The Passion of the Game

I recently asked my wife a seemingly innocent question, which went something like this...

Hey honey?
- Yes...

What are you passionate about? Like what do you have passion for?
(four second bizarre pause...)
- Helping kids...why?

Just asking...

So why is this important? Well for one thing, I realized, after a few hours of contemplation, that finding your one true passion is a hard fucking thing to do. I mean it's akin to climbing Mount Everest for me. It's like hitting that perfect golf shot...twice in a row.

So I thought about what I had been passionate about throughout my life, and I realized that amidst all the change, and growth I had gone through as a child, teen, adult and father, there had only been one or two things I had ever truly been passionate about. One is martial arts...I just loved to see Bruce Lee fight. The way he always kicked the shit outta those dumbass Japanese dudes, that could only speak with some lame cowboy accent, was just so awesome!

The second is kind of a tie between two things: Writing and Gaming, which is what this blog will be about.

Now writing, I think, is self explanatory. You write. Period. Poetry- songs - prose - anything. You put words onto paper, that simple. Not so easy to write something interesting, mind you, but writing is what it is.

Gaming, on the other hand, is not so simple to explain. I mean games have existed since the moon, and I wager (haha) that games will exist until the end of time (or at least until you role a natural 20...)...alas...I digress.

I remember playing games as a kid, with my family and friends, and never being really good at them, except for stuff like...ummm...well...Uno? Seriously, I never was a mastermind at game tactics or strategy. I loved playing things, and figuring out how things worked superficially, but never did I think too far in advance about how the game could be won, or lost. I just played for the rush of playing. That is, I did until I found AD&D, and to a lesser extent, Axis & Allies and Shogun (Samurai Swords).

My only exposure to anything mildly similar to a basic RPG had to be Monopoly. Now if you think about it, Monopoly is really a form of RPG. If you think about it, in Monopoly, you choose an avatar to play with, roll dice for movement, draw cards that have a semi-random effect on you, gather resources in the forms of money and property, while making decisions on your "TURN", to either build something or try to escape from jail. Sounds a lot like role playing to me...just add a Dwarf token, and change the word "jail" to "dungeon" and you're all set.

But really, Monopoly taught me at least two important concepts about gaming: Resources and Planning. It even taught me the relative value of possessions, which is akin to a player's strength attribute, or even the relative usefulness of a magic item, let's say. And although I never did consider myself any good at Monopoly, I was a better AD&D player, and a pretty strong force in both A&A, and Shogun. This due to perhaps some latent talent I might have owned, but probably due more to just being able to think outside of the box, which many of the gamers I have encountered in my life can do rather effortlessly.

I think that gaming has been, and will always be, a part of my life, because gaming, and writing, are my true passions. What are yours?