Category: Real Life

I was thinking last night about all the people I’ve gotten to know in an online sense over the years. There’s been a lot of them. However, over time and years as people move on from games they lose touch with one another. I spend a lot of time (well, not a lot, but some) thinking to myself “I wonder where so and so is now.. I wonder what they’re up to. I wonder if they’re still gaming”. So I thought about it a little more. Does anyone know if there’s a site out there that would perhaps let you find people who you used to game with? Let me explain a little more.

I’m thinking a data base type site, where you’d input what games you played, during what years. Your character names, and server names. Maybe guild names if you wanted to get into even more details. An email address where you could be reached as well. Have this data base open for others to search. So you could search by game, by server, by guild, whatever. If you wanted to see if anyone was still around who you used to play EQ1 with WAY back when, this would be the place to look. Of course getting people to actually sign up and input their information is always the hard part.

The reason I’m thinking of this in particular is there’s so many varieties of game now. It’s always funny when you ‘run into’ someone you used to play with long ago. Or interesting to see where people are ‘playing now’ 10 years later. To see if they’re even still around. A name you’d recognize from back in the day. Surely I’m not the only one who’s run into people in a game who leave some sort of an impression.

For example, personally speaking. There was this one bard. His name was Twinkletoes. It may have even been Twinkletoez, I can’t quite recall. Used to play on EQ1, and I’d gotten to know Him fairly well. He dyed their gear bright pink and green and blue, it was atrocious. He was funny, but over time decided to give up EQ1. He even let me use their account and I created my cleric there, Eltheria. I can’t remember why he kept the account open specifically, but I know he was apart of the floods in Louisiana, and I remember being worried for him. Shortly after that incident I never heard from him again. From time to time I wonder what happened to him, and I wish there was a way to check in (on willing participants of course) and see how folks are doing. There was the guy who told me he was some famous guitar player (and lied about that might I add, I found out later) who I met in EQ1, and all the old guilds I used to belong to. I don’t remember their names but I’m sure if I could search and see it, it would strike a note.

Then again maybe this is just some foolish idea, or, maybe it’s already out there some where and I just haven’t checked hard enough. I know there are places like eq2faces and what have you, but is there an area that encompasses all games out there (or a majority at least) where you can search for folks who used to play particular games? If you’ve heard of one let me know so I can check it out! What I mean specifically, is to be able to search for someone who you played with in EQ1, and then find out that they’re actually in your new guild in EQ2 and you didn’t even know it. Or perhaps the guild leader of your Vanguard guild is actually the same person who used to gank you all those days ago in WoW. That sort of thing.

Everyone needs to get themselves one of these….

Some times the folks on the radio here talk about the weirdest things..

Do bloggers have an influence on what games people out there are playing?

I have to say, yes. Personally speaking. Not so much in the fact that people read your comments about other games and think “so and so didn’t like this game, there for it must be bad” but more so in the fact that when people read a blog and see you enjoying a game, they think they too will enjoy it. Plus, they’ll ‘know’ someone who’s playing. When I read blogs out there I think ‘wow, it seems like Cordanim is having a great time in EQ2, maybe I should give it another shot’.

It also works the opposite way. When you constantly discourage people to play a game, word gets out. “Ohh. If I play THAT game, maybe so and so won’t like me any more, they dislike that game.” I try really hard not to discourage people from playing any game. I write about what I play and what I’ve experienced, and if people are playing EQ2 while I’m playing Vanguard, that’s great. It’s a great game. I think every game out there has a niche for people, and it doesn’t matter at all which game you’re playing or even if you play none of them at all, so long as you’re happy. No one else is paying the subscription fee for you anyhow. I dislike telling people that they shouldn’t play a game because of whatever reason, or that maybe they should play something else because ‘enough people play that one already’. In the end, it doesn’t matter. Play what you will have fun in, there are great points to every single one. Bad points too. Everyone’s experience will be different, and unless you at least TRY it, you won’t honestly know. Don’t just follow a crowd because it’s the ‘cool’ thing to do. People can be wonderfully intelligent, and I’d expect anyones gaming to reflect as much.