Let me tell you...being a single girl in a male-dominated game can be an absolute blast! Here are some examples...
1. Guys give you stuff. They don't have to be interested in you. I think they just think it's cool having a girl interested in the game. Granted, most of us started gaming via an introduction by a boyfriend or husband, but some of us stay after the guy moves on to another game or out of our lives.
2. It's fun to be protected. Guys love to protect girls...or is it just girls who can heal their toons (characters)? hmmmmm
3. Flirting. Ok...I do enjoy a good, clean flirt and there always seems to be someone interested in flirting with me. Usually, it's just fun flirting as we know we live too far apart for anything serious to develop. However, this can get to the point where one or both get seriously interested. There are couples who've met and married via online video games. Sometimes this develops into dating and...
4. You could get flown to Alaska! Yeah. In August of 2007, I had most of my expenses paid for to go to Cordova, AK, for 2 1/2 weeks. I met a guy in my guild. We hit it off and ended up talking and playing a lot. After talking to/playing with Chris 2 or 3 times a day for 4 months, we decided it was time to meet. He paid for my airfare, provided a place for me to stay and I flew up to meet him. We had a great time and realized that there just wasn't the same chemistry in person and decided to be friends. So...glad we met and that I flew up there but no long-term relationship there.
5. Chivalry! Yes, ladies, chivalry is alive and well in the world of DDO! Guys have let me get things that drop from broken crates (even potions, which is huge in permadeath). My fave is when they open doors for me. It's sooo cool. I love door opening in real life, too.
6. You might get to be Queen! That's right. When I first joined Mortal Voyage (my permadeath guild...see my previous post for more info), it was me and a bunch of guys. Ok....Lessah was there, too, but not active at the time. When I started noticing that I seemed to be the only female in the guild, I asked about it ("none of your wives and girlfriends play?" to myself: "is this an all-gay guild?" "am I intruding in a guild intened to be female-free?"). The response I got was something like, "you're the only girl, which makes you the Mortal Queen." You bet I took that and ran with it and have been Queen Carliee ever since! There are more gals in the guild now and they are all royalty, too....but there can only be one queen.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
DDO
I've decided to start out by introducing you to some of the parts of my life that you might not be all that familiar with. These things will probably end up in my blogging, as they are part of my life. I thought I'd start with the most controversial....DDO.
Not only is DDO controversial in that it's an MMORPG (Massivly Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game), but because DDO is short for Dungeons & Dragons Online. Some of you may remember all the shouts of "it's evil" over the PnP/Pen & Paper version of this game in the 1970's. We'll just say that my mom knows I play an online game, but not that it's D&D based and that's the way it will stay. Let's just say, it's no more evil than Harry Potter. Ok...that didn't help....hmmmmm....
When I was first introduced to the game by my ex-boyfriend Felix, I really thought about the evil thing. My brothers both played PnP back in the late 70's or early 80's. They stopped when Mom convinced them it was evil (it was as big a deal as the controversy over Harry Potter). So...I had the mentality the D&D is evil. As I played the game, I carefully observed the evil elements (yes, there are some). The conclusion I came to is that a) it's a fictional/fantasy world and b) we are fighting to bring an end to evil. I still analyze it as new things come into the game.
I've recently been having a blast playing my monk. Monks are a fairly new class in the game and they are quite buddhist-like. They can meditate to gain ki and they need to stay centered and stuff like that. I prefer to call the meditation "sitting on my butt and glowing." Am I starting to believe that meditation can give me powers? Not a chance. Do I roleplay her as a Buddhist monk? Nope. I proably play her as more of an anti-monk. I just find it hard to take seriously the idea that sitting on your butt while your hands glow is gonna give you special powers.
These days I mainly play a style called Permadeath (PD). Most players continue on when their character dies. We (permies or PDers) re-roll/restart our characters/toons when they die. I've come to call my re-rolls incarnations of the previous toon (as in "the 18th incarnation of Carliee"). I like to say that I only believe in reincarnation in DDO, not real life (rl).
Probably the greatest danger for me when it comes to playing DDO, is that I'm a female in a male dominated game. It's also a rather fun aspect of the game for me, but that's a post all it's own. Apparently the kind of guy who plays DDO finds my online voice and personality rather sexy. The flirtation is fun, clean and light, but I need to be careful to not take it so far as to hurt any of the guys. I refuse to flirt with guys who are in committed relationships and won't flirt at all if I'm in a committed relationship.
The stuff from the 70's/80's about D&D being evil? I've probably seen it all and at least a good chunk of it is hokey. If you've played either version of the game and want to comment, please do. I'd love to hear what you have to say.
Glossary of DDO Terms:
Guild: An organized group of players. They often play together and typically have a set of rules for appropriate behavior within the guild.
Party: A group of players who are questing together.
Guildie: A person in your guild.
Permadeath (PD): People who choose to play by extra rules, one of which is that if/when your character dies, you start over with a new character. This is known as re-rolling. Permadeath players only play with guilded characters (though some allow play with other PD guilds). In my opinion, this is the best way to play DDO.
Permie: A Permadeath character.
PUG: An acronym for Pick Up Group, this is what you do if you have no guild or no one else to play with. You join a group of random players and quest together. Permies do not PUG.
Mortal Voyage/MV: The best PD guild in DDO! We play on Argonnesson. mortalvoyage.com
Khyber: the server my non-PD toons are on
Heck Hound: what one of my guildies calls Hell Hounds, 'cause he doesn't want to swear (yeah, I roll my eyes when he does that).
Loot: What you find in treasure chests throughout quests.
Quest:
XP:
Levels:
Class:
Toon:
Race:
Not only is DDO controversial in that it's an MMORPG (Massivly Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game), but because DDO is short for Dungeons & Dragons Online. Some of you may remember all the shouts of "it's evil" over the PnP/Pen & Paper version of this game in the 1970's. We'll just say that my mom knows I play an online game, but not that it's D&D based and that's the way it will stay. Let's just say, it's no more evil than Harry Potter. Ok...that didn't help....hmmmmm....
When I was first introduced to the game by my ex-boyfriend Felix, I really thought about the evil thing. My brothers both played PnP back in the late 70's or early 80's. They stopped when Mom convinced them it was evil (it was as big a deal as the controversy over Harry Potter). So...I had the mentality the D&D is evil. As I played the game, I carefully observed the evil elements (yes, there are some). The conclusion I came to is that a) it's a fictional/fantasy world and b) we are fighting to bring an end to evil. I still analyze it as new things come into the game.
I've recently been having a blast playing my monk. Monks are a fairly new class in the game and they are quite buddhist-like. They can meditate to gain ki and they need to stay centered and stuff like that. I prefer to call the meditation "sitting on my butt and glowing." Am I starting to believe that meditation can give me powers? Not a chance. Do I roleplay her as a Buddhist monk? Nope. I proably play her as more of an anti-monk. I just find it hard to take seriously the idea that sitting on your butt while your hands glow is gonna give you special powers.
These days I mainly play a style called Permadeath (PD). Most players continue on when their character dies. We (permies or PDers) re-roll/restart our characters/toons when they die. I've come to call my re-rolls incarnations of the previous toon (as in "the 18th incarnation of Carliee"). I like to say that I only believe in reincarnation in DDO, not real life (rl).
Probably the greatest danger for me when it comes to playing DDO, is that I'm a female in a male dominated game. It's also a rather fun aspect of the game for me, but that's a post all it's own. Apparently the kind of guy who plays DDO finds my online voice and personality rather sexy. The flirtation is fun, clean and light, but I need to be careful to not take it so far as to hurt any of the guys. I refuse to flirt with guys who are in committed relationships and won't flirt at all if I'm in a committed relationship.
The stuff from the 70's/80's about D&D being evil? I've probably seen it all and at least a good chunk of it is hokey. If you've played either version of the game and want to comment, please do. I'd love to hear what you have to say.
Glossary of DDO Terms:
Guild: An organized group of players. They often play together and typically have a set of rules for appropriate behavior within the guild.
Party: A group of players who are questing together.
Guildie: A person in your guild.
Permadeath (PD): People who choose to play by extra rules, one of which is that if/when your character dies, you start over with a new character. This is known as re-rolling. Permadeath players only play with guilded characters (though some allow play with other PD guilds). In my opinion, this is the best way to play DDO.
Permie: A Permadeath character.
PUG: An acronym for Pick Up Group, this is what you do if you have no guild or no one else to play with. You join a group of random players and quest together. Permies do not PUG.
Mortal Voyage/MV: The best PD guild in DDO! We play on Argonnesson. mortalvoyage.com
Khyber: the server my non-PD toons are on
Heck Hound: what one of my guildies calls Hell Hounds, 'cause he doesn't want to swear (yeah, I roll my eyes when he does that).
Loot: What you find in treasure chests throughout quests.
Quest:
XP:
Levels:
Class:
Toon:
Race:
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Welcome!
Welcome to what I suspect will be a rather haphazard attempt at blogging. Some posts will surely be goofy, dorky or pathetic. Others may be profound and there's a good chance a deep thought will show up from time to time.
I find it highly unlikely that I will post daily as if I have nothing to write, I will write nothing. I was going to say nothing good, but sometimes I may write some silly drivel that only I will find the least bit interesting.
Do I have any idea how to work this blog thing? Nope! I'll be learning as I go so things should get better as I go along my merry way in th blogosphere.
I find it highly unlikely that I will post daily as if I have nothing to write, I will write nothing. I was going to say nothing good, but sometimes I may write some silly drivel that only I will find the least bit interesting.
Do I have any idea how to work this blog thing? Nope! I'll be learning as I go so things should get better as I go along my merry way in th blogosphere.
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