Gaming experience, stories and lore.

[WingedFortress]

Hey there everyone. I'm currently working on a piece about gaming for some college entrance testing, in which I'm doing a brief over view of the history of gaming, and then laying in to how its changed, as well as how its changing the entertainment industry. whew, what a sentence.

Part of this piece is intended to relate the gamer experience, as I believe its a unique, interesting one, but also unpredictable. Im coming here, and asking if you'll share with me mabye a bit of your story, history, or just anything game related on your mind you think I could benefit from.

I am certainly not plagiarizing. Anything you write here is purely inspiration, and if I so much as qoute you, you can fully expect contact from me and full credit in the bibliography. I know this topic is broad as well, but plead with the mods to allow it to exist for at least a week from today(Wednesday March 12 is todays date) as that is the due date for the piece. Thank you to anyone who can discern anything from what was said above, and I hope you can perhaps get a kick out of this thread at least.

 

[Yan-Yan]

Warning: Long Post Ahead
If ADHD = Yes
Then SkipTo Moral

Let's see... Experiences, Stories, and Lore. That is a wide area, so I guess I'll start with something that has stuck with me for a long(ish) time.

While I was in high school, and only 16 or so, I was close friends with a gamer friend. He had a gamer family, and his dad used to be an old gamer. He ran sessions that lasted days when he was in college. So it's expected that he had very fond memories, as well as somewhat decent gaming skills.

One night, we got the idea to try one of the games he used to play when he was in college. A bit of nostalgic fun for him, and a game DM'd by an 'old pro' for my friend and I. Win-win. I couldn't tell you the name of the system, but it was basic Fantasy style. I chose the Barbarian class, wielded an ax, and my friend went the Ranger route.

We got set up as a party, gained a quest, and an NPC ally. Unfortunately, the DM decided to grace us with an old character of his as the NPC. At it's 'current' level and power. So while we were effectively level 1, he was much, much higher. He had unknowingly set out and sabotaged his game (and our fun) by falling into the trap of thinking we wanted to see his characters in action, as opposed to enjoying the characters we made (painstaking, I might add, as the system isn't very forgiving).

But, I figured he knew what he was doing. It would probably be a case of 'Gandolf', where he would be removed from the picture by a larger threat, giving our characters a larger purpose. Alas, that was not to be. Our first encounter was with a horde of Goblins. Weaker then the level 1's we were, but easily numerous enough to wipe my friend and I out before we could hack a retreat. He had set enough Goblins to be "fair" considering what the party had. Two level 1's and a level 'high-enough-to-do-it-alone'.

I remember embracing my Barbarian character and decided to try and make it work. Unfortunately, the first round saw me surrounded and poked a couple times before I could attack, but when I did, I swung hard! The rules could have allowed me to cut through 4 of them easily, had I hit the first one. But did I? No. I managed to not only Critically Miss, but because of that, hit myself. One die roll later to see where I hit, and I had apparently almost completely severed my own head with one attack. Not bad, eh?

So while my friend was swarmed, I spent the rest of the turn bleeding to death before the NPC could save us. Well. One of us. My character had lived less then an hour. The only reason I really remember this particular game, is because I had such high expectations from the DM and it ended so amusingly dramatic.

Moral
I did learn a lot from that short gaming session, however:
-People don't really want to hear about your character, or know what it could do. They want to see what their characters can do.
-While the rules are there for a reason, following them to the letter every time can turn it from a game into Microsoft Excel.
-Sometimes the unexpected things make the game fun, while other times they ruin it.
-Players are responsible for listening to the DM, working with the DM, and even helping the DM to make the story flow.
-The DM is responsible for making sure the Players have fun, listen to the Players, and have a reason for everyone to show up.

 

[monodiabloloco]

Gaming of various forms has been such a huge part of my life from early on. As a kid, I was a Reader. A serious reader. I loved horror, sci-fi, and fantasy novels of all kinds. One day, I came across a bunch of old gaming books at this used book store I went to, including a boxed set for the basic D&D.. kind of a starter set. It was a way for me to play out characters in the fantasy worlds I read about! I went to my friends and we gave it a try. We were up all night slaying goblins, kobolds, rust monsters, and orks. By 4 am, the abandoned keep was ours and the nearby village was now safe. We then had a new addiction. Later, we all obtained various video game platforms. Mine was the Atari 2600. For the first time ever, you could see my whole family sitting together and enjoying the same activity. True, my dad and step mom never really played, but they watched with bemused expressions as we caught bombs, swung over quicksand, and foiled a giant ape. Later, in the age of NES, I found out that my mom loves a good game of tetris and galaga as much as I did. I also found out that my stern, reserved, ex military step father was addicted to 1943. I came by this knowledge after waking to get a drink of water at 3:30 am to find him sitting bathed in the glow of the TV, NES controller in hand, and gamer stare on his face. I don't think he even noticed me watching with a smile as he took down the gigantic warship with an ease that I was not capable of.
Golden Eye and Mario Kart became staples in our college days.
Just this last Saturday, my 6 year old daughter sat on my lap and showed me how to beat the world 3 boss in Kirby on her pink DS.
"See, daddy? If you use the tornado thing, you can beat him too!"

 

[WingedFortress]

Great stuff. I enjoyed reading both.