The Game

Description

I admit it; I’m a long-time gaming geek. When I started back in 1984, I played on a Compaq DeskPro outfitted with an 8 MHz 8086 CPU and an awesome monochrome display adapter. I said I was a geek, remember? During the golden age of computer gaming, otherwise known as the 1990s, each month brought quantum innovations, spurring a host of inventive game designs. For me, the pinnacle was reached with the invention of the MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role-playing game), and my wife and I became lost in the world of Everquest from 1999 to 2001.

In the land of Norrath, we made many friends as we rose from a pair of pathetic magic users to guild legends, and I saw how the lines blurred between reality and the virtual world. People speak of how computer games are a waste of time. But a great many good things grew out of those days. One of them was a fertile seed of an idea that I pondered well over a decade ago . . . and still do. This story is the result.