Monday, January 07, 2008

Blogging vs. Nintendo


Many eons ago when I was in college (that would be from 1983-1987) there were no ubiquitous laptops in dorm rooms, only mainframes and terminals in public areas. Even so, there were computer games, and talk on Unix (sort of like instant messaging), so things weren't all that different from today. Except that computer games were mostly text-based adventure games. In my senior year, I got totally hooked on larn, a rogue-like game where you could actually walk within text walls which looked like || and == and cast spells by shooting asterisks **. Geez, how much fun can that be? Apparently it was so appealing that I spent at least two all-nighters playing it instead of writing my senior thesis. I actually won the game (thanks to the walk through walls spell) before my boyfriend and was totally ecstatic. The fact that I let my school work slide almost jeopardizing my graduation date, was a bit disconcerting though. After that, I decided to stayed away from computer games because I was too easily addicted. Sure, I played a few games along the way, but I always kept an eye on whether it was taking over my life. Fast forward to the 21st century. When I hear of MMORGs like Everquest and World of Warcraft, I stay far far away, as I know I would totally be sucked in and become one of those people who need to be reminded to go to the bathroom and go to work, let alone be a parent. Even benign games like Bejeweled are too addicting for me! rolleyes

Even though we swore as parents not to have any video game consoles, we got sucked into the Nintendo cult. After Adam got his beautiful red and black Nintendo DS for his birthday, I just had to have one for myself. And since Brain Age 2 is really for adults, I took it off his hands. It's a quick play each day (except when you decide to do 5 intermediate Sudoku's in one sitting) and not all that deep. But fun nonetheless, especially when you get a perfect score on the piano playing (yes, I have a huge leg up on that). For variety, I added Big Brain Academy and Picross to my collection. And we have a blast playing Mario Kart together. Adam is incredibly good, effortlessly stealing balloons in balloon battle and running over opponents multiple times by backing over them. Good thing I insist we play on the same team. Unfortunately, all this Nintendo fun has pushed blogging into the back seat. Why write silly posts when you can bond with your son and get a bigger brain by playing the DS? Apparently, I'm not only addicted, I've been properly brainwashed as well. Anyway, I will try to put down the DS once in a while and keep up the blogging. wink

1 comment :

Melissa said...

I get sucked into games, too. My big thing in college was Sim City and Sim Earth. Huge fun. Now, as you know, it's just Rayman!

Still don't have a DS though. But I have a bday coming up....