Got Game? August '05
Also known as Staffers Rant Monthly. (Now with 5% more saccharine and Umi!)
Article by TNL Staff (Email)
August 17th 2005, 06:57PM
Jared Rea
As I type this, somewhere in Las Vegas the final eight competitors in Evolution's Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike tournament are doing battle. We're two weeks away from the launch of what I have deemed the first good Nintendo DS game in the form of Nintendogs and I'm having huge MMORPG withdrawals. I am nowhere near satisfied in any of these situations as they are either too far away or being personally curbed. I have fallen into strange times it seems.
Shaking an eight year MMORPG habit has been, in my experience, more difficult that quitting smoking. When I kicked the nicotine habit, I literally said to myself “Well that's enough of that!" and simply stopped cold turkey. Burying my MMORPG past however has been easier said then done. I nearly cracked yesterday as I installed Guild Wars onto my laptop and played for a total of 2 minutes. I did a quest, reminded myself how empty the game is without a dedicated group of players and was done with it. With my old friends from The Matrix Online attempting to lure me back and the joy that is City of Villains soon to be unleashed, it most likely won't be long until I buckle to the monthly fee habit once again.
While I never allowed MMORPG's to affect my social life, the positive boost to it from quitting the scene has been obvious. In my time away from the Matrix and world's beyond I've picked up a couple of healthier habits; one of which being an old friend. Being a slave to all things Manga I've began playing the ancient board game Go with a few of my friends. A short trip to Japan Town in San Francisco reveals a whole culture of Go players both young and old still enjoying the game today and it's actually quite inspiring.
The second hobby is as you may have already guessed is Dance Dance Revolution. It wasn't only the recent article I did on Dance Dance Immolation that got me back into the arrow stomping habit, but my parents have also picked it up recently in an effort to be more physically active. Couple that with the arcade release of Roxor's In The Groove 2 and you have yourself a ton of electronic dancing to do.
For the sake of my sanity, wallet and spare time, I can only hope that these activities help me stay on the wagon until the release of Nintendogs. After that it wouldn't just be me who suffers from the curse of the MMO, but my adorable new Yorkshire Terrier as well.
