Social gaming

As I have mentioned before, I only have a single game going on right now. And honestly, as much as I would love to have more, I don’t really have the time or ability for more than that (though I wouldn’t mind if that one game was a bit more frequent). So, in order to get my gamer fix, I have resorted to re-upping my World of Warcraft account.

I’m actually enjoying it. I even got the Mists of Pandara expansion, which is cool because I can play an orc monk (he’s level 33 after only a couple of weeks of casual playing). And my account is getting plenty of use, as my three oldest kids are all playing it too.

But last night I had a bit of saddening epiphany.

I should preface this by explaining that I got into the game several years ago, and would often wile away evenings playing with my RL friends (with whom I would also meet once a week for tabletop games). We all played City of Heroes together as well, and we are all card-carrying altaholics. But, we had our signature characters that we would play together. So, in my mind, those characters are always associated with the memories of those friends.

And thus my sadness last night. I logged on to one of my first characters, a dwarf paladin named Stonegrimm. He was only 15th level, but I remember playing him a lot with my friends a couple of nights. Only last night, I was all alone. John’s gnome warlock wasn’t there, Richard’s dwarf warrior wasn’t there; and it was a little lonely. I played Stonegrimm for about fifteen minutes, getting him over to 16th level. It was cool to be in Loch Modan again, and to see the changes. But, it just wasn’t the same.

So, I went back to my orc and performed some kung fu on unsuspecting pirates in Booty Bay. That was cool. I just wish I could play with my old friends again.