I should find a time sink

[dagibbs]

WoW?
City of Heroes/City of Villains?
Eve?
Kingdom of Loathing?
Work?
Something else?

Hm...most of the above are MMORPGs. (Well, Eve might be strategy.) I wonder what there is in the way of strategy, rather than RPG. I know they definitely exist, too, but they don't seem to be the big names. But, they're what I've usually played.

Some distraction would probably be a good idea.

Comments

[mycrazyhair.livejournal.com]

Have you considered television? I spent many hours today watching The Daily Show and The Colbert Report on The Comedy Network website.

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

I don't actually own a television. Nor do I have cable in to the house. Buying a tv, then getting cable might be more than I want to pay.

[mycrazyhair.livejournal.com]

That's why I suggested the Comedy network stuff. Full episodes are available on their website. Just go here (http://watch.thecomedynetwork.ca/#clip111693), click on "Video Library" , choose your show on the left and then choose what clip you want to see. Both The Daily Show and The Colbert Report have full episodes available online, so you can just choose full episodes by date.

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

If I was low energy because of sick, watching tv might work. I might still try it. But, for distraction I tend to find getting involved in a game works better for me.

[mycrazyhair.livejournal.com]

*nods* TV isn't terribly interactive. That's why I usually go with a book. But if I find that I don't have the concentration for something more interactive, sometimes TV will distract me.

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

Yeah, concentration isn't the problem right now, distraction is.

Reading has this one big problem. Romance pops up all over the place -- and that's really what I'm looking to not be reminded of right now.

[zenten.livejournal.com]

What sort of requirements do you have in terms of time taken up? Does it have to be something you do at home, or would going out be OK? Also, how regular a schedule do you want?

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

I don't have strong requirements. The advantage of online games is that they're portable -- I travel with a laptop, and can play them while I'm on the road. Going out and doing something would be fine, too -- but something like an RPG campaign has the difficulty that I'm generally on the road about 40% of the time.

Also, once I'm back on my feet, climbing will take up some of my time, too.

And, I'm looking to fill things like weekend mornings. Or after I get home, but before I go to bed, even if I'm been out in the evening. As well as just free evenings or weekends.

I can't host gaming ALL the time. My friends will get gamed out.

[concordantnexus.livejournal.com]

I know truckers that play WoW, I have one in my guild. But really David, WoWCRACK is hard stuff, are ye sure that you want to go that route? ;)

[jagash.livejournal.com]

http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/

Very neat and very cheap games, well produced which I find most addictive. Also laptop friendly.

(Hope you don't mind that I friended you.)

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

Friending me is fine.

[beable]

And if you friend him back you can invite him gaming!

(I try to consider the important things)

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

You mean, he's a gamer? Nobody tells me ANYTHING.

[jagash.livejournal.com]

*chuckles* Just a bit of a gamer. Not much. :P

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

/me points you at: http://dagibbs.livejournal.com/405402.html

I'm talking board games there.

This is my collection: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/collection/user/dagibbs?own=1&ff=1

[jagash.livejournal.com]

Cool, partially depends on the potential chaos of busses with regards to gaming that day.

My collection is just starting out. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/collection/user/jagash

[jagash.livejournal.com]

Oh, you also might appreciate this community which I had made a week ago or so.
ottawa_oneshots

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

Ok, now he is on the 1337 gamez invite lizt.

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

Hm... look like mostly single-player RPGs. Not really my genre any more.

[jagash.livejournal.com]

*nods* Fair enough, they are rather well done on that respect and had the advantage of not requiring wifi.

[jagash.livejournal.com]

*well done examples of that genre

[zenten.livejournal.com]

http://games.asobrain.com/ ?

[con-girl.livejournal.com]

I think foms likes this site (it comes up in the web-browser continuously)

[beable]

I like trying to play dumb variations of Settlers on it. Like - seeing if I can use up all of my resources and get all the forts and longest road and stuff before one of the robots wins from under me.

Sadly, my current stupid online game addiction is on Facebook at the moment. It's a bunch of puzzles (analytical, calculating, memory, and observation) under a game banner called "Who Has the Biggest Brain".

[eviljohn.livejournal.com]

Time sink? You know about BSW right?

http://www.brettspielwelt.de/

[waterspyder.livejournal.com]

KOL! KOL!

[kd5mdk.livejournal.com]

One of my forums has an EVE Corporation that is apparently close to a big deal. The game sounds terribly fun and interesting, the sort of thing that would have flunked me out of college if it had existed/I'd known about it then.

[metalana.livejournal.com]

My favourite extracurriculars have been arts & crafts, music, and volunteering. Some of them even involve logic. If you haven't done much art/music, or found it frustrating in childhood, classes are a challenge & a revelation. Volunteering can add skills, such as people-management, to your resume if you so desire.

There are volunteer gigs that can be done intermittently or online. Most arts, crafts & music classes are skippable occasionally. There are lots of arts that can fit in a suitcase or be done on the computer.

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

I tried some piano lessons with gabriel_le earlier this year. I made a bit of progress, but not a lot. It didn't really hook me, though I am glad I tried it.

Once my foot is up to it, I do plan to continue my ballroom dancing lessons, even without gabriel_le.

And, they are the good ideas -- but they don't have that certain something that I'm really looking for here.

[mikepictor.livejournal.com]

Of that list, I have played a fair bit of WoW, and CoH.

Depending on where and how you want it to take you, I would suggest CoH. It's the most accepting mmorpg I have ever played of the casual gamer. You can literally hop on anytime, and hop off anytime. Play is repetitive, but fun. Gone for a week or two on business? Meh. Get back to it when you have free time.....or not.

WoW *can* be done the same way, but it's hard. Group play often takes a larger slice of time to do properly, and large parts of the game are out of reach without group play.

Just a perspective, since I know you don't want something that will suck you up completely. Eve I only ever tried the trial, and I couldn't stand it, your mileage may vary.

In terms of other time sinks, especially in winter (not so easy to just go out jogging or some such), consider volunteering, or learning a musical instrument (something smallish you can take with you on business....a flute maybe).

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

Musical instruments are not a good choice -- too much association with gabriel_le.

Sounds like CoH would be a better choice than Wow.

[mikepictor.livejournal.com]

There is an outside chance I may get back into myself when the Mac client comes out (should be in beta soon), maybe I'll see you in there.

[i-and-t.livejournal.com]

Well,

I'm sinking some of my time *cough* into Warhammer online. I quite like it, but, I also played warhammer for 20 years, so, there is a little bit of backstory for me there.

No need to be on all the time at the same time etc.. lots of public quests, just walk over and join, then leave, it's a little different than WoW in that respect.

T.

[con-girl.livejournal.com]

I actually like, for mindless consumption of time, some of the free quick games on yahoo.

[xiphia.livejournal.com]

EVE, and to a lesser extent WAR (which wasn't on your list) involve some amount of strategy, due primarily to the pvp/rvr elements. EVE ship-building and talent planning used to require some analytical thinking, but there are so many helper tools out there now, you can generate yourself an automated "training prescription" that removes all the thinky bits, so I wouldn't call that part "strategy" anymore.

Both of the above offer short-term free trials (EVE 14-days, WAR 7-days), as does WoW (10-days), if you wanted to "try before you buy". Be careful about using MMOs as a deliberate escape though, they can sometimes work a little TOO well for that. You're probably too smart (or at least too extroverted) to fall into that trap though, so I'll add that they're definitely great for an occasional needed distraction, or to simply pass a few hours here and there, as they're both immersive and always available. They also travel well. If you decide to go with WAR or WoW, I can point you to servers where you will know a few people, if that appeals. If you go with EVE, everyone is on a single server so it's not an issue.

If you want an alternative to MMOs, there are some great single-player strategy games out there too, some of which are free and/or downloadable from the author's websites, so you could try several until you find one that grabs you. I'll dig through my collection and see if I can come up with a list of titles/links that might appeal to you.

[reyl.livejournal.com]

Come play WoW with me! I play casually, mostly questing. I can give you an invite code for a free trial if you want. I usually play in the evening, around 8 or 9 for an hour. I don't play every night. I am proof that it is possible to play without being an addict. I also belong to a guild which includes people I know in real life in Ottawa/Montreal.

If you decide to play, I'm on Ghostlands server and my character is Huurf.

[http://users.livejournal.com/niall_/]

A bit late, but... I play a light, limited imitation of WoW called Perfect World (http://www.perfectworld.com), from China though with international servers. Three races to choose from, six possible "career" choices, and basic killgrinding with the occasional quest require instant-group, without a need to join a "faction". And it's completely free. I play when I have time, and ignore the chatter. Very easy to do.

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

From xiphia:

: This game caught a number of geeky friends attention: http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/features.html

It was written by a mathematician, not a programmer, so the detail in the world is unbelievable. Weather patterns etc. Uses a lot of random number generators, etc. Also, the graphics are old adventure-style ascii graphic. hehe