Cobalt Valkyrie’s ship, which commonly hangs out in wormhole space her corporation lives in.

GDG: How did you get into playing EVE?

CV: I was playing this random flash game with a steampunk airship aesthetic.  I was the leader of a clan, and one of the people I played with told me on several occasions that I’d probably really like this game called Eve.  He didn’t play because he didn’t have time with school, but kept trying to convince me I’d love it.  Finally, I signed up for the free trial, and was immediately hooked.

GDG: Why EVE and not a different MMO?

CV: Honestly, I think it was a right time/right place sort of thing.  I’ve been into other games in the past, but stopped due to RSI problems.   Eve turned out to be a good game for me in that regard, because you don’t have to constantly clutch the mouse and button mash to accomplish things.  That allowed me to play long enough to make social connections, and get to appreciate the depth of the game.  That depth is one of the reasons I still play – there is so much to do in Eve that you don’t get bored easily.

GDG: How did you learn the ins and outs of the game?

CV: Because there are so many things you can do in Eve, I was overwhelmed by my choices at first and had no idea what I wanted to do.  I joined Eve University, which is a corporation specifically designed towards helping noobs learn about the game.  While there, I went out on a PvP fleet and immediately knew how I wanted to spend my game time.  I became friends with a tight knit group of combat pilots, and they became my mentors.  I also spent a lot of time reading wikis and forums to learn how various mechanics worked,  and, as always, I learned some things the hard way (namely, via getting exploded).

GDG: Do you consider yourself part of a particular EVE community?

CV: Several, I suppose.  There is my corporation, which is analogous to a clan in other MMOs.  This is the group of people that I’m on comms with and regularly fly with.  Additionally, I’m part of “The Sound,” which is an in-game chat channel for Seattle area Eve players.  I organize occasional RL meetups for this group.  There is also the WGoE, Women Gamers of Eve, a channel specifically for Eve’s female players.  It’s a nice place to hang out and talk with other people who know what it’s like to constantly hear “OMG, is that a GIRL on comms?!”

GDG: Can you tell me the type/model of your ship?

CV: It’s a Proteus, which is a Strategic Cruiser. There are four different strategic cruisers in the game, one corresponding to each race.  The Proteus is the Gallente Strategic Cruiser.

They’re neat because they’ve much more configurable than other ships.  Most ships, they’re set up a certain way and that’s what you have to work with.  They have set characteristics, and a certain number of slots… places to put modules such as weapons, defensive reinforcements, etc.  Strategic cruisers are very flexible, because they have different Subsystems that you plug in (for lack of a better term) to your ship hull, and each subsystem gives you different numbers of slots and abilities.  They’re especially popular with people that fly in wormhole space all the time, because they’re fairly small and lightweight (important because wormholes only allow a limited mass to pass through), but they have very strong offensive/defensive capabilities.”

GDG: Who would you recommend EVE to?

CV: Eve isn’t a game for everyone.  Some people liken it to a second job more than a game.  I frequently hear people say Eve isn’t always fun, but it’s very rewarding, and I agree with that sentiment.  It has a lot of complicated mechanics, and most people I know play Eve with multiple spreadsheets open.  That said, it’s an amazingly expansive world, with many ways to entertain yourself.  It’s a very social game – it’s not really designed for solo play. I’ve made some great friends though Eve.

Ultimately, I’d say if you like spaceships, and you like a world with a lot of depth, it’s worth checking out.

Have fond memories of your first MMO? Share them in the comments!

Recently a new patch came out for World of Warcraft. Normally, this wouldn’t be a big deal – a new raid, some new tweaks – except this one actually has a potentially game-changing addition: the new Raid Finder. With the Raid Finder, you can quickly join a 25-man “easy mode” version of the new raid, which, incidentally, is the end-game content. Suddenly, even the most casual of players can easily experience downing Deathwing.

Allow me to back up: I’ve been playing World of Warcraft since the Burning Crusade expansion, sure, but for the first few years I was the most casual of casual players. I merrily solo’ed my way through several alts, getting up to level 20 or so, getting bored, and starting a new class or race. I rarely ever came into contact with other players. And I had the opposite of WoW addiction: I actually shut off my account for a good six months or more, only renewing when Lich King came out.

Since then I’ve been much more involved, but I still qualify as a casual raider. I saw the fall of the Lich King months after most did; I never did see any of the Burning Crusade end-game content.

However, the Cataclysm expansion as a whole feels different from the others from the start. There’s a much stronger storyline at work; we’ve seen Deathwing from the very beginning of the expansion (heck, we tracked his movements so we could get an achievement for getting toasted by his breath). When I solo’ed through the new levels, the final quests were cliffhangers more than anything. I wanted to know what would happen! And for most casual players, unless they were willing to wait months or grind for weeks, and probably get majorly stressed, they never would see the end of Cataclysm.

Now we have Raid Finder. And guess what? I’ve already finished the raid on Easy mode. I’ve downed Deathwing. For the first time, I’ve played an expansion through from beginning to end in a timely manner. I’m not done with Cataclysm – I’m not even done punishing Deathwing – but I feel satisfied. There are achievements to get, but at the very least, I now know what happens.

Now, you’re bound to hear complaints about the “LFR” (looking for raid) groups. Sure, half of them might not know what’s going on. Sure, there’s a lot less finesse when it comes to raid strategy. If you’re the kind of person who likes things done right, your brain may well melt.

On the other hand, it’s just plain fun. In a normal PUG raid you might get stuck on trash. People might get impatient and grumpy. There’s so much tension. In a LFR group you’re blowing through for the experience, getting gear and getting a better sense of the fights so that should you attempt a normal raid, you’re better prepared. And most importantly: you can go through the raid that ends with Deathwing, from beginning to end, in one evening.

If you’re the sort of casual player who didn’t even know about the new patch and its changes, I urge you to check out the new dungeons, get geared up, and give the Raid Finder a whirl. It’s not the raiding experience of old – and for some, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

What about you?

Have you tried the Raid Finder? Casual or hardcore, how does this affect your gaming experience?

Their master, Depa Billaba, shook her head sadly. “I’ve told you Mirak,” she sighed. “I cannot teach you. There is too much anger in you.”

“It’s alright, Master,” Mirak said, drawing two lightsabers. “I have a new master now.”

He ignited his sabers, and they sprang forth with red blades. Then, in the darkness behind him, a third blade ignited, bringing into view a tall form in black. As he strode forward, I described that he was accompanied by a strange, mechanical hissing sound, eerie and inhuman.

I then played a sound effect of Darth Vader’s breathing, three times in a row. Around the table, my players’ faces fell into a mixture of disbelief and horror.

And then I told them that I thought that seemed like a good cliff-hanger ending for the session, causing curses, howls of frustration, and a flurry as everyone pulled out their date-books to determine when our next game would be.

Now, there are two lessons anyone running a tabletop RPG can pull from this. Yes, ending a game on a cliff-hanger that’ll have your players biting their nails is a great idea. But that cliff-hanger wouldn’t have been a cliff-hanger at all if one of my players had said, “Maybe I’m not getting this…who is it?”

Dark Vader is an icon of the Star Wars setting. So much so that it’s his image that graces the front cover of the Star Wars Saga Edition rulebook. Why did I decide to include him? Was it to give my players a big challenge? No, not at all. In fact, he mostly ignored the players, who fought Mirak and a number of re-programmed training droids. Instead, Vader tried to tempt them to the Dark Side with words, while simultaneously dueling Depa Billaba. So why did I include him? Simply because he *is* an icon of the Star Wars setting.

Don’t Be Afraid of Icons

I know a lot of GMs who say things like, “Well, I run a game set in the Forgotten Realms, but I don’t use the iconic characters or settings.” When I hear that, I always say, “What’s the point?” If you’re going to divorce the game from these iconic elements, why bother setting it in the Forgotten Realms, or the Star Wars universe, or the DC Comics universe, or what have you? Just run a homebrewed game and be done with it. If your players seemed enthusiastic to play a game set in one of those locales, odds are, they were excited thinking about their wizard striking against the Red Wizards of Thay, or their scoundrel trying to make a reputation to rival that of Han Solo, or their superhero to fight Lex Luthor or the Joker.

As you may have guessed, I’m a big fan of using the iconic elements in my stories. My Star Wars characters are part of the Rebellion, and they’ve met Han, Luke, Leia, Chewie, Darth Vader, Jabba the Hutt, and others over the course of the game. We’ve had adventures on Hoth, on Tatooine, on Kashyyyk, and the climax of the game is coming up on the Forest Moon of Endor, and in the huge space battle above it. I have some hardcore Star Wars geeks, too, so when I drop a minor character in like Ponda Baba, Tyber Zann, or Charal, a lot of my players grin slyly. Heck, they battled my own version of Darth Traya, an aged and bitter Asajj Ventress from the time period of the Clone Wars.

It’s all about taking what you love from the setting, winnowing out the awfulness, and running a great game.

For example, per continuity, Depa Billaba, an actual character from the Clone Wars time period, was officially “missing, presumed dead” following the Jedi Purge. I took the character, complete with her background as Mace Windu’s student and having fallen to the Dark Side once, and moved her into a new place in the continuity. To the players who recognized the character, it was a cool moment. When she later gave her PC padawan a purple –bladed lightsaber and said, “This used to belong to my Master,” everyone at the table got a little shiver of awe. If I had used a generic Jedi mentor, it wouldn’t have meant as much.

If your game is set in the real world, then you’ve got tons of icons to choose from. One of my Call of Cthulhu games was set in October of 1926, and the death of Harry Houdini, friend and patron to the player characters, was an important event in the story, as was the secret story about Houdini and Arthur Conan Doyle’s friendship…one they had to mask in false enmity for years to protect one another.

Pick and Choose Your Icons

Let’s face it; there are some things in the settings we love that we don’t love. I don’t love the three prequel movies…not at all. But they expanded the Star Wars universe, giving new history, new locales, new aliens, and yes, new icons to exploit. I actually used the icon of Jar Jar Binks, not by having Jar Jar show up in my story, but by introducing a very serious young gungan named Anakin Binks. Ani said that his father had named him after a close friend, and he acted like he had a lot to make up for. He wasn’t a major part of my campaign, but discussion of the NPC outside of the game showed that my players liked the idea a lot.

I have never run a game set in the DC Universe, but I’m sure I will someday, especially now that Green Ronin has put out a DCU RPG I would actually want to run. When I do, I’m sure I won’t be setting my story during the time of the Detroit-based Justice League. Oh, no. My League will be the big names, headquartered on the Watchtower, a team to be proud of. The players will likely be rubbing elbows with heroes, villains, and civilians from the comics. Maybe not the big ones at first. Maybe they’ll get a burger at Bibbo’s, or catch an episode of Jack Ryder’s “You Are Wrong!” that focuses on them, or tangle with a villain like Queen Bee and the Hive. But they’ll slowly build up to gain the notice of the big names, both for good and for bad.

That’s one thing that the DCU MMORPG handles well, but differently. You jump right in and fight Brainiac drones, Gorilla Grodd’s minions, and Circe’s bestiamorphs. You feel heroic right off the bar, but where do go once you’ve fought alongside Superman?

Don’t Overuse the Icons

Now, this is important. Don’t go crazy with this idea. If your game is nothing *but* icons, then your players will get bored, and the impact won’t be as high. The trick is to use them sparingly, or to make them part of the background. Luke, Han, and Leia aren’t important parts of my story. They’re just people who’re off having their own adventures, intersecting the players’ lives now and then back at whatever dump of a planet the Rebellion is using as a base at the moment.

Likewise, when I play Lord of the Rings online, I’m glad I’m not constantly tripping over the Fellowship all the time. They’re there, and I know I’m helping their cause, but I’m not checking in with them all over the place. I also like that the game has developed into some areas that weren’t specifically important to the Fellowship’s quest, like Angmar, Evendim, Forochel, and Enedwaith. These areas are barely touched on in the books, other than a hint of background. This means that the legends forged in these regions are uniquely mine. Well…as unique as possible when you know hundreds of other players who have also recovered the legendary lost ring Narchuil, almost captured Gollum in the Trollshaws, and slain the terrible turtle Nornegil.

Icons of Your Own

You may be reading this thinking, well, I run a homebrew campaign. I guess this article isn’t for me.

Well, you’d be dead wrong, pally!

I run a homebrew D&D game myself. My game is centered around a town called Seowyn’s Crossing, named for the famous general Seowyn Greenfields who led his armies across the Silver Falls river near where the town was built, thus coming to the aid of the elves of Faerinwold, and…oh, well…you get the point. The players come from a town named for him, the local baron is named Greenfields and is a direct descendent, and there’s a statue of him on the town green. So do you think this fellow’s an icon of my campaign? You betcha. When the players found his tomb, a real sense of reverence came up, and people seemed really awed at the find. They’d touched an icon, and one that really is uniquely theirs and mine.

Share Your Iconic Experiences

Have you ever met an NPC in a campaign and thought, “Aw man! I always wanted to meet this guy”? Or been playing game and came to a locale and thought, “Oh, how cool! I love this place”? Or had some similar experience? Or if you’re a GM, have you used an icon particularly well in your campaigns? Share your story, and maybe you’ll inspire someone else to do the same.

Since that chaotic event, many previously ordinary citizens had gained superpowers. Two of them happened to be passing each other in the corridors of the Watchtower, the Justice League of America’s famous orbiting satellite, when they paused to regard each other.

One was dressed in a tight-fighting costume of black, white, and red, colors striking and bold. He carried a bow, and he had gained mystic powers over fate and sorcery. The other was extremely tall and broad, having been enhanced by the exobytes’ touch. His costume colors were rusts and browns, accented in gold. He used no weapon other than his huge fists, and he had some powers over nature, as well.

The two had paused, because both had chosen the same emblem…a bear paw. They regarded each other uncertainly, then some signal was given without words. They both relaxed, grinned, shook hands. The Watchtower was no gay bar, but these two bears had found each other nonetheless.

It’s my superhero story, after all, and it would *not* be approved by the Comics Code Authority!

The funny thing is, it’s also true!

The Heroes

Now, I need another time sink like I need a hole in the head, but here I am, playing DC Universe Online. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a superhero-themed MMORPG, specifically based around the DC Comics universe, stories, and characters. It launched earlier this month, and it’s already capturing my interest in ways other MMORPGs have not.

Firstly, there’s the DC Comics angle. I’ve been a fan of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and all the rest for years and years. I’m an avid reader and a font of trivia on these characters, so getting to play a game set in this world is a blast. I played the original superhero MMORPG, City of Heroes, but I ultimately stopped because I just didn’t care about the world it was set in. Who were these people? Should I care if the town is threatened by sentient plants? I just couldn’t get attached.

Now, however, I’m in Metropolis or Gotham City. I *know* these places. I care about them. When I see Detective Bullock on the streets of Gotham, I grin, because this is a character I know the history and disposition of. When I hear that Gorilla Grodd is threatening the citizens of Metropolis, I spring into action, because evil, super-intelligent psionic gorillas cannot be allowed to devolve those poor people into his gorilla slaves!

There are many, many choices in creating a character. You can customize your costume almost into minutiae, and there are tons of different power combinations. You can even decide between being a hero and a villain. And let me tell you, the villainous content is *really* dark. Personally, I prefer being the hero.

It’s also worth mentioning that the game doesn’t make you work your way up to awesomeness. Your powers are pretty great right off the bat. I remember trying to play a character that flies in City of Heroes. At lower levels, you just kind of hovered or levitated. It took a lot of work to get to a level where you could actually fly with any sort of speed. In DCUO, I was flying around from the tutorial on. The iconic powers are there right from the start. And you’re not just fighting muggers or “rats”. You start right off by escaping Brainiac’s ship, smashing through his army of robots. No sooner are you on the ground than you’re fighting the Joker’s goons, or Grodd’s gorilla army, or punching your way through zombies. It feels much more heroic.

And you may be just one hero out of many in the DC universe, but it doesn’t feel that way. You’re rubbing elbows with Superman, rescuing the Teen Titans, and fighting alongside the Flash in no time at all. You feel like a hero worthy of his or her own comic.

And what’s more, it’s just so danged pretty! I sometimes find myself flying around Metropolis or leaping around Gotham, just looking around, feeling heroic, smiting an occasional hoodlum, then heading back up into the air. The details are rich. Gotham is filthy and dark, and the Batsignal often shines in the perpetual cloud cover. Blimps fly overhead, complete with scrolling messages along their sides. Rain falls, and everything looks slick and dangerous. By contrast, Metropolis gleams with bright skyscrapers, the very picture of the City of Tomorrow. The elevated rails of the Rail Whale public transit system snake among the towers, inviting one to fly along them, exploring and reveling in the simple joy of flight. The Watchtower is bright and shining, and clear panels allow one to look down on the earth below…so fragile and in need of heroic protectors.

Or villains to destroy it!

The Villains

Okay, gushing time over. The game is good, but it has some flaws.

Because it’s new and shiny, lag can be *really* bad. I’ve died in fights where I literally hadn’t yet seen my opponent approach due to lag. Gotham seems much laggier than Metropolis…maybe more folks just want to emulate Batman. I’ve also have very long waits to get online, and that can be frustrating.

The game suggests a universe, but the game actually sets about 99% of its content in Metropolis, Gotham, or the Watchtower. There are special missions to other areas, such as Area 51, but I’m looking forward to much more. I want to visit Happy Harbor, Central City, Atlantis, Thanagar, Oa, Gemworld…there are so many places in the DC Universe that excite me. I’m sure we can expect more with future expansions, so I’m trying to be patient.

The missions can get repetitive, of course; I have yet to find an MMORPG that manages to avoid this. Many of them consist of “beat up X number of folks” or “beat up X number of folks and collect the Y that they may or may not have”. There is a lot of variety within this structure, however. Bane’s minions feel very different from the Scarecrow’s minions, or LexCorp’s security teams, or Circe’s bestiamorphs. This adds variety to the missions, but ultimately, you know the rough outline of each mission you can expect to do.

The chat functions, which are the essence of being able to coordinate a group in such a cooperative game, are still screwy and being worked on. Voice chat is only semi-operational at best, which is frustrating. Again, I’m confident that it’ll all come out in the wash. For now, it’s merely annoying.

Overall, for me, the pros currently outweigh the cons. I’m not thrilled to pay another monthly fee, so I may drop the change and pick up a lifetime membership. That worked out very well for me in Lord of the Rings Online, and I have the feeling I’ll be sticking around with DCUO for a long time. After all, there are always crimes to foil and wrongs to right!

My Story

So, yes, I do have a character who’s a big bear of a fellow, complete with a bear-like name and a bearpaw symbol on my chest. And yes, I did meet a smaller bear…a cub, if you will. And the flirting has been hot and heavy, yes. Have things progressed beyond that?

Please. Would Superman tell you his secret identity? He would not. So don’t ask me to reveal such personal details.

But if you ever see a pair of bear-themed superheroes ducking into an abandoned warehouse, you might want to stay clear. They may be going in there to foil the joker’s latest plot to douse Gotham in his deadly laughing gas.

Or…they may not.

What About You? Two questions to ponder.

For me, one of the thrills of playing is to hang out with characters like Superman. I’ve loved Superman since I was a kid, and he’s still my favorite all-time comics character. Ironically, I also love Catwoman, primarily due to her careful walking of the line between right and wrong. Do you have a superhero or supervillain you particularly like? Let us know.

I have two characters. One is the big bear fellow mentioned above, who has acrobatic skills, brawling combat options, and powers over nature. Another one is a snarky kid who can fly, summon demons, and blast enemies with sorcerous powers. If you were going to create a superhero to play, what would your ideal power-set look like?

A Holiday Tradition

Each December since it came out, LOTRO has had a Yuletide festival weaving into the characters and story of the game. New things have been added each year, including quests, titles, special Yule furnishings, and more. There is even a quest to save Yule from the miserly machinations of Lobelia Sackville-Baggins! (For that Last quest, you’re rewarded with a festively decorated tree… appropriate for the season.)

This year, however, Turbine, the company that produces LOTRO, has really outdone itself! A new region called Frostbluff has been added, including the town of Winterhome. This new area comes with its own quests, titles, and festivities, as well as a snowball fight minigame. The most intriguing aspect of Winterhome, however, is that it offers a classic holiday conundrum – gaiety versus generosity.

It seems that the mayor of Winterhome has been planning for the festival of Yule all year. He has used his position to make the rich people of Winterhome richer while the poor people get poorer. The workers do everything while the rich are idle, and those workers who oppose the mayor’s position have lost their jobs and become beggars. Of course the mayor tries to sweep the beggars under the carpet, and therein lies the conundrum.

Not Exactly Horde vs. Alliance

There are two opposing quests in Winterhome. One is given by the mayor’s captain of the guard; this quest is to roust the beggars out of town. Successful completion of this quest grants you special coins that can be used to purchase special Yule items. The other quest, given by one of the town workers, is to give some of these special coins to those same beggars. Completion of this quest gains you nothing tangible… it literally costs you rewards that you have to earn by other quests. This all culminates in your character being given a choice; will you side with the mayor or with the workers and beggars? If you side with the workers and beggars, you get a rather shabby outfit for your trouble as well as a title – the Blameless. If you side with the mayor, you do get a snazzy outfit, but you also earn the title Miser.

I’m sad to admit that, while I’ve seen many people rousting the beggars, very few people seem to be doing the quest that loses some coins. I’ve done it, but I’d be lying if I said I’d done it more than once. In my own defense, I have never done the rousting beggars quest, and I never intend to. When the choice comes, I intend to side with the workers and beggars against the mayor. I admit that I covet the outfit one gets for aiding the mayor, but helping him would fly in the face of the way I role-play my hobbit minstrel.

The Play’s the Thing

One other very entertaining addition in Winterhome, is the Frostbluff theater. This theater is putting on a play – a very entertaining version of what happened at Bilbo’s eleventy-first birthday party. If you’re in the audience when the play is about to begin, you can be chosen at random to fill-in for missing actor. If you stay in the audience, you have the opportunity to throw flower petals or rotten fruit at the actors, depending on how they’re doing. There’s also an amusing little Easter egg in the theater for fans of the original Muppet Show.

Is it worth checking out this new content? If you’re already playing the LOTRO, absolutely. If you’re not playing LOTRO, then maybe not, but the game is free to play and extremely fun. It does take a very long time to download the latest version, so if you’ve never played before, you may have a bit of a wait before you can start.

Which Would You Pick?

Holiday spirit aside, what faction would you decide to aid? Would you help the mayor, get the awesome outfit, and be branded a miser? Or would you choose the blameless path, assist the workers, and accept that sometimes the righteous way doesn’t offer any obvious reward?

Long before I was out as a gay man (I don’t recall a time when I wasn’t “out” as a gamer), I remember a conversation with my friend Jeff. We had been playing Dungeons & Dragons together regularly for some time, and the players were various friends of ours. At some point, the conversation took an odd turn.

“Do you think Mike is gay?” he asked, meaning another of our friends.

For a moment, I had a panic attack. Why was he asking me? Was it because he thought I was gay?

“I…um…why would you think that?” I asked, trying to be nonchalant.

“Well, he always plays female characters.”

I never found out if Mike was gay (not that there’s anything wrong with that!), but the stereotype of it haunted me for years. See, I’m about as gay as they come, and I almost always play male characters. My husband, also pretty gay, almost always plays male characters. But I’ve also known gay people who play mostly women, straight guys who prefer female characters, bisexual guys and gals who tend to pick one or another…

The point is, there doesn’t seem to be a stereotype to follow.

Another odd stereotype I’ve hit during games is the idea that gay guys tend to play foppish or effeminate characters, or characters who are themselves gay. Currently, I’m playing two characters in regular games.

One is Rukh, a huge, bearish half-orc paladin, who I think of as being kind of hunky. But I know Rukh thinks of his human mother as being the pinnacle of beauty, and I’m sure he’s pretty darned straight. My halfling rogue, Toby, is fairly disinterested, or at least feigns disinterest. I suspect he’s straight, but it really hasn’t come up.

On the other hand, my favorite character of all time, Skittle, the mouse pooka from my friend Whitt’s game of Changeling: the Dreaming, is definitely gay. And Will, the bard NPC I’ve been playing for 5+ years in my LARP, The Isles, is bisexual, leaning towards gay. These were both games where role-playing has been more intense, personal, and pervasive than in my recent D&D games, and I know how these characters swing.

Now, maybe it’s me. After all, I’ve been told that I don’t “act gay.” (If I know the person well-enough, my standard  joke is that I could have gay sex in front of them, if that would help put things in perspective.) I know what they mean, though; I’m not terribly effeminate, and I don’t act like the wacky gay neighbor in various sitcoms. The fact that I have a deep, basso-profundo speaking voice tends to throw them, too.

I don’t actually live up to a lot of gay stereotypes. I don’t have a lisp. I don’t call many people “girlfriend”. I have fairly terrible taste in clothing (thank God my husband doesn’t). I don’t really enjoy going clubbing (although I do like to dance). I don’t drink; I don’t smoke. What do I do? (Yes, that was an Adam Ant reference. So sue me.)

Well, I do love Broadway shows. That counts, right? And I weep openly at movies, especially Disney animated features, those manipulative bastards! And I’m sexually attracted to men. That’s the defining one, after all. Is that enough for me to hit my gay quotient? I just don’t want to lose my toaster oven. (And yes that’s an Ellen reference. What’re you, keeping score?)

If I have a point, buried somewhere in this morass of jokes and references, it’s that in this, as in so many other things, the stereotypes break down. We often play characters in role-playing games to have a turn at being that which we are not or that we cannot be. I’ve played a foppish bard in a game of D&D, sure. I’ve also played a shy wizard who slowly wooed a lady warrior. I’ve played a rogue who dallied with all manner of ladies. I’ve played a blunt barbarian whose idea of romance was a nasty grin and an inappropriate comment. I let the nature of the character inform my role-playing, rather than thinking, “Oh, wait…I’m gay. Better have my fighter flirt with the stable-hand instead of the bar-maid.”

When I create a character for a game, I’m a gamer first and a gay man second.

How About You?

Do your RPG characters reflect your gender and/or sexuality or do you decide on a character-by-character basis?

… okay, maybe you’re not asking, but I’m going to tell you anyway.

My name is M, aka Michelle Clough, and I am the new resident anime/manga girl for Geek’s Dream Girl. How I stumbled into this hallowed and worthy position is a tale of great import and substance, involving dramatic acts of applying and sample writing, but suffice to say that I’m very, VERY happy to be here.

I’ve been a geek for as long as I can remember. While my classmates were running around on baseball fields and horse tracks, I was running around my basement solving crime with the Ninja Turtles, blocking out epic He-Man action figure fanfilms, and sighing girlishly over Mr. Spock. Then along came video games, and any hope of being a non-geek vanished in a poof of smoke; companies like Nintendo and Squaresoft sucked me in and refused to let go.

Like many geek girls, school came easily to me, but I had trouble fitting in with my peers. As luck would have it, however, I met a group of senior geeks in my first year of junior high school. We immediately bonded over our love of video games and spent lunch hour after lunch hour in the hall, chatting about all things nerdy. It was during one such lunch hour that one of them asked me a question that would shape my future career as a geek and a writer.

“Have you ever seen any anime?”

By this point, I’d heard vaguely about anime and manga as more “mature” cartoons and comics from Japan, but I’d never had the chance to see any myself. My friends, taking pity on me, took me into the art classroom and popped in a well-worn tape of Ranma 1/2. And thus, I was sold.

There was something about anime that immediately captivated me. Perhaps it was the idea of using animation to tell stories for adults that traditional live-action couldn’t manage. Perhaps it was the unusual and distinctive art style. Or maybe it was just the sheer indulgence in Japanese culture, a window into another country and another way of thinking. Whatever it was, I was hooked.

Once I got to university, I lost no time in finding the UBC Anime Club and joining it. After a year, I found it wasn’t enough just to go to club… I wanted to be part of it. After a year as Director of Communications (i.e. Keeper of the Mailing List and Printer of Amusing Posters), I became President of the UBC Anime Club for three years. I’d still be there if UBC hadn’t thrown me out the door, shoving my English Lit/Classical Studies degree in my hand as I went.

Not satisfied with domestic geekery, I packed up my manga, copied my anime collection to my computer, and high-tailed it to Japan to work as a junior high English teacher. The time I spent in Japan was amazing, both from a cultural “broaden your horizons” point of view and from a sheer indulgence in geeky stuff. You name it, I did it: watching anime on local TV, buying my weight in doujinshi (fan comics), belting out anime opening songs at karaoke and attending almost every convention that blew through Tokyo. I came back after two years with a slimmer bank account, a giant collection, and a fond if foolish wish to find a career somewhat related to anime and manga.

Almost six months later, unemployed and dissatisfied, I found myself drifting around V-Con and bumped into the old secretary of the UBC Anime Club. She introduced me to the then-head of Anime Evolution, the Vancouver anime convention. When I mentioned my job hunt, he brightened up and said, “Hey, what about Ocean? The company that did the dub for Ranma and Inu Yasha? I heard they’re hiring. Would that interest you?”

Does Sailor Moon wear a short skirt? YES YES YES!

Long story short, I found myself living the anime geek dream; writing scripts for English dubbed anime. I’ve worked on several series such as My-Otome, The Story of Saiunkoku… and of course, a little series known as Death Note (confession: there may or may not have been dancing around my appartment and squeeing when I landed that job). I’ve also done a bit of subtitling and branched out into some live action titles, such as the Japanese version of Spiderman (which is currently being streamed at www.marvel.com! /shameless plug).

When I’m not watching (or writing) anime or reading manga, I can be found doing one of the following:

• playing World of Warcraft
• indulging in internet fandom (i.e. reading fanfic, checking out TV Tropes, perusing Livejournal, etc)
• playing World of Warcraft
• enjoying some XBox 360 and Wii games
• playing World of Warcraft
• enjoying a fun round of board games and roleplaying with my friends; we’ve been running a Shadowrun campaign off and on for a year or two now.
• playing that MMORPG, what was its name again…?
• watching Firefly, Star Trek, random period dramas, and… oh yes, anime!

While the industry has slowed down a lot due to the economic crash and other factors, I’m still always looking forward to my next anime project… when I’m not having stars-in-the-eyes dreams of working in video games, that is! In the meantime, I am super excited to be able to work with Geek’s Dream Girl and share (or inflict) my anime and manga knowledge with everyone, as well as learning a lot from my fellow geeks and writers!

Looking forward to meeting and talking with you all soon!

The line between fiction and reality is thinnest when love gets thrown into the mix. Some newbies to RP have trouble distinguishing between their characters and themselves, but even veterans can fall prey to their feelings. That flirty comment you just typed… who is on the other end reading it?

The Scenarios (Every RP Geek Loves Scenarios!)

There are several possible scenarios in which Cupid can meddle: computer games, D&D or other tabletop RPGs, and text RP.

In computer games, you may be interacting with an avatar or character that represents your fictional “lover” in a fantasy world, but that doesn’t mean your feelings aren’t valid. Sometimes, tabletop RPG players will get their characters romantically involved, and even a history of sexual tension between characters can create a similar tension between players. Text roleplaying is perhaps the most common reason RP’ers fall for one another.  I think this is probably because you have to express so much in words that most “real-life” couples never even think about.

The Good Reasons To Fall For An RP Partner

The advantages of falling for a RP partner include the fact that you know their personality, likes and dislikes on a much deeper level than the average new couple know one another. Like it or not, both of you can’t help but allow yourself to shine through in spots, even if it’s under the pretense of your char’s beliefs or reactions.

The more involved your characters are, the more this is true. The knee-jerk reaction of any writer is to allow themselves to respond as they would, rather than their characters, and sometimes we just can’t help it.

Another advantage is that you value their personality over their looks, since you are exposed much more to their personality rather than judging them on looks alone. The priorities that permeate real world dating are flipped on their head when it comes to falling for someone you meet first as a character.

Finally, you and your RP partner must frequently communicate just to play your game of choice, not to mention when planning scenarios or hashing out details.  With so many real world relationships ending due to poor communication skills, you’ll be a step ahead of the rest!

The Disadvantages of Falling For An RP Partner

There are disadvantages to falling for a RP partner, however. It’s quite possible to have too much of a good thing, and while frequent communication is the glue that holds relationships together, over-communication can have exactly the opposite effect.

If you don’t like being confined or tied to any one person, you may start feeling obligated to RP with them and spend time with them in other ways, which can add up to quite a bit of your life.

Also, remember that they might not be who they say they are, just like any other situation, online or offline. They may have a partner already.  Maybe that person doesn’t mind them RP’ing as if they’re in love, but a real relationship is completely out of the question.

Finally, if the possible relationship goes sour, you’re going to lose not just a partner and friend, but a RP partner, too. It can be hard to find someone you connect with so deeply, and after breaking up, it never feels quite “right” again.

Making The Leap

If you’re still determined to pursue the relationship, here’s how to take the romance from fictional to real.

Use caution and talk with them on webcam before meeting up, just to make sure they’re who they say they are. Meet up in a public place and give a trusted friend all the details of your RP friend and your meeting.

Delay telling them how you feel until you’ve met them in person.  Otherwise, it could be really awkward if the offline persona doesn’t match the online one and you’re not quite as enamored as you thought you’d be.

Try bringing up the fictional romance in a casual conversation, perhaps hinting at the fact that you sometimes feel like the line between fiction and reality is blurred, and see how far you get.

If all signs are positive, try gently telling them outright that you have feelings for them and wonder whether they’re returned. Be prepared for rejection, and if you do encounter it, try to keep the RP relationship just like it has always been. Don’t go all ‘creepy stalker’ on your poor partner!

A romance with your RP partner may not be well understood by friends and family, but geeks know just why it’s so appealing: you knew exactly why you loved the person long before you met them in person.

Been There, Done That?

Have you taken a RP relationship into the real world?  Whether you succeeded or failed, I’d love to hear your story in the comments!

Well, I realized last week that I’ve done it again – I’ve settled right back into my knee-jerk, resist-what-people-are-fawning-over ways.  And no, I’m not talking about Avatar.

I’m talking about Felicia Day.

It’s not her fault, really.  I didn’t even really know who she was.  My snobbery started with Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.  Everyone, from friends all the way to Wil Wheaton, said I should watch it – and it was usually in the same breath with “Joss Whedon omg!”  Now, I liked Buffy, and I really liked Firefly, but something in my cynical soul has always kept me from really jumping on that man’s bandwagon.  So… I just didn’t watch it.

Then, when I heard about The Guild, it was always in the context of, “If you like Dr. Horrible…”  or “influenced Dr. Horrible!” or “Joss loves this girl!”  So… yeah.  You can guess what happened next – or didn’t happen, really.

So then last weekend I was in the company of lots of people who said I should watch those things.  And I couldn’t get away, and they had laptops.  Up went Dr. Horrible.  Surprisingly, I liked it much more than I thought I would (Whedon’s songs usually grate on me).  Then they showed me the first episode of The Guild.

Oh my God.  I laughed so hard I was crying.  I’ve played World of Warcraft for years, but most of the time I was solo – I’ve only belonged to an actual guild for six months or so.  In that respect, I’m almost glad I didn’t see The Guild until now, when I can appreciate it all the more.  I only saw the first episode that day, but then I went home and watched the rest of it.   All in one sitting.

Now I’m something of an instant fangirl.  One way late to the party, but there just the same – and I’m not afraid to admit it.  And as for Felicia Day herself… I’m not going to pretend I’m as cool as she is, but she’s easy to relate to.  She reminds me of some of my friends.  Now I’m following her on Twitter, and she’s probably my second-favorite celebrity to read, behind Grant Imahara.

My name is J, and I like discovering things on my own, in my own time – but I’m trying to change that.

So tell me: what else should I be watching?  Or reading?

While waiting for my special package to arrive, it occurred to me that apart from apparel and accessories, Hello Kitty really doesn’t have much of an adult appeal.  By the time the game arrived, I really wasn’t sure if it would be something I’d voluntarily choose to play in my spare time or just the cute game that I log into when my daughter comes to visit.

When I dove into that vivid and familiar world of Hello Kitty, I quickly realized my apprehensions about the games’ overall playability and likability were needless.

Any true Hello Kitty fan would fall in love at first sight of the familiarity and cuteness that only Sanrio would produce. Anyone new to the world of Hello Kitty would feel instantly welcome and excited to begin exploring immediately.

The story begins exactly as though you are watching another episode of Hello Kitty & Friends. After a brief explanation of the 5 w’s (who, what, when, where and why), the game goes directly into character creation. I would have preferred more choices in the customization page so new players don’t all end up looking like each other. However, it did not take long before I was able to acquire new attire and even weapons for my many tasks to come!

The game is loaded with many adventures that are located all over the map. Some of the adventures can be slightly complex.

I put it to the 6 year old test and am happy to say that Hello Kitty Online is designed for players of all ages. Although I have yet to find Hello Kitty herself, I did find a few familiar Hello Kitty friends. I haven’t gone too deep into the woods yet, but I am certainly looking forward to it!

Look for my update on missions and cool stuff.  Want to join me for some beta testing fun?  Come on down to Hello Kitty Online!

Happy Gaming!