I’ve had some serious time off from online gaming for the last few weeks, and I’m torn about how often I’d like to repeat the experience.  I was never without a game of some sort in my possession, but being cut off from the internet had a strange effect on me.  Without the internet readily available at my fingertips I found myself using my laptop a lot less.  And by a lot less I mean not at all.  I have some of my favorite games installed on it: Myst IV, Homeworld, Morrowind.  Ah, sweet games.  But I couldn’t drum up the motivation to go to all the effort of getting the laptop out of its case and turning the thing on.  Online gaming feels almost social, but with other people around I couldn’t play a single player game without feeling like a complete loner.  Either that or I was just too sore from head to toe to bother with it.

Not that getting away from it all was a miserable experience.  I went up to Tahoe with a group of friends to celebrate New Years, and learned to snowboard while I was there.  I have to tell you this: it’s much more difficult than it looks in games like Dark Summit (if you’ve ever even heard of that - it’s a Gamecube snowboarding game) and Shaun Palmer’s Snowboarding, but it’s also much more rewarding.  It took me a solid 4 hours to learn to balance and turn one way, and another 8 or so to get comfortable turning both ways.  I decided to hold off trying to ride rails and do flips until my next trip.  Or maybe the one after that…

I really enjoyed getting out and being active again.  I’m definitely going to make it a goal to do so more often, even at the cost of connectivity.  I openly admit that I began suffering online gaming withdrawals by the end, but I had my Gamecube and some fun multiplayer games to ward off the worst of the symptoms.  It’s not quite the same, but it was fun to kick back and play with other people in the same room for a change.  I still love my online games, but there’s something to be said for being able to tackle the gold bomber when they’re doing too well.

I was happy to get home and drink in the essence of all that is the online world, but now I’ve also got the itch to go back and hit the slopes some more.  One day, I intend to get all the way down the mountain without any acrobatics or dramatic biffs.  Don’t you hate it when you’re doing really well, but screw up the second someone turns around to check your progress?

- Jinx

there’s beauty in the breakdown. so let go, just get in.