Schilling says, "A: On the road when my family doesn't travel I play every night, and usually very, very late. I have a Dell laptop that I play on. At home I play almost every night. Depending upon the circumstances, sometimes I can pull an all nighter :)"

Schilling a level 49 monk, strikes out NL players. What a headline. Next thing you'll hear about is, "I couldn't make the Cubs - Diamondback game.... I just had to camp Venril Sathir ya know?" Well, I hope it doesn't go that far, and the guys a pretty great pitcher ya know? back to back 300k strikeout seasons with the Phillies. pretty impressive, the pitching that is!

etc

Yeah, Schilling's a great pitcher. He fanned 19 in a game once too, I think.

The lead singer for Blue Oyster Cult is a big gamer too. He plays games at night in his hotel when they're on the road. When I talked to him at a Simutronics convention a few years back he said he wished he could work for a game company.

Gaming's a bit of a guilty pleasure for a lot of people. They don't like to talk about it at work quite often, though I think that stigma's disappearing.

The stigma hasn't disappeared at the big five accounting firms. I feel like a secret agent sometimes. I can't wait to get my CPA hours in and make a break for freedom. Does anyone know of any gaming companies looking for accounting/finance help?

-Rob

Ditto for the Fortune 500. I generally refer to my gaming hobby as, "I have an interest in computers."

It is strange that a two hour conversation about getting par on a par 5 hole last weekend is ok and considered professional where as molding your Diablo II Amazon into an unstoppable, pike-carrying killing machine that required about 30 hours of work is not.

-DavidCPA

The funny thing is, I bet there are a number of closet gamers at the places you guys work. How would you ever know, though, without talking about it?

Yes. It is a Catch 22. And it is a shame because everything about the industry would improve (game availablity, quality, competition, variety) if it weren't so damn taboo. But, I'm just not comfortable having this conversation:

Co-worker: So Rob what did you do this weekend?
Rob: Oh, I downloaded the Flashpoint demo and played it all day Sunday! It was great. And the first person perspective didn't make me want to barf for once. It must have been the outdoor environments.
Co-worker: Ehh..what? Is this a game?
Rob: Sure! It rocks. I played from 2 in the afternoon until midnight.
Co-worker: You played a computer game and it was 85 degrees out?
Rob: Yup. It was hot. I didn't even bother with underwear. Totally worth it though.
Co-worker: That's great Rob. Go photocopy this for me...


Sorry this is tongue in cheek, but the "game" label really makes it difficult. On top of that, I am pretty much treated like a heathen by my girlfriend for my choice of hobby (and I hate that word hobby). She pretty much makes me constantly aware that "normal" people aren't into this. She's too good to dump over it though.

However, I know we are out there, and I mean beyond this excellent website. I went to Manhattan this weekend to visit my g/f's ex-Law School roommates. We went to a couple of different apartments, and in both there was a playstation under the TV. These were corporate attorneys and investment bankers. I know that where a playstation exists, the possibility for more exists too. Of course, nobody talked about it, but some guy was yammering about golf all night.

Sad to say, but I pretty much figure that I'll be at a much smaller company before I find any like minded people. I will probably have to hire them. Hmmm... that's not a bad idea. Tell your friends to put "gamer" down on their resume under interests, and pretty soon we could have knots of gamers all working together all around the country.

Yearning for the revolution,

Rob

I was at a party last weekend hosted by a friend of mine that works for Boeing here in Saint Louis, and he was talking about a Boeing Battletech Tounament (the pen and paper variety). I can't imagine talking about games being "taboo" over there. Maybe it depends on the type of place you work.

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Quote:

She pretty much makes me constantly aware that "normal" people aren't into this.

---

My wife is starting to get it. I told her my playing games is like her buying purses and shoes... ;-)

About Boeing, yeah, I imagine a bunch of engineering types have all played a lot of games at one time or another.

Isn't gaming a big activity at college dorms? Anything to keep from studying, right?

I know I played a lot in college. There were quite a few others, too -- some playing Warcraft 2 and such, but most were playing consoles. Why is console gaming so much more mainstream than PC gaming?

Still, I wouldn't say the majority of people were gaming. Maybe a third or so. Granted, that's probably a better percentage than the "real world", but it's still not much.

"These were corporate attorneys and investment bankers."

Attorneys and investment bankers into computer games? Hey Bruce, imagine that!

I basically failed a class in my last semester in college because of playing NHLPA '93 on the Sega Genesis along with Streets of Rage 2. Back then, PC gaming wasn't nearly as "cool" as it is now thanks to LAN connections in the dorms. But if you were a hockey or football god on the Genesis, you had the respect of your peers.

I had the respect of mine, but also a summer to think about finishing my degree. :)

--Dave

Jeez... Remember PC gaming back in 1993? Pre-Wolfenstein it was, and I didn't know anyone who could run X-Wing or Wing Commander effectively.

My College days were all about the Genesis and EA's NHL series. Just like in the movie "Swingers"

-Andrew

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Quote:

Jeez... Remember PC gaming back in 1993? Pre-Wolfenstein it was, and I didn't know anyone who could run X-Wing or Wing Commander effectively.

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(hitches pants up to chest...)

Ultima 7? eh, sonny?

I remember playing Ultima -1 (Akalabeth), finishing it, and calling the phone number it gave when you won the game. Richard Garriot himself answered the phone (he was a one man operation at the time) and he sent an Akalabeth T-shirt.

Jeff

During my first semester in college (Fall 88), I got hooked on a space exploration game though, for the life of me, I cannot remember its name. I know that you earned credits for completing missions so you could upgrade your ship and crew. Each crew member got armor and weapons for use in boarding other ships and going hand to hand with the other crew. It was a game that took me a few weeks to beat including several quarter to three (hehe) sessions back at home during the Christmas break. I believe the name was something like Space Commander or Star Commander.

This game along with Bird vs Jordon 1-on-1 cemented my interest in PC gaming. Nothing past the Atari 2600 ever caught my attention on the console front.

And you still have that shirt right Lackey?
Right?
I know people who'd pay a lot for it.

-Andrew

Actually, Romero offered me a ton for it a while back - he and I were engaged in an email exchange on old Apple II games. He offered me $5000 for my complete collection of Softalks (I turned him down) and more for the shirt (which I would have taken him up on - but I was in the middle of a move from Texas to Michigan and couldn't find the shirt.)

Jeff

Heh, I just got a "news tip" from someone who seems to think I still do Beatdown.

www.johnromero.com has gay porn all over it.

Was it hacked or is this a new side to John Romero?

I used to go to the 24 hour computer labs when I was a freshman in college (1986) and copy and play games all night long sometimes. I made it through my first semester based on my knowledge carried over from high school. The 2nd semester I wasn't so lucky. :P

I was in a couple of NFL Challenge leagues (that game ruled). My crowning achievement was winning our non-playoff team league "Super Bowl" with Boomer Esiason's 86 Bengals 66-21 over the 86 Chargers lead by Dan Fouts. From a pure playcalling perspective I haven't seen a game that rivals NFL Challenge ever.

"And you still have that shirt right Lackey?
Right? I know people who'd pay a lot for it."

Can I get anything for my "I got the Babel Fish" t-shirt?

I didn't really know what multiplayer gaming was until I played Mechwarrior 2 on the dorm LAN my freshman year (1996-97). I also discovered the pain that was a Stormcrow armed only with an Ultra AC-20. Hehehe. Before that, I had played a couple games of Descent and Doom 2 versus one player over a modem, not very entertaining when you suck at it, though I was ok at Descent.

I think the games we spent the most time playing on the LAN were Quake 1 Teamfortress and Starcraft. God bless 2Fort4.

Back on topic: I'm not a baseball fan at all. I think it's the most boring sport that's televised, but I think it's cool hearing about celebrities that play games.

Heh, my Freshman year in college ('89-90), we had this big Nintendo RBI tournament on my floor (played mostly in my dorm room, actually). Set up a schedule, brackets, etc. I did pretty well with the Mets, but a guy playing the Twins won it.

Was a blast, though not at all conducive to studying.

I had an Apple IIc that I wrote papers on, but didn't have a lot of games for it (probably a good thing).


- Raife

www.johnromero.com is down, so it was probably hacked. Gay porn on his site is pretty funny, though. I wonder if anyone saved it?

I loved RBI Baseball on the Nintendo. It was goofy, but fun.

As far as playing games at college, back when I went no one had PCs. I know, it was the stone age. The only gaming I did was a little D&D now and then. Mainly I was interested in girls and beer.

I looked at it, briefly. It was very explicit stuff. I just didn't ... um... want to "save it".
Though the journalist in me wanted to. At least I think that was the journalist in me.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

-Andre

Lots of people at work know I am a gamer, but it is kind of expected since I am the "computer law" guy. I will even read gaming magazines in the lunch room (assuming the ads in that issue are tame - not too much blood or cleavage). However, I never ever bring it up around clients. I like to dream that some day we will invite clients to play on the company server instead of a round of golf, but I still doubt I will ever see the day.

My college multiplayer experience was all on Appletalk networks, mostly Mazewars and Nettrek on early Macs. As far as geek gear, I've got an Atari Vindicators t-shirt from beating the arcade game, but I don't think it is worth too much. I sold my first edition copy of Deities and Demigods (with the copyright violations) on ebay for about $125 last year, which is the high for unloading any of my old stuff.

Oh, and the "all machineguns" light mech worked great for me in MW2 mulitplayer. 10 MGs x 2 damage each = 20 damage per shot, and no heat.

In college we played D&D. And pinball. And Defender, and Asteroids, and Battlezone (the original) and Missile Command. Hell, it was 1979 and no one had a computer, dang it. Oh, we had Atari 2600s I think.

It was 1993, and I was the premiere Maddens player east of the Mississippi. The version was Maddens 92, and we played relentlessly in an ex-girlfriends house (who had moved away to Florida and asked me to "take care" of the house for her parents until it was sold), which we called the Decadence Engine. People would cycle in and out of the house, but the constant was the Sega Genesis glimmering in the corner of the dining room, surrounded by grim cyberathletes. I can still remember my unstoppable play: using the Seahawks I would run a crossing pattern which sent Derrick Fenner out from the slot position. He was pretty much unstoppable in that version. If I got board though, I would pro-form it and send both Fenner and John L Williams into the flats. As Dave said above, I totally had the respect of my peers, and it felt good. Of course, the rest of the time I toiled away in a deadend job, getting drunk, and begging my ex-g/friend to come back during our semi-nightly 3 hour angst-ridden, idiotic, foolish phone calls.

Ah, the good ole days.

-Rob