A gamer’s confession February 25, 2010
Posted by Hege in Games, Life.4 comments
I read an interesting article today in The Times Online about more women entering the world of gaming. This is interesting to read as I’m a gamer myself and normally I’m seen as a bit of an odd exception. But let me start off with this: I don’t play World of Warcraft. After trying it for an hour or so I had to give up my attempts to like it and return to my own safe haven in Everquest II. Mostly because the community is something very different in Everquest II. After one hour of gaming in WoW I was challenged to a duel by another player. Ok, that happens (although it has happened only once ever in Everquest II in my nearly four years of playing), I just press ‘decline’. The same guy challenges me again. Now, seriously, I’m not up for duelling as I’m brand new to this game, so I press ‘decline’. After about ten challenges from the same guy I had to log out. And I’ve never returned. I read later somewhere that the average age in WoW is around 19 and in EQ2 around 30. That could have something to do with it.
In EQ2 there are all sorts of people. I’ve met moms on maternity leave, housewives, fathers who play with their teenage sons, students and everything in between. I am a member of two different guilds with 
very different people in each. One is big and raiding, the other small, swedish and family-like. I also play a lot with my family, and as we haven’t been living in the same country for years this allows us to catch up in a way that a telephone simply can’t.
I too have friends that, like in the article, found love through the game. I went to an in-game wedding once. This was a roleplaying event so they probably had never met in real life, but it was still a beautiful wedding. I have spent evenings in a place with a good view just chatting with friends about everything. I have spent days running around with friends or family to hunt dragons, slay orcs, fly on griffons. At times, when I have been moving around, EQ2 was the only place I knew for sure I could meet and talk with friends. I’m glad the perception of gamers is moving away from something nerdy to something more ‘normal’. There are just so many aspects of the game to love. Anyway, here’s a picture from the newest expansion that was released last week. The girl is my main character, the horse took me nearly a week’s worth of work to get, but he’s worth it.
