About Me

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Seattle, Washington, United States
I'm an old time roleplayer who became a soldier who became a veteran who became a developer who became a dba who became a manager who never gave up his dream of a better world. Even if I have to create it myself.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Realism != Fun

Tempted to disagree?  Fine.  Let's play a game where you go to work all day and do boring shit that I want you to do so that I can get rich while you stay poor.  Then I'm gonna go live in my mansion with my servants and my 12-car garage and my personal chef and think of ways to pay you less.

Meanwhile, you can sit in your little straw hut and eat leftovers again while you watch sitcoms on your 12-inch tube television.  Maybe if you are really lucky, you'll get to hear your neighbors having sex later, just to remind you how alone you are.

Sound harsh?  That's realism.  Oh, what's that?  You didn't mean realism in jobs?  You meant realism in the fun stuff, like combat?  Fine, let's talk about that.

I served in the US Army for 4 years.  Trust me, realism in war is way worse than realism in jobs.

You do not want to spend your recreational time trying to realistically experience war.

In war, people you love die, and they don't come back with an XP penalty.  They die horribly.  They scream in excruciating pain and there's no such thing as cure critical wounds.  Truly evil people genuinely want to hurt you and everything you care about.  You fight not for adventure, but because you have to protect what you care about.  Sometimes you do shitty and horrible things to other human beings just to survive.

Why the hell would anyone want to play at that?  Stick to fictional melodrama, and make it fun.  Cheese it up, laugh with your friends, speak in funny voices, and cast ridiculous spells that make almost no sense at all.

Rest assured, real life will come crashing in to destroy your fantasy.  It doesn't need your help.

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