The Internet is like alcohol in some sense. It accentuates what you would do anyway. If you want to be a loner, you can be more alone. If you want to connect, it makes it easier to connect.

-Esther Dyson,
Interview in Time Magazine, October 2005 

I grew up teaching friends how to play multiplayer board games like Risk, Supremecy, and Monopoly.  When my family picked up a Nintendo Entertainment System, I become obssessed with KOEI historical strategy games like Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Nobunaga’s Ambition. I’d have sleepovers where 6-7 guys would try to stay up all night long watching with drooping eyelids as we each took our 20 minute turn. 

As I hit my teen years, I expanded my menu to include pen and paper RPG’s and strategy games like Battletech, Shadowrun, Earthdawn, and of course, D & D.  Rounding into my college years, I fired up Gopher and Telnet to access ZombieMUD, BatMUD, ShadowrunMUSH, and games like LegendMUD.  Eventually, I found myself involved in the world of online text based strategy games like Monarchy, Utopia, Earth2525, and Archmage.

I spent quite a bit of time at a friend’s house playing on his 4 Mac LAN with games like Descent, Warcraft II, and eventually Starcraft.  When I couldn’t make it to his place, I was at home, cranking up the AOL to log onto Battle.net to see how much I could get done in Diablo 2.

Most of my life, I’ve spent playing with friends in large, involved, multiplayer games.  I’ve micromanaged populations, military training, and oil surpluses.  I’ve tracked power ratings, ladder rankings, and who was allied with whom.

Yet, from time to time, I find myself…alone.

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The bars of West Hollywood and New York are awash with people throwing their lives away in the desperate hope of finding a shortcut, any shortcut. And a lot of them aren’t even young anymore; their B-plans having been washed away by Vodka & Tonics years ago.Meanwhile their competition is at home, working their asses off.

-Hugh Macleod, “How To Be Creative“

Over at “Common Sense Gamer”, Darren is apparently determined to show just how much you can beat a horse and jump a shark at the same time. 

Once again (for what, the third time in a month), the discussion drifts back to the subject of hardcore vs. casual design.  Now, far be it from me to avoid a good debate, so once more into the breach, dear friends, once more…

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Think you have what it takes to be Sony strong? 

Well, if so, it seems they’re hiring a new Director of Development for Games, according to their Monster.com listings this week.