I know a guy who plays World of Warcraft every spare second he has. This guy literally has no life. He lives in his own world (of Warcraft), and he's really like a zombie. Which I guess is cool, if you like that thing. But here's the issue-he doesn't even like WoW. He does it because he thinks that somehow or another, he'll be a better person by crushing every paladin that comes along (he's got a level 70 Tauren, I think...or something like that). I just can't get this...I mean, what's the point of gaming if you don't have fun. What's point of racking up those Achievment Points if you can't show em off to your friends(also, Jeff, you rock my sock for doing the whole achievment thing. Talk about dedication) Why play games if you don't have anyone to play them with?

I play Guild Wars. Alot. It's the only game I play regularly (though more recently Half Life 2 Deathmatch has been pulling me away from my social life as well as Guild Wars). However, I never play alone. Always with a friend or guild mate (and I have some friends in my guild). My best friend has a Wii, and we play it alot. He can kick my butt in Wii tennis (I swear, he cheats), but I have fungetting my butt whooped. I'm not that great of a gamer. Honestly. I'm good at very few games. Most games I play I suck at. But I don't really care.

I occasionally play Counter Stirke. When I do play, I am attacked for pretty much everything. Buying the wrong gun, accidently teamkilling (and no one likes a tker, but I do it VERY rarely...usually I kill myself on accident)...everything. Let's be honest-unless you're, like, Jesus or Chuck Norris, you've messed up in life. And even Chuck Norris messes up. If we mess up in life, I'd assume we might mess up in games too. No one's perfect, but for some reason, gamers (not all, but some to be sure) seem to think that if you can't play a game perfectly, you can't play. And that's the biggest load of bull ever.

Let's say you ARE one of these flamers. And you like eating noobs for breakfast. A noble pursuit, you would say. Just remember, you were a noob once. You were a level one nublet. And others crushed you. And you hated them for it, because every time you tried to off them, they'd laugh and crush you (in game-in real life, I DO NOT condone offing others). Gaming these days is pretty much an a-hole party. Honestly, I can rarely play most games without some sort of flaming. We're not going to draw in any support for our industry by pissing everyone else off. If we could justput aside our differences, then maybewe could make the gaming world a better place for everyone, and not just the level 1,000,000,000Crushers of Doom.

For my final point, I will say this-gamers can have lives and still be gamers. I have a life outside of the world of games. And though I may suck at most games, I actually kick a fair amount of butt in Guild Wars. So it's possible to be a gamer and have a life. There's a pretty amazing world out there, and people who devote every second of their lives to rotting in front of their PCs, and TVs are missing out.

And that's my view on the subject. Peace.