I once spent a fair amount of time playing games. When I was a younger I remember spending hours on role playing games, or table top wargames or even just board games like Risk with my buddies. I painted figures, made up games with dice, played video and computer games. I also played outside alot, riding my bike, hiking in the woods, basically just playing this and that. Well, I miss that. I think I want to quit my job, live off my savings for awhile and just play alot of games. Some of my all time favourites included Space Hulk by Games Workshop, a board game based on the Aliens movies wherein you maneuver a cadre of “Space Marines” (painted of course) through a variable puzzle piece maze and blast baddies with your pulse weapons. The figures, dice and table top interaction made that game great. More good memories of computer gaming were made with Blizzard’s Warcraft or ID software’s classic Quake when once in a while we would get 4 or 5 guys together with computers (much slower at the time) and throw together an ad hoc network game. Downing beer and chips we’d be yelling “I got you good, man!” after a particularly tricksy Wizard let loose an Ice Storm on an idle group of warriors who were massing for an attack, or after a nasty showdown with the double barreled shot gun.

However, I find that I cannot sit and play a game anymore. As a parent you rarely have the time to do anything uninterrupted for more than about 10 minutes unless its way past even your own bedtime and you plan to be in a hurtin’ the next morning. But that aside, I think I am no longer mentally able to concentrate on games for an extended period of time anymore. I still love reading and talking about them, hearing about other’s experiences with them, watching them played. But when it comes down to playing them, after about 15 minutes of computer gaming, I’m rubbing my bleary eyes and wondering how much longer I can stay awake. I’ve found that when I have the gaming “itch” I spend more time researching games and reading about them than actually playing them.

Some of the games I’ve played (and enjoyed) recently:
Crack Attack
A wierd, reverse Tetris type game, quite as addicting as the real thing.
Kiki the Nanobot
A strange, neck craning 3D experience. Maneuver the little bot around, jumping and shooting to solve each board’s puzzle.
The Belt
A ‘port’ of the classic paper game to the digital realm. I remember this from 1980s High School and I don’t know the origin of the game, but I imagine it could be pretty old, being just as good with a pencil as a ball-point pen, though leaky Bics seemed somehow more devastating. If you were there and played this game, you’ll remember drawing opposing “bases” on either side of the sheet separated by asteroids and you use a pen to “shoot” from your base through the asteroids at your opponent’s base.

I’m sure however, that once I quit my job I’ll be able to dedicate more quality time to gaming. Now if I can just find some way to make money playing games, hanging out and drinking beer with my friends I’ll be all set.