On Vidya Games, Indie Rock, and Playing Roles
I always figured I’d play World of Warcraft a hell of a lot more if I didn’t have to pay for it. I fully realize that Blizzard makes the majority of its money from the game, but I don’t want to feel like I have to put X hours per month into the game just to justify the $15 recurring fee. I’ve been neglecting my Xbox lately, too. It’s little more than a home theatre system at this point, letting me stream my (legally) downloaded movies and music from any one of my three computers. Occasionally I will play some dorky arcade game, but there’s never any ’staying power’ in them. Even now I hear the siren’s song of Modern Warfare 2. I lash myself to the chair and think to myself, “This is how Odysseus must have felt.”
In an effort to expand my musical horizons, I’ve been favoring remarkably vague tags for Last.fm’s radio application. Terms like “hip hop” and “indie”, while ambiguous, will sometimes yield interesting results. Other times, not so much. I’m listening to Passion Pit right now. I’m not sure how I should feel about this.
Kaitlin picked up a Neutral Milk Hotel album on vinyl. Those music snobs were right: vinyl sounds way better. I’ve always known, academically at least, that vinyl gives music a certain brightness that no digital medium could ever hope to reproduce. Hearing ‘In an Aeroplane Over the Sea‘ was pretty fun.
I’ve mentioned my IRC role playing addition several times. Lately, the game has begun to lose its appeal for me. The biggest ‘channel’ (chatroom) I played in basically died as a result of cliques and an unfriendly atmosphere. I found another channel to play in, but I find my interest waning daily. It’s a damn shame, because I love the way I’m able to stretch my creative muscles when I play. It’s been a few days and all I’ve really done is lurk and watch the whole genre in its death throes.
The weekend is upon us. In honor of these auspicious days, I’ve resolved to keep today’s physical activity to a bare minimum. Work this week was pretty long, even if it did go by fairly quickly, and I believe I’ve earned a few days respite.
