Tuesday 21 October 2008

The Gamer

3Willings
2) Tomato and Parmesan Dip
3) F.E.A.R.

Its not the fastest beast on the planet, but I'm very happy with my new computer.
 My girlfriend is not impressed with my inches

The big reason why I'm happy is because I built it myself.  
The building process was stressful but it was very educational and quite rewarding.
Thank you to Tess for all your help.
 
I'm finally running games at decent resolutions and graphics details.
old laptop resolution (click)
New PC resolution (click)

Phully S3k.
 
************************
 
Back in high school, I did a lot of tinkering with computers.  
I played with RAM, 3DFx card, sound card. And toyed a fair bit with the IRQ on the 14.4kbps modem. 
 
And I spent quite a bit of time playing games.
 

Actually that would be a mean understatement. 
 
I spent pretty much most of my waking hours playing on the computer. 

If not on the computer, I'm thinking, dancing, eating and singing about computers.
 
The only thing that stopped me from infusing with the the computer chair was work twice or three times a week.  

Of course work pay I used to fund upgrades for the Cyrix 686 or buying games.
 
I loved my computer.  

It gave me the escape I needed from the craziness that was high school.
 
But Moore's law would have it that my computer wouldn't run the newer games.  8Megs of video RAM and 133MHz of pseudo-intel CPU power would not cut it.  

And very quickly, games started to look ugly and ran like slideshow on my beloved machine. 

Enter the Playstation.  The OTHER woman in my life.  Hehehe.   And PC was quickly forgotten.

********
 
A few weeks ago, when I slotted in the new PCI-e graphics card to the mobo, I got a rush I haven't felt in years.

Its like a jolt of energy traversing down my fingers into my spine.  A mix of anxiety and excitement of tinkering with computers came rushing back. 
 
Suddenly I want to play games again.  And I want to play them all now!

I want to see the worlds I've missed because of all those years I've missed. 
 
Its like discovering colour after living in grey for a long time.
 
But I'm also worried.  Worried that I'll get hooked again.


**************
Last sunday my girlfriend was subliminally trying to tell me she wanted to go to the beach.  

Yeah, I know, subliminal is how she communicates.
 
I knew she wanted to do something, so I ended my Guildwar quest and was quickly adjusting my skill attribute points for my next time playing.
 
'Quickly' turned out to be an hour.
 
I was so consumed by what spells and skills to use that what I perceived to have been 'quick', was an hour in real-people time.
 
Luckily, my charms, manly strength and quick thinking won my girlfriend back quickly.  But that was a close call.
 
This was a minor thing.  The real issue here is girls and their silly subliminal messaging.

But it's still noteworthy, and scary, how time slips away from me when I'm on the computer.
 
And not just me, there's group of girlfriends out there who have lost their boyfriends to computer gaming and MMORPGs.  

The gamer widows as they are called.
 
So I am a bit worried.  But hopefully I won't get addicted.  

Now what game do I play next.  



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

i can say that you're back getting hooked again. bad for the girlfriend tsk tsk he he

Anonymous said...

"The real issue here is girls and their silly subliminal messaging"

??????