Real life multiplayer

Screenshot from Neverwinter Online

Everyone can probably guess that playing MMOs is not something that goes well with having a newborn in the house. Especially if said newborn is being breastfed exclusively.

However yesterday I thought I would try my luck anyway with the newly released Neverwinter Online. And in my naive optimism I thought, "hey maybe I can even do a dungeon and try that out". I mean I had just spent a couple of hours interacting with my daugther. Her diaper was new and clean plus she had fed for 35 minutes and were soundly a sleep in her moses basket.

Yay a bit of time for myself! And what better way to spend quality alone time than to group up with a bunch of strangers in an MMORPG?

Anyways lets not discuss my weird habbit of self inflicted punishment and instead return to my story.

I had probably played for about 10 minutes. Just long enough to sit in the queue for the instance, get the invite and kill the first 3 packs of monsters, when my daughter started crying.

My partner, who is awesome, got up checked her diaper, tried calming her down and to his credit did his very best to buy me enough time to finish the instance.

My daughter however wouldn't have any of it. Apparently my daughter like a platypus is capable of consuming her own weight in food on a daily basis and like her mother she gets very cranky when she's hungry. So she wants to eat often, but preferably when I have:
A. Just poured warm food onto a plate (wont be warm when I get to eat it HAH!).
B. Just laid down on the bed in hopes of a bit of sleep.
C. As was the case yesterday, just for once loaded a game that requires more than 1 hand.

Now I am not a bad player, in fact I like to think myself above average, I mean I raided in the 2. best guild on my server in TBC *flex virtual nerd muscles*, but even my level of skill can not handle feeding a squirming, displeased baby while doing a dungeon run. And this is where my partners pure awesomeness really shines.

"You handle the mouse I will deal with the number keys and awsd based on your commands" he said. So for the next 15 minutes I shouted "3" "e" "r" "double tab s" etc. while feeding my baby and stearing the point of view with my mouse.

Did I top the damage meter? No. Would it have worked in a hardcore raid instance? No.

But I got to finish my instance and half an hour of as good as uniterrupted gaming.
No loot dropped for my class though damned RNG!





The moral of my story? Well I guess if there has to be one it is that my real life has gone from being a single player experience with a lot of interesting side characters to full multiplayer mode with forced grouping. And frankly that is quite awesome even if somehow slightly frustrating. :)

Temporarily demoted to casual gamer

When I was a student I had oceans of time to game. I would spend at least 5 hours a day in front of the computer engrossed in my current favourite timesink.
Now I have sadly had to grow up a bit, get a real job, sort paperwork and bills, shop for groceries and cook dinner and it all takes time. Oh yes, it doesn't help that being pregnant has changed me from a 2 a clock "just one more turn" night owl, into a woman with an aching back who falls asleep at 8 PM in the evening like clockwork.

What this means is that I have despairingly little time to play games. So what do you do as a hardcore gamer when you do not have enough hours in the day to actually emerge yourself truly in the newest RPG game that you have been waiting impatiently for, forever.

Well you turn to casual gaming at least for a little while just so you can get at least a taste of the magical world you love so much.

For me right now the casual game of choice is World of Warcraft. I know this might give hardcore raiders a sour taste in the mouth, but I promise I am not there to join your LFG raids in my half green half blue gear.

I just do Pet Battles. Pet Battles are quick, fun and gives me a sense of achievement that can be obtained with approximately 30 minutes of daily basis, moreover the pet battles are turn based so if the potatoes starts boiling I wont wipe my group out just because I have to leave the keyboard. Even better noone will be complaining at me when I return 40 minutes later because my pregnancy brain set in and completely wiped any memory of playing WoW and instead dragged my attention to one of my newly installed tablet quiz games.

Another awesome thing about Pet Battles is that I get my urge to do Youtube videos satisfied. I am recording videos showcasing the Pet abilities of each of my collected companions and recently I have started creating videos from the PTR giving people an idea of the upcoming Elite Battle Pets. Like this fight against Gorespine.


When I start having more energy and hopefully when I get a baby who sleeps through the night and takes frequent naps during the day, I will get back to hardcore, many hours in a row gaming, but for now Pet Battles really does fit my tight gaming schedule very well. What is your favourite casual game?