Friday, March 19, 2010

Random Shots: My Gaming Community

  • I already wanted to write about this, but Larisa's recent post at The Pink Pigtail Inn about loneliness in MMOs pushed this to the top of my blogging queue. I am a de facto anti-social gamer. Back in my youth, I had a group of friends whith whom I shared my love of gaming. Whether it was gathering around the table for a pen-and-paper RPG or playing with or watching someone play a video game, they were my community.

  • As I grew up and away from those friends, I naturally gravitated toward single player computer and console video games. I substituted social interaction with more engrossing gaming experiences. But my need for community never truly left me. It was sublimated into the gaming magazines I read and, with the rise of the internet, the websites I followed.

  • At the same time, I find myself unable to partake in the greater gaming community. The forums on great websites like Gamers With Jobs and Idle Thumbs are hugely intimidating to me. I mostly avoid guilds and spend my time soloing in my MMOs. I played all the way through Left 4 Dead with bots. I'm the ultimate lurker in the greater internet gaming world.

  • As much as I've wrapped myself in the gaming loner blanket, I still couldn't help but find a community of my own. And the best thing is that it all happened right here. Those of you who read and participate, either in the comments or on your own blogs, you are my gaming community. You are the people I turn to when I want to share the great times I'm having. And you're the ones I complain to when I'm frustrated and annoyed. You are all the friends that I've been unconsciously looking for these many years. And it all happened so organically that I didn't realize it until it happened.

  • Thank you all for hanging out here. It wouldn't be the same blog, and I wouldn't be the same Anjin, without you.


© 2010 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.

3 comments:

  1. Right back at ya! See you in Eve and Champions.

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  2. I feel like we should hug now!

    I understand where you are coming from. Around eight years ago I was in a Medal of Honor clan, and from that I developed some close friendships that I still have today. Many of use still get together on Ventrilo and play all sorts of games with each other. It helped that most of us live fairly close so I can drive to see them and vice versa.

    I may not know you personally or the other bloggers who are on my Xbox live or Raptr friends list, but I would consider you all to be friends, or I wouldn't have you on my list.

    You never know, someday we may all run into each other one way or another.

    Speaking of EVE, anyone in a Corp yet? I was thinking EVE-Uni because they take noobs like me.

    ReplyDelete