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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wombat" data-source="post: 2740054" data-attributes="member: 8447">Why game?Why breathe?Okay, maybe not that bad, but...  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />When I was a little kid I loved tales of King Arthur and the Greek & Norse myths.  I grew up on that stuff; it worked its way into the bones.  As such I wanted to be able to be part of those stories.I played miniatures wargames for several years.  This was kinda fun, but there ended up being a lot of arguments about the rules, and sometimes there were hard feelings after a game -- winners vs. losers.  Even buddies would get on each other's nerves.  I love storytelling and acting.  A tale well-told is a beautiful thing and taking on a voice and characterization is fascinating to me.  I like pretending to be someone else and having them, at least for that brief moment, believe it to be true.Now take all three elements, shake vigorously, and what do you get?I game with friends, or rather all the people who I game with become buddies or I stop gaming with them.  I wouldn't want to game with just random folks, folks who I wouldn't invite to dinner, allow to play with my nieces & nephews, or trade stories with.  Why?  Well, because I am a very social person and gaming is a very social situation.  I am far less worried about the rules than about the social interactions.  My games are often based on moral conundrums, personality conflicts, and other social interactions -- the combat is there, but it is the spice of the situation, not the primary reason for gaming.  And if I am going to deal with these sorts of situations, I want to make sure the people I game with are compatible, not only to the game and game system, but also with each other.  Cook a meal with someone and you learn a lot about them.  I would cook with any of my game buddies.There are no "winners" or "losers" in our games, except on a personal goals level.  I have seen players stand proud when their characters have died, knowing that they died for a purpose and/or covered with glory.  I have heard players tell real tales of their characters years after the fact and in such a way that non-gamers are intrigued, impressed, and excited.  Some of the worlds we have created cooperatively have become real in our minds; two of them have become the basis of on-line small group fiction.  I feel excessively proud of that notion.Games are about grand stories, about realistic characters, about the sweep of epics and the small victories of life, about friendship, about shared experience, and about friendship yet again.I've been gaming for 30 years now.I only regret a handful of games.Ludo, ergo sum.   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f60e.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":cool:" title="Cool    :cool:"  data-smilie="6"data-shortname=":cool:" /></blockquote>

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