Firstly, apologies for the appallingly long absence. I promise it won't happen again.
This game review thing is really taking off. I submitted a review of an old point-and-click game called Hugo's House of Horrors to a retro gaming website and they liked it so much that they've asked me to review some other games and I'm actually in the process of conducting an email interview with the game designer himself!
I'm so chuffed to have had positive comments on my work. I've always suffered from quite a bit of low self esteem - another reason WoW appealed to me in the past was feeling a sense of self achievement in-game that I thought I couldn't get in real life - so to finally realise I have a skill is brilliant! And better still, that skill incorporates my love of gaming! There's a real delicious irony to that, especially since I'm in a real "stick two fingers up at Blizzard" frame of mind at the moment.
Speaking of which, I hear that Blizzard have got their knickers in a twist at the moment about the rival MMORPG Rift. A couple of WoW-buddies I'm still in touch with tell me that mentioning the word Rift in WoW-chat, in any context whatsoever, is getting players instantly banned. I find this ridiculous; Blizzard must be seriously worried if they are this threatened by a bit of healthy competition. Can you imagine the chaos throughout Azeroth at the moment? "Oh yeah, there's a bit of a rift in my guild at the mo.....huh - wtf? What do you mean my account's banned? ****nerd rage****" And yes, I am sniggering smugly to myself as I type this.
In other news, my Open University Psychology course is in full swing and it's a lot of fun. It feels so nice to be learning again. Most recently I've been reading about the "consumer society", and how we consume things to maintain a sense of identity. That's exactly what I was doing with WoW. It gave me a sense of identity. I had to surround myself with WoW-friends, read Elitist Jerks all day, buy merchandise - all just to feel secure about who I was. I've carved a new identity for myself now and I like this person much better!
