Rolling Through the Pandemic

Gaming doesn’t always mean video games. In fact, this gaming family hasn’t spent a lot of time playing video games the last several months. With virtual classes taking up most of our day, we’ve found a need to step away from the PC and take a break from the screen. That doesn’t mean we’ve stopped gaming, we’ve just gone a more traditional route.

Defining a Gamer…

Cover art for E.T the Extra-Terrestrial for the Atari 2600 (My first console game-*shudder*)

**Note: This blog has been posted with loving permission from my daughter who admits that she was owned on the video game list, but who will still will not admit that I’m a gamer.

This week has been an enlightening one for me in the world of gaming and youth culture. Turns out, I’m old. I’m an old gamer, or maybe I’m not—a gamer that is—depending on whom you ask. We always have the most interesting and fun conversations at dinner, and according to my Gen-Z daughter, turns out, that I’m not a gamer, because I don’t play Overwatch. 

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Crafting in Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

There’s been a lot of hype this week with the pre-order going live for Animal Crossing: New Horizons on the Nintendo Switch, which releases March 20, 2020. My daughter has been waiting for this game for months. Surprisingly, she is the only person in our household who isn’t a gamer, aside from the random mobile game. I think she has dabbled in Board Kings and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp; hence, her excitement for Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

A Return to Blogging

For those of you who follow me, you know that I frequently publish content on MMOGology.com. However, that site is primarily dedicated to the academic analysis of online gaming communities. I have a lot to say about video games and not all of it is always academic in nature. So, I have decided to resurrect this old gaming blog of mine, where I will talk about all things gaming that are not academic in nature, including reviews, frustrations, and sweet, sweet, loot.

Sugar to the Rescue

Sugar ready for bed

Sugar is so funny. Not only did she rush out the door this morning when I tried to take the kids to school, and squeeze her chubby self into the back seat of my Jetta (in the small space between two carseats), today she has spent her time running about rescuing crying children.

Yes, you would think she would have tried to sit up front with me, but she is insistent that she ride with the children. She belonged to an elderly couple, and while they didn’t have children, they had grandkids. I’m not sure how often they were around, but apparently she has an instant liking for little ones.

Tonight my husband was putting the baby (toddler, he is 14 months) to bed, and of course he was crying. The bedroom door was shut, and my daughter cracked it opened, and Sugar did not hesitate to push her way through that crack and hoist herself up onto the crib and see what this crying was about. She wanted to make sure the baby was OK. After she had checked things out, she promptly left the room.

Sugar the Newfoundland

 

Sugar resting on the couch

 

We have been waiting for on the rescue list for a while, and River King finally had a match for us! Meet our new “baby” Sugar the Newfoundland!

School, Life, and Aztecs

So life as been busy as usual. I got to play Aion for about 2 weeks after release, and only for a few days. I think I made it to level 14, and there my account sits. Perhaps one day when I’m old and retired I will get to return. As far as my blog, It think I will just post about what is going on in my life to keep it updated, and perhaps other interesting tidbits that I find, or maybe an interesting article or two.

So last night at dinner I suggested to my husband that we take CPR lessons, and should take my oldest daughter too. Of course my oldest daughter responded with, “Eww! That is stupid. I’m not putting my mouth on someone else’s! That is gross!” So never, ever hang out with her when you could be in a situation where you might need to be resuscitated. She did get a 1% in human services on her career test at school after all.

We have been studying lowland and highland Mesoamerica in archaeology, and so last night I had a horrible case of insomnia. It would be what I call Aztec insomnia because I couldn’t get the Aztec out of my mind. I spent all night writing an Aztec poem for creative writing in my head. I did get up and jot parts of the poem down, thinking that it would help, and my head felt empty when I returned to bed, but as soon as I laid back down, the poem returned. The images of Aztecs slinking across the floor to tribal beats as my poem was being read didn’t quite help either…

My Daughter’s Barack Obama Song

My daughter created her own Barack Obama song, and yes, it does have only one line, but she sings it all the time, so we figured we should get it on video.

The Barack Obama Song

MMOs: More Than Meets the Eye?

I just wanted to share a friends blog post in which he explains why he isn’t into MMOs. Although I disagree with his outlook on MMOs, I think that he makes a good point, that they have lost something that the pen and paper games had.

http://biggraycat.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/mmorpg-not-for-me/

New Article: Game Breaking Design Decisions

Check out my latest MMO article on game design here:

Game Breaking Design Decisions