating some of my readership. (Not that it's that big, anyway.) I've thought a bit about it and realized that I really just gots to be me. I love video games and since it's Winter-een-mas and all, what better time of the year to fully embrace my affection for the digital gaming world?


With that in mind, my brother and I (Duggy's on a business trip) were discussing video games with the tots over dinner. My oldest boy, who has definitely inherited the gaming bug from both parents, was wanting to know who came first out of the various personas he is familiar with. Donkey Kong? Mario? Who? (for answer, see comments.) This lead into a discussion of video game history from the first home console, Atari, through Sega, Nintendo and to our latest console, the Playstation 3. (To be honest, we thought Pong was the first video game, but with a little internet research, I discovered that it was predated an entire year by the game Computer Space, of which I've never heard. Of course, it's no question which game was the most popular.)

As we were talking of old Atari games that we loved, River Raid, Pressure Cooker, Pitfall, Dig Dug, we moved on to the old school Nintendo faves. Do you remember Bubble Bobble, Gunsmoke or Kung Fu? We spent hours upon hours on those babies. After we were done with dinner, we got online to see if we could find any other titles from long ago and we found one of the most awesomest sites on the web.

Every Video Game

It is so cool. You can play all these old titles, for free, online. It's like going back in time and having your old favorite toys in your hands again. Now, I won't lie to you. I can't play these games for too long anymore. Once you've tasted the future that is now, the grip of the old games is lost. But for nostalgia's sake, it's pretty fun to mess around with them once again.

That feeling of, "Oh my gosh, I remember that." is relived over and over. Things that you had forgotten are brought back to the forefront of your memory.

For me and my brother, those were some good times.

I guess you could call it "A Visit From the Ghost of Winter-een-mas Past."

Play on.

I owned Bohan!

Bohan had ravaged our land with his mark of corruption, but I beat his sorry bohunkus down. Oh yeah. Me, playing Nariko, and my heavenly sword dominated!

I haven't taken the time to finish a game since the good ol' days of Metroid and the old school NES (Nintendo Entertainment System). (Rock it, Samus!) But today, I'm glad to say I've ended that streak. I took Bohan down, possessed by his little Raven Lord and everything, which made the Raven Lord mad enough to peck his eyes out. Then I died.




But it was all worth it. I made it to the "end movie," which is the reason you play games anyway. And guess what? Right in the middle of it, when everyone is so sad because I sacrificed myself for my people, the phone rings. So what do I do? Ignore it. But my son can't, so he gets it and it's Dug, my hubby. So then hubby is mad because I'm not answering the phone, but he understands when I tell him why. But still, I don't fully get the "end movie" experience because my brain was divided.

Oh well. C'est la vie. After it was over I promptly threw my hands in the air shouting, "I'm the coolest girl in the whole wide world!" Which, of course, everyone ignored, but I don't care, because why? Because...

I'M THE COOLEST GIRL IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!

Happy Winter-een-mas!

Winter-een-mas is upon us! The brainchild of Tim Buckley, author of one of my favorite web-comics, Ctrl-Alt-Del, Winter-een-mas is a holiday celebrating video games. It is always the last week in January, the 25th through the 31st.

Tonight we're having a little party over at our house. Pizza (true gamer's food), our favorite sodas, Virgil's and Reed's Ginger Brew, cupcakes and lots of gaming will make up the evening. Dug is leaving for business on Sunday, so we are celebrating tonight and probably tomorrow too. Although officially it's tonight.

My brother got me Heavenly Sword for my birthday and I need to finish it. So that will be my main objective, although as a group I think we're going to take on Ultimate Alliance. Maybe see if there are some other multi-player co-op titles out there.

How can you celebrate? Why, play some video games, of course. All you need to do is get out your old Atari, Nintendo, Sega, Playstation, Xbox, Dreamcast, Computer, whatever gaming platform you have, shove in a game and play.

Happy Winter-een-mas to you all!