Everyone secretly hoped they weren't us, the overweight alabaster tourists on the beach smearing quarts of sunscreen around pale, hairy flesh. My wife burns almost instantly and although I can acquire an earnest workman brown, I spend most of my time indoors. You see, I sell cars on the internet, and I'm a gamer. This doesn't put me in the radiological line of fire very often.
I hate the word gamer. There is no escaping it, I have been one since the early 80's and I will likely die in front of a keyboard. But the word "gamer" is so inadequate. It fit when I was 9 years old playing Pitfall, but the moment I started playing BBS Role playing games, it lost it's ability to accurately describe what it is we do.
The software we use has evolved faster than the public perception of it. We aren't playing anymore, we are building cities and practicing social engineering. We are cornering markets and driving prices, we are organizing dozens of other human beings from all corners of the world around a single, improbably complex task. This is not a game, it is a calling.
Don't get me wrong, the various console systems available provide endless hours of true gaming. Your single player Xbox, Wii and PS3 games land smack dab in the middle of the very definition of the word. One person, or a small number of friends, compete or play cooperatively on a video roller coaster with a definite beginning and ending.
I'm describing something different, something new. The tip of this particular iceberg emerged nearly two decades ago. The MMORPG, Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. In 1997 Richard Garriott launched Ultima Online which allowed players to interact in a complex virtual world. More importantly, it worked. Thousands of people engaged together to overcome challenges, barter, and learn. Progression and permanence. When you log off the world breaths on without you.
...oops, chicken is done, brb.
