If you’re on Face­book, you’ve prob­a­bly seen all the lat­est changes to the lay­out.  Why did it change?  What was so wrong with the way things were? Frankly, it has annoyed me beyond my usual annoy­ance level with Face­book.  I have kept my account open and active, sim­ply so I can com­mu­ni­cate with fam­ily and friends that I hardly get to see.

Face­book games — like Mafia Wars, Far­mville, Farkle, and such — are a big rea­son a lot of peo­ple are on there.  I sim­ply don’t like them.  I am fur­ther annoyed by all the “requests” that are sent to me by my con­tacts — even though I don’t play the games.  I’ve had enough of it.

From now on, if you send me a game request in Face­book, it’s get­ting ignored.  I don’t play Mafia Wars.  I don’t play Far­mville.  I don’t play Yoville.  I don’t play Farkle (any­more).  The only rea­son I’m on Face­book is so I can com­mu­ni­cate with those I don’t see day to day.  If you don’t want to do that, that’s fine.  Just leave me alone with the game requests, please, and thank you!

Upcom­ing Posts

I have decided to fold other top­ics into this blog besides pol­i­tics.  Frankly, I’m sick of pol­i­tics and all the goings on in our nation’s cap­i­tal.  I still try to keep up with the lat­est news, but it just con­tin­ues to sicken me how cor­rupt our whole sys­tem is.  The bureau­crats on both sides just make my blood boil.  As each day passes, I wish we could just fire them all and start fresh.  After all, they do work for us, right?

If you’ve vis­ited in the last cou­ple of days, you’ll see that I added a “wid­get” to my side­bar, show­ing my char­ac­ter armory from World of War­craft.  Now, that game is my addic­tion.  It’s pretty much what I do when I get home from work (if “Lost” or “24” is not on, that is).  I guess that’s what I do instead of play­ing those annoy­ing Face­book games.  And that is one topic I plan on blog­ging more about here.

Why do I play?

You’re prob­a­bly won­der­ing why on Earth I would play such a game.  What makes it so addic­tive and fun?  Well, I think for me it’s the “solv­ing puz­zles” aspect of the game.  There are quests you can do in the game, as well as what’s called “instances” or “dun­geons”, where you and four other peo­ple go in and defeat “bosses” (just think Mario or Zelda here).  There’s also larger dun­geons, called “raids”, where you can get with nine or twenty-four other peo­ple and go in to defeat even more dif­fi­cult “bosses”.

In order to beat these bosses, you have to fol­low a cer­tain strat­egy or solve a cer­tain puz­zle.  It takes coör­di­na­tion, plan­ning, and team­work.  And it’s fun!  I think that is the biggest draw for me to the game.

The big “raid” right now is called Ice­crown Citadel, which is the home of the Lich King.  For all you “Lord of the Rings” fans out there, think Sauron and Mor­dor and you pretty much have what the citadel looks like.  I’m also a big com­puter graph­ics nerd, so going in and see­ing the archi­tec­ture of this place is just amaz­ing.  The onyx-looking stone that com­prises the floor and walls, the gothic design of the arch­ways and walk­ways in the citadel, and the air­ship bat­tle mid­way through the Lower Spire are just some of the awe-inspiring sights of this game.  I guess I also love the lore and story behind it:  I’m a HUGE Tolkien fan and this is pretty much like march­ing to the Black Gate to face Sauron and his orcs.

Only in WoW, you’re fac­ing the Lich King and his Scourge — the undead min­ions.  Instead of watch­ing it unfold on the big screen or see­ing it unfold in your mind, you’re help­ing things along and inter­act­ing with some of the major char­ac­ters in the story.  It’s you and your friends who are the heroes in this epic battle.

So that’s why I play.