Tuesday, December 20, 2011

“It’s the Cheers bar of our generation,” I explained to a buddy at work today. “Our equivalent of the Lodge.” The topic at hand was gaming and its place in our social tapestry. When I think about it, the in-person happy hours are few and far between–once or twice at most a quarter, as of late. But we burn up the wires on Battlefield 3 at least a couple nights each week, judiciously allotting time to conversation and capping Russian fools.

You will recall my current stance on gaming publically. I’m still going strong, and what I’ve learned is choice of game, while not the be-all and end-all, certainly matters. I tried out Modern Warfare 3 with the same group of people, and it made Battlefield look like the History Channel. MW3 was essentially the Ocho, in comparison, with a shit-ton of flashing lights and guitar riffs heralding God-knows-what and being gunned down constantly. It was frustrating for all, to say the least, and a stark reminder that I’m getting old. These reflexes just ain’t what they used to be.

What’s really striking, though, is how all this online contact has resulted in more offline interaction. More offline talk. More lunches. More discourse about non-gaming stuff. It’s natural, real data, and frankly it’s unexpected. You know what they say, though: you never look a gift horse in the mouth. You shoot it! And then you toss a grenade, followed by a couple rounds from your sidearm.