Geekdom

[Caroline]

((Ten things I remember about my Geekdom.

Well… I've been inspired a bit. While I'm still working on my next anime review, I've been thinking about other things that I can remember growing up that affected or influenced my movement into Geekdom. So… in no particular order, here is a list of ten of them. And, mind you, I might get kinda wordy during these. You know how I am when I do finally decide to get chatty.

1) Margaret Wies and Tracy Hickman. Sure, their D&D novel-books were cookie cutter, and obnoxiously formulaic. Hey, here's a fighter, there's our thief… oh, and now we have a cleric and a wizard. Let's all meet up at the bar and go adventuring. However, they got me interested in reading. And about all sorts of other things too. History, science, mythology, religion, politics, mathematics. So, I have to give it to Wies and Hickman. If I hadn't started reading their books, I probably would have gone down a different path.

2) Legos. I love these things. I can remember the first actual set, not just the bucket of blocks, but the first set I actually got. I hated my birthday growing up. Well… hate isn't the right word, but… it was always a struggle for me. It's in the summer, and no one was around other than my parents. Don't get me wrong, my parents tried really hard… but when you get to go to these other kids parties during the year, and… it's just you, your brother, and your parents, you… start to not like your birthday. Anyway… my birthday's tended to suck. Well… on my ninth birthday, my parents asked me to go downstairs and pick-up. So… a bit sad that I didn't have a birthday party I did. When I got back upstairs, they had an ice-cream cake and one present. A lego-city, police station. I built the hell out of that toy. And… ever since then, I've loved legos. I've had grand adventures of pirates and exploration. Kingdoms in peril. And people going about their day in the city. So… Legos ^_^

3) Divi-Dead. The first actual adult game I picked up, other than Leisure Suit Larry, was Divi-Dead. It was an erotic horror game by Csware that was translated and imported into the States by Himeya Soft. And it was just amazing to me. The art, the story, the gothic awesomeness of it. The multiple paths. It got me to realize that there was more to gaming than just stuff like D&D. And, ever since then, I've tried to pick up what eros games I can. Not all of them have been good, some are just okay, and some are just meh… but there are those which are just awesome to play. Games like Eve Burst Error, Chain, The Sagara Family, Love-Love Show, Viper M-1, and Critical Point were all just different from games I was used to playing.

4) Soft Cel Anime Studio. AD Vision was one of the first American studios to bring anime into the mainstream. They had an adult branch of anime that was labeled "Soft Cel". And one of the first titles I bought was End of Summer, the OVA based on the high-school dating simulation "Doukyusei"… or "Classmates". End of Summer was a high quality eros anime. It was produced by Pink Pineapple (KSS's adult-line). And, it was a growing up story. It was one of the first shows that expressed to me something could be "adult" without being… smutty. Forgive the term, but I can't think of anything better. It was also one of the first shows that let me realize it was okay for me to like this kinda stuff, and not feel… well… like a tramp or something.

5) Robotech. Yeppers, I watched this show religiously. It came on at 6:30AM, and I didn't have to leave for the school bus till 6:55. And then they moved it to 7:00AM, and I constantly wished for a 2-hour school delay so I could watch it. Robotech, and yes, I know it isn't "Robotech" but Macross or whatever… but I grew up with calling it Robotech (when Harmony Gold owned the license to it), so I'll probably die calling it that. Anyway, Robotech, for me, was my gateway into anime. And the rest, as they say, is history.

6) Fortress America, and Mechwarrior 3026. I used to hate my brother. He could play strategy games so much better than I could. But, I do remember beating him once. It was Fortress America, and I was playing America. These were my first forays into turn-based strategy games. And I still enjoy them. While I don't play the old classics from Avalon Hill anymore, if it wasn't for those two games, I probably would have never been interested in turned-based strategy games, or their cousin the tactical-RPG game.

7) Dice. I like dice. They're cool. They have fancy, geometric sounding names like dodecahedron. And you can make them out of all sorts of stuff. You have d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20, and so on and so forth. I have tons of dice. I'm never lacking for tokens, or counters, or 10d6 for a fireball spell. They can be solid colors, or clear, or marbled, or pearlescent. They can be standard sized, or tiny, or gninormous. You can hold them in fanny packs, dice bags, pouches, Crown Royal bags, pockets, purses, and the like. You can color co-ordinate your dice with your characters, or your game, or your army. ^_^ I like dice.

8 ) The PlayStation. Not the PS1, or PSX, or PS2… but the old, grey-box, PlayStation. Sure, I had a Nintendo Entertainment System, but my love for console video games really probably took off when I bought my first PlayStation. I think my first game was like Parasite Eve or something. I can remember the ongoing joke that I only bought PlayStation games that had more than 1 disk ^_^, and I still struggle with remembering to save, as the old save cartridges used to be almost as expensive as the console system itself.

9) Pools of Radiance and Might and Magic 3. Sure there were cRPGs prior to these two, and even a couple of AD&D ones prior to Pools that I played. (And, yes I know that Might and Magic is not AD&D) But, for some reason, these two games just… stick out as the ones that I remember starting it all. I can remember this started the whole need I had to… map everything out. I'm an explorer. I don't necessarily have to "catch them all", but… I tend to map everything out at least. Anyway, Bard's Tale, Fallout, Septera Core, Wasteland, Eye of the Beholder, Neverwinter Knights, World of Warcraft… all of those games were fun; however, I'm sure I would have never really gotten into them if it weren't for me first playing Pools of Radiance and Might and Magic 3.

10) Batman, The Animated Series. This show was amazing to me. I'm not much of a comic book fan, but… this show just freaking hooked me. It didn't pull its punches on its stories. It talked to me in a mature manner. It didn't care that I was a girl watching the show and cheering on Batman. As odd as it sounds, it made me feel like it was alright for me to enjoy a "boys" show. The heroes were heroic, the villains, villainous, and the dames… well… all of them were femme fatals. Sure they were all stylishly sexy in their own way, but… none of them were the constant damsel in distress that needed saving, or the current milk-sop that is Belle from Twilight. Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Talia Al'Ghul, all the ladies of Batman were full fledged characters that were empowered. And, it made me feel like it was alright if I was too.

So… there you have a sampling of the milestones down my pathway to geekdom. Yeah, I know most of it is ultra-lame, but… well… something to think about I guess.))

[Silvador]

1. I think you mean "Weis" not "Rice.

2. You better not be dissin' Dragonlance, honey.
_________________

Fursonas: http://tinyurl.com/yzcsyug

[Caroline]

(( Silv,

1) Meh, they're not very good writers, so I didn't feel any need to double check if it was "Rice" or "Wies" or "Weis". And I'm sure she's crying all the way to the bank.

And this from the guy who can't deal with the fact that a character's name is "Holo" not "Horo" .

2) Double meh. The Dragonlance books are crappy. Deal with it.))

[Silvador]

*ears steam and mouth froths*
_________________

Fursonas: http://tinyurl.com/yzcsyug

[Hazzyrdous]

Caroline, from one avid early morning Robotech watcher to another...I salute you. And I have a question to you as well.

Couldn't you just have kicked the ever living SHIT out of Minmei...I mean....seriously...she DATED...her cousin!!@#!@#...and Rick STILL was hung up on her...GAHHH!
_________________
Marco Antonio Hazzardi

[Symphony]

[Chaosengine]

Ah, Might and Magic III, Isles of Terra... ya know, I have a copy of that for the Super Nintendo sittin' around somewhere.
_________________
"One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster.
The bars are temples, but the pearls ain't free...
You'll find a god in every golden cloister,
And if you're lucky then the god's a she..."

[Caroline]

To Hazzyrdous