I'm a Geeeeeeeeeek!

I'm a Weirdo! (to the tune, of course, of Creep by Radiohead)

Yeah, I admit it. As much as I always wanted to be one of the cool kids when I was young - you know, play guitar in a garage band, be the bad boy that got all the girls, etc. - I have and probably always will be a geek, a weirdo, even, perhaps, a nerd. But never a spaz! Death first! : )

I've been feeling a tad nostalgic lately, probably because I've been getting friend requests from people I knew in High School (nothing like Facebook to make you feel old!) and following people's lives from the vantage point of cyberspace. You learn things you never knew (and sometimes never wanted to know!). Like the time a couple of weeks ago when I found out that an ex-girlfriend started playing Dungeons and Dragons a year or two after we broke up. Never would have thought that she would get into that, given what I recall of her personality and interests.

I, of course, loved D&D back in the day. Being a rather wimpy lad with my head perpetually buried in a book, I immediately took to the idea of being able to become a hero of fantastic proportions. And being a bibliophile, I also loved that I had to buy dozens of books to learn everything I needed to know about the game. Actually, I had to buy those books several times, because my mother was often convinced that D&D and heavy metal were going to send my immortal soul straight to hell. If she only knew how much her actions fed into the publishers' profit margins!

I don't play role playing games anymore. The manager at the bookstore where I worked a couple of years ago wanted me to join his game, but I declined. Sometimes you can't go back. You want to, but you can't. Plus the guy was a chain smoker and I figured I'd choke to death long before any character I'd invented did anything interesting!

So now I play the games on my PlayStation, whenever I feel the urge to get involved in a Tolkien-esque world. Right now I'm having a blast playing Final Fantasy XII. Good Lord, I had Final Fantasy I for the Nintendo. Now I really feel old! I also have Champions of Norrath for the PS2, which was fun. But I'm refusing to play World of Warcraft or any of the online games. I've seen too many people lose their social lives (if not their bank accounts!) to those things.

I still like to read about the games, though. Keep up with what's going on in the industry and what's out there on the fringe. Just don't expect to see me at any conventions or gaming stores anytime soon!

As an aside, I suppose I should ask if there are any other former and active rpg geeks out there who read this page. Anyone? Anyone? Or did I just out myself for no apparent reason? Sigh : )

Oh, well. In honor of my passing (or continuing) geek-dom, I've put up some more links to the right. Enjoy.