Gaming, Google, and Vegas

Blogger.com is owned by Google. Google and Yahoo are doing battle for something. Though I haven't figured out what yet! Blogger.com says:

A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world.

Your blog is whatever you want it to be. There are millions of them, in all shapes and sizes, and there are no real rules.

In simple terms, a blog is a web site, where you write stuff on an ongoing basis. New stuff shows up at the top, so your visitors can read what's new. Then they comment on it or link to it or email you. Or not.

This blog is planned to be about the wedding stuff, since we've changed plans 12 times ,(Sorry Pat's Parents!,) and will probably change at least 8 more times!

But in order to be about the wedding, it has to be about me! And my honey. And my life, work, dog, games, etc, etc.

:)

EQ2 and WoW

I began playing games many years ago. My parents got the kids a computer that they threw a sheet over, told us not to look under, and once a day made us go into the basement (they'd lock the door!!) and whisper under their breath they were going to feed the fish.

I was maybe 8? Of course I believed we were getting a fish tank!! We were all very disappointed on Christmas morning when they tore back the sheet and there were no fish! There was however, a very shiny Apple 2 GS, which began my love of computers.

That same Christmas, there was a Nintendo! You remember the 3 pack games with the little power pad and the gun for duck hunt, where the dog would laugh at you when you missed?

We played Mario, and the Learning Rabbit games til our eyes bled. Nathan and I really were addicted to computers, and I can not thank my parents enough for seeing the future and giving us the opportunity early, to take advantage of it. Everything I do at work is based on computers, and really, there aren't many people I work with that have a better grasp of it then me. (Yes I'm being egotistical, it's MY blog, I can do that!)

After years of single player games, multi-user dungeons or MUD's were the introduction of massively multi-player games. The first MUD was hosted on Compuserve many years ago (1978), but AOL gave us our first taste.

Nathan played Gemstone 3 on AOL which went live in 1995, when it was still hourly and we spent $300 a month on internet bills with our 14.4 modem. I played everything!

In 1997 Diablo was launched from what would become the biggest and best game company in the world after Final Fantasy's Sqaure-Enix, BLIZZARD!

Blizzard now makes a massively multi-player game, where a TON of people "play" their characters together at the same time, in the same world. Pat plays World of Warcraft on the Midevah server, horde side.

On the less fantastic side, I play EverQuest 2 from Sony Online Entertainment. Sony Online, twice a year, hosts a Fan Faire where a bunch of geeks get together and talk gaming.

Now I realize I'm a geek. But I never thought of myself as a loser! I volunteer for EQ2 Stratics, I surf the web for the future of gaming (Come on Nintendo Revolution!!), I talk gaming with Pat!! We discuss the difference in worlds, the way Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG's) are going...the works!!

But I cancelled my EQ2 account a few weeks after SOE announced their Station Exchange program, a way to legally sell your items through SOE instead of through ebay, which has always been against the gaming rules....with the game company getting a cut! PURE EVIL!

Then I got Yahoo messenger notice from the head of my Stratics site asking if I wanted to go cover the fan faire, free of charge. And it was in vegas! And I had already taken the time off to go with Pat on some schooling the Department of Defense (DoD) was sending him to!

Who turns down a free trip to vegas, to talk about games?! NOT I! So of course, I re-activated my account. It was really twisting my arm! Really!!!

So Wednesday I take off for Vegas from our tiny little nothing airport for 4 nights of free food, free entrance into The Beach, free hotel, and drinks! Poor Pat will be in classes. I hope he has fun.

I will miss him though. In between Amaretto sours, nickel video poker, and death penalty discussions!