As much as I feel I should hate to admit it, I'm addicted to World of Warcraft, a "massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG)". I played in Australia before I moved here, and I'm playing here now. A lot. It's great fun! My best friend got me addicted (what are friends for) and we play together on a server with a lot of fun people. There are "the swedes" who are friends of ours from another game from another year, and then there's a whole bunch of new people, some of them numpties, some of them good people. At least this way I'll have someone to visit and a free tour guide in many places, including Amsterdam for NYE this year.
But back to the game - it's fun right now as it's currently preparing for a big expansion, version 2, bigger and better, all that. The millions of players are currently testing new changes, and the game has changed in the way that's basically encouraged players to compete against each other, rather than the computer opponents, I guess. Right now, 12yos across Europe, the Americas and Australia are all getting RSI from clicking and bashing keyboards into the wee hours of the morning. Sometimes I shake my head and wonder why I spend my time playing this game, and then there are nights like last night where I'm playing with a bunch of people I either know in "real life" (the geeks way of talking about face-to-face friends as opposed to online virtual friends), or online friends I've known for some time. We were playing, and to sound like those said 12 year olds - we were kicking arse. Loads of fun, having a great laugh.
It seems more social than the online games of previous years, as with the advent of broadband in so many houses, we use online software (Ventrilo) that lets us talk to each other. Voice, not Skype or Voice-Over-IP or stuff like that, but similar. It makes it seem like we're in the same room, as opposed to scattered over Western Europe, and including for a while, Southern Vietnam.
So yes, it's a geeky game and I spend far too much time on it, but it allows me to have some really fun moments with people I enjoy talking to. The internet has changed the way we interact with each other, MMORPGs has changed it again (from the very first online game type thing at MIT to things like Warcraft) and now yet again with software like Ventrilo and Skype. We enjoyed the anonymity of online chat rooms, typing away where we could pretend to be someone we weren't. It wasn't long before people found the confidence that the best part of the online virtual communities was that you could be accepted without having to pretend to be someone else. We've seen photos of nearly everyone we play with, and talk to them like we talk to our families on the phone. Sure, we have in game "avatars" that might represent a particular facet of our personalities, or a character we want to play as an actor in a play, but we're getting to know the people behind the characters.
I'm looking forward to meeting some of these people as I travel through Europe, I can think it will only enhance the enjoyment of playing online together.
Monday, December 11, 2006
Un Petit Pause
French Classes at the Institute have been going well, quite well. Some parts of the class are basic, and some seem to be quite advanced. It's good to get some of that revision, but it's also great to be in a classroom environment where I can try out some advanced theories in grammar. It's unlike school in that way, which is good.
The class is fairly small, 11 or so people, including Greg. Wednesday night this week is our break for xmas, and finally the class is being a bit social and having a drink afterward. It's been a long time coming, but I daresay because the class has such a variety of people who didn't previously know each other, it takes a while to break the ice. Now we're all chatting away, quite happy to "have a go" at an answer to something we'll probably get wrong. Good for a laugh, anyway.
Not sure if we've got a class again before we go snowboarding in France, but it'll be interesting to see how much of the knowledge kicks in whilst I'm over there. I'm a big fan of not trying too hard, and just seeing what French my brain likes to come up with, rather than rehearsing extensively beforehand. Doing so often results in a wrong phrase that you've repeated often enough to yourself that you've convinced yourself it's right.
It'll be interesting to see how our social occasion for the class goes.
The class is fairly small, 11 or so people, including Greg. Wednesday night this week is our break for xmas, and finally the class is being a bit social and having a drink afterward. It's been a long time coming, but I daresay because the class has such a variety of people who didn't previously know each other, it takes a while to break the ice. Now we're all chatting away, quite happy to "have a go" at an answer to something we'll probably get wrong. Good for a laugh, anyway.
Not sure if we've got a class again before we go snowboarding in France, but it'll be interesting to see how much of the knowledge kicks in whilst I'm over there. I'm a big fan of not trying too hard, and just seeing what French my brain likes to come up with, rather than rehearsing extensively beforehand. Doing so often results in a wrong phrase that you've repeated often enough to yourself that you've convinced yourself it's right.
It'll be interesting to see how our social occasion for the class goes.
New Snowboard Stuff!
Hello there! I'm quite happy from my weekend's retail therapy: I bought a snowboard. Not only that, I used the excuse of not having our stuff shipped over from Australia yet, to purchase a new jacket, pants, gloves etc.
It's a great snowboard, a Ride "Havoc" 162. Possibly the only thing that's lacking is it's taste in colour. It's bright yellow. I would have prefered the lovely subdued brown/white version but apparently snowboard designs change depending on the size you have, so everyone out there too tall to use the subdued colours get to ride a big banana. At least this way I won't lose it in the snow, I guess!
I was tempted by the Burton iPod jacket, but not for that long. It comes with an attachment which you slip into the jacket underneath a waterproof plasticy thing thats on the outside of the jacket. Not as high-tech as I originally imagined, I thought it was going to be embedded into the fabric and have great big buttons on the arm designed for big bulky gloves. I've seen snowboarding gloves with a watch embedded; the buttons are on the ends of the fingers so all you have to do is whack them in the general area. Given that I'd have to use fine motor skills to skip tracks, I'm better off just using the generic controls and getting a jacket that matches the style/colour etc I want, rather than buying it for the technology.
So yeah! I'm all set. I'll probably need goggles but I'll get those where I'm going. Which is Morzine! Well, not Morzine exactly, but St Jean d'Aulps. Not that we'll be skiing in St Jean, that's where we'll be staying. We'll be skiing Avoriaz. I don't know the names of the hills, people throw out all these names, Grand Terche, blah blah blah. I know where I sleep at night (St Jean), and I know where we go drinking on the weekend (Morzine).
Our trip this year is seven days, which is the longest stretch I've done before, previously it was five. Perhaps I'll take a day off, I don't know. Not sure either how many of us will be out there, probably eight, I'm thinking. Should be great! We head out on January 27, flying to Geneva and then the lovely chalet owner picks us up from the airport and transfers us to St Jean. He also drives us to and from the slopes each day, into Morzine for a night's drinking, and to the supermarket. There's a pub under the chalet and a restaurant behind it. What else could we want!
I must say it's great to be going snowboarding again. I look around Edinburgh during miserable weather and I think about friends back in Australia doing summery things. And then friends email and remind me of summery things, like sitting on my balcony in shorts, drinking and talking until 4am when the fatigue sends us inside, not the cold. But then I remind myself that with miserable weather comes a close proximity to mountains and snow, and I smile again. I think now I'm here, I'm going to push to go more often than just once a season. I have to get my money's worth on my new snowboard, after all.
It's a great snowboard, a Ride "Havoc" 162. Possibly the only thing that's lacking is it's taste in colour. It's bright yellow. I would have prefered the lovely subdued brown/white version but apparently snowboard designs change depending on the size you have, so everyone out there too tall to use the subdued colours get to ride a big banana. At least this way I won't lose it in the snow, I guess!
I was tempted by the Burton iPod jacket, but not for that long. It comes with an attachment which you slip into the jacket underneath a waterproof plasticy thing thats on the outside of the jacket. Not as high-tech as I originally imagined, I thought it was going to be embedded into the fabric and have great big buttons on the arm designed for big bulky gloves. I've seen snowboarding gloves with a watch embedded; the buttons are on the ends of the fingers so all you have to do is whack them in the general area. Given that I'd have to use fine motor skills to skip tracks, I'm better off just using the generic controls and getting a jacket that matches the style/colour etc I want, rather than buying it for the technology.
So yeah! I'm all set. I'll probably need goggles but I'll get those where I'm going. Which is Morzine! Well, not Morzine exactly, but St Jean d'Aulps. Not that we'll be skiing in St Jean, that's where we'll be staying. We'll be skiing Avoriaz. I don't know the names of the hills, people throw out all these names, Grand Terche, blah blah blah. I know where I sleep at night (St Jean), and I know where we go drinking on the weekend (Morzine).
Our trip this year is seven days, which is the longest stretch I've done before, previously it was five. Perhaps I'll take a day off, I don't know. Not sure either how many of us will be out there, probably eight, I'm thinking. Should be great! We head out on January 27, flying to Geneva and then the lovely chalet owner picks us up from the airport and transfers us to St Jean. He also drives us to and from the slopes each day, into Morzine for a night's drinking, and to the supermarket. There's a pub under the chalet and a restaurant behind it. What else could we want!
I must say it's great to be going snowboarding again. I look around Edinburgh during miserable weather and I think about friends back in Australia doing summery things. And then friends email and remind me of summery things, like sitting on my balcony in shorts, drinking and talking until 4am when the fatigue sends us inside, not the cold. But then I remind myself that with miserable weather comes a close proximity to mountains and snow, and I smile again. I think now I'm here, I'm going to push to go more often than just once a season. I have to get my money's worth on my new snowboard, after all.
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