The failing was probably mine; not willing to find a better group.

I like tabletop war games; ideally ones with little lead armies and good maps. Not setting up an historical battle is best. Those sorts of games require lots of people; running platoons (in modern armor games) to Brigades (Napleonic games) and the various issues (which parallel some of the better aspects of RPGs) are challenging; e.g. divorcing oneself from what one sees, as the semi-omniscient player, from what one knows (as the view limited character on the ground).

And one has to deal with the quirks, strengths and weaknesses of the other players; one’s own side, and not.

I also like board games.

I play a few games on the computer. Some strategy games (one’s which don’t just replay the same thing), a few multi-person shooters (all hail the LAN party) and some flying combat games.

I’ll have to look for Combat Mission.

As far as video/online gaming my I’ve really liked Call of Duty and some of the Star Wars first person shooters. They have qualities of roleplaying and old fashioned arcade games. I also loved Madden NFL because it’s the only way I’ll ever see my favorite team in the Super Bowl again, under my leadership.

The only video game I actively play at the moment is Combat Mission. It has the appeal of traditional wargames — both miniature and board games such as Squad Leader. (I like World War II.) The tactical decision making, along with blind luck involved sometimes keeps me playing. The AI can also be truly be evil.

http://www.by-art.com/mjong/mjong.php

And Roller Coaster Tycoon is a fine way to kill an evening, but I’ve not played that for a dog’s age. I used to like Command & Conquer: that’s a game you play alone, too.

Escapism is good. As long as it does not give you carpal tunnel syndrome.

Before WoW I played SIMS, Civilization (I liked it up to CivII, III and IV are too complicated), and Duke Nukem.

I tried Max Payne but didn’t like killing people and all the subsequent blood - at least Duke Nukem killed monsters. Being part of the Horde, killing the Humanoids in WoW doesn’t bother me for some reason. ;)

As to your question, primarily I enjoy the escapism of gaming. Hours go by and you’re totally disconnected from reality - I think that’s a good thing.

I love to play games that have an exploratory or problem solving aspect to them. While I do play first person shooters, I tend to play ones that are story driven and not just the DOOM style shoot-em ups that my hubby prefers to relax with.

Again back in the days we had time my husband and I would sit down and run through games together, we would team play things like NWN or Diablo, as well as sitting together to run through Monkey Island series or the Kings Quest games. We also used to play You don’t Know Jack and other triva games like that as well.

For me it’s definately story, and then a chance to explore and interact that get me and keep me playing a game. I also appreciate a charactor I can port into a new adventure cause I hate putting hours into developing a charactor and then having to start over from the beginning.

I’m pretty sure what drew me into it (starting with the old D&D basic red boxed set) was the interactive story telling. It was a way I could get myself to create and tell a story with friends. The first inspiration for wanting to play in a story was reading ElfQuest. I loved the characters and the setting so much, I wanted to create soemthing like it, so I dug the rules out from the back of my closet and started reading them. It largely spiraled out of control from there.

Even as I’m starting to push 30, I play regularly. Tonight I’m hosting a Deadlands game. It alternates with Furry Pirates.

On the plus side, the gaming got me into doing more with acutally writing. Most of my early writings were set in game worlds, such as D&D’s Mystara, or the Seattle of Shadowrun. At least the characters were all my own, except for the handful of NPCs I threw in for flavor. From there, I branched out into creating my own worlds.

Even the stuff I submit for critique at Oddyssey has roots in my gaming. Some of the stuff is for things I’m working to adapt to a gaming system, while others have characters that started out in games.

Somehow, I don’t think I’ll be packing away my dice any time soon. Much less giving up my Warcrack…

If not MMORPG’s then I like to play strategy games, Civilisation and the like. Civ is a fantastic game that’s epic in scope and scale, and it’s great.

Sophia, off to play BGII. :)

I love to do new things too and am not the kind of person who enjoys “level-grinding.” I’m a 65 (out of 75) level samurai, and I started playing over 3 years ago now. I don’t play frequently anymore, but I keep the account alive because there are 3 years on and off that are invested in that ‘character,’ and I enjoy the alternate reality that allows me to interact socially as a samurai, as it were, with other people and to watch their reactions. I have also had many inspirations for writing within the game — not from the game’s story line or scenery, but from the people I have met there and have come to befriend over long periods of time. I really enjoy meeting the other people who appreciate what samurai really are in all sense of the word too.

The last social aspect relates to my foreign language study: I have accessed the Japanese language ability on my computer, so it’s the best place for me to practice modern, conversational Japanese with all slang and game slang combined. It’s a challenge and I have many Japanese friends who I like to chat with there.

I have dabbled with minor characters in other classes: red mage, ninja, and white mage, but because this game is so intensive — I never trained them far compared to the samurai. SAM (its class nickname) was also really difficult to play, but even still, I play the MMORPG with my fella as a fun and cheap pastime occasionally. This means that for 3 years plus, we have played the same characters in the same classes together — and have never left one another behind in the realm to gain levels solo or take part in HNML hunts (I think that’s sort of like your raiding). We did everything together, sometimes duoing in a system that was set up only to reward full parties of six players. That made the leveling slower than it was (and it was already excruciatingly difficult to level in FFXI) and we didn’t want that all-consuming feeling that other players had experienced either. So we are basically part-time players, but with a strong dedication to the effort and time put into these characters, who evolve little back stories and personalities all their own - - just like in novel writing.

I actually get the desire to draw “fan art” sometimes from my experiences. Usually months or years after they occur. It’s a nostalgic thing for me … and it’s usually about some inside joke. I hope you don’t mind me sharing some pictures with you:

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/58148651/

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/52018317/

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/58152453/

And people have even drawn my character and sent me the pictures as gifts!

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/58973786/

Anyway, it seems that everyone sort of lives outside the game with part of themselves attached to the game to a certain extent and this is some of my own umbilical cord to the world of Final Fantasy laid bare. Enjoy!

–Fiona