I think I will bite for this week’s talkback challenge. I also think I’m going to limit this to talking about becoming an online/computer gamer, rather than a gamer in general. I’m pretty old school when it comes to gaming. I’ve been playing tabletop games for longer than some of my readers have been alive. That passage of time just makes me feel old, so I won’t go into my origins playing Dungeons  & Dragons.

Instead, I will look back to the moment when I decided this whole computer gaming thing was pretty fun and addicting. It boils down to these 5 words: “Go for the eyes, Boo!”

Baldur’s Gate, with its familiar D&Desque feel, is the game that really made me willing to sit for hours and play a computer game. My husband had been trying to get me to play computer games for quite a while, but I’d never been able to get past my prejudice of seeing people who were so addicted to Everquest and the Evercrack jokes. I was a total skeptic when it came to spending so much time sitting at my computer.

But I finally decided to humor my hubby and at least try out an RPG. I fell in love with the humor, the storytelling and that silly hamster, and the rest is history.

We played Neverwinter Nights and endless hours of player created mods for the game. We hooked up primitive multiplayer connections to play through the game and player mods with our friends. Once I’d had a taste of adventuring in a group, MMOs were a natural progression. I got heavily into World of Warcraft raiding, theorycrafting, crafting, min/maxing, gear treadmilling my little heart out. But despite my time spent in MMOs, good storytelling in an RPG will always be my favorite place to escape.

(P.S. BioWare turned 20?! This makes me feel very old indeed.)