I Lost My Time in a Magic Vortex

Facebook is going to be the death of me. Now that I've expanded beyond simple social networking and begun playing Dungeon & Dragons: Tiny Adventures. It's been going non-stop for a few days now. I got my boyfriend hooked too. Now we're spending our evening's buffing each other's characters from different computers in the same house. It's bad. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's an awesome application. And since it makes you wait between rounds it's not that encompassing. So it's not like I'm spending 14 hours a day playing World of Warcraft (I would never dare set foot in that realm, I'm obsessive when it comes to that shit, a prime candidate for life-wasting.) But still, it's getting a little out of hand.

Between Tiny Adventures (my Eldarin Wizard is a level 8, only three more levels til retirement and then I start again as a generation 2!) and...gulp...I hate to admit this to you guys...Sorority Life I really think I'm ruining my life. Seriously, I have a sorority girl whose body I inhabit and I befriend other girls I don't know via this game and team up to fight other girls. And to become friends with these girls in the game you have to be their friend in the real realm of Facebook which means I've actually added thirty or so strangers from around the world to my friends list just so I can grow my sorority and fight other girls more effectively and get better prizes...I know, I can't believe I'm explaining it or admitting it or even worse, PLAYING IT.

Bringing the embarassment of Sorority Life into it makes the Tiny Adventures thing much more acceptable. First of all, wizards and dragons and castles and orbs of mental dominion are awesome, sorority girls are not. Second aside from outfitting your character to maximize bonuses for specific adventures and the social act of healing and buffing your friend's characters, the game is pretty passive. So why am I dreaming about it? Seriously, I had a dream the other night where my actions were dependent on scores and a countdown timer and my adventures were hindered by an unknown force (aka the dungeon master!) deciding my fate. Really Bev? This is the stuff your dreams are made of? I couldn't even dream about orcs or any of the cool shit in the game, just the scoring tactical portion of it. LAME. You'd think a D&D-related dream would be much more epic than that.

FUCK! My character just failed a Constitution check and gets -5 Charisma for five adventures. I'm getting concerned about Grenabaul the Eldarin Wizard, she's not doing so well in her adventure, "The Song of the Dark Druid". She failed it once already last night but I really thought I had it this time. That's the problem with wizards, they are high on intelligence but low on constitution, strength, and wisdom and my inventory of weapons isn't doing enough to help it. See? These are issues of serious concern!



For a relative virgin to this sort of gaming I feel like I'm doing okay. I have to admit that a big part of the reason I was so willing to mock my friend's boyfriend when I saw him at his computer with a headset on playing World of Warcraft was fear that there but for the grace of elves there go I. An appropriate addendum to this example is that when my friend found a scorpion in her closet (they live in a wooded area just outside of Austin, TX) she had to beg him to tear himself away from the game to kill it. He entered the bedroom, sword in hand, and vanquished the tiny poisonous foe. Aforementioned boyfriend just happens to be the singer in fantasy metal band The Sword, so despite what you all may think of their music (they have a lot of haters out there,) their name is truly their weapon of choice and the singer, JD, truly knows his wizardly shit. Regardless, it is a good escape for the distraction from the annoyances and stresses of the real world, but seeing him made me realize that could easily be me in the headset missing dinner due to a prearranged online gaming meeting with a bunch of buddies.

Then again that dude goes on tour with Metallica so I think we can let a little gaming slide. But while it's not ruining his life I have a very real fear of it ruining mine. Tiny Adventures seemed like the perfect compromise for my desire to engage in epic adventures with little concentration or time commitment but somehow I've managed to turn what is essentially D&D lite into a time-killer. Is it wrong that I'd rather sit at home and half-watch episodes of Ranma 1/2 while making sure my character makes it through a level 8 adventure than go to all these Fashion Week parties I've been made aware of? Actually, maybe I'm doing okay.