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Saturday, January 28, 2012

Gamer Mental Disorders

Among the rpg blog community there is a well known gamer affliction known as G-ADD or Gamer Attention Deficit Disorder. Most of us suffer from it, as we get distracted by this and that, switching topics, changing gears, and shifting lanes in our gaming lives. We tend to be easily distracted, responding to changes in topic quite quickly. How can you tell? Easy, look at what happened when D+D Next was announced. Look what happened when the AD+D reprints were announced. Over the last 24 hours the Keep on the Boarderlands playtest pics have been posted everywhere.

This is pretty normal, and matches the general population’s reactions to the news.

Another affliction that gets much less press is Gamer OCD. This can manifest in a wide variety of way, some more acceptable than others. Rewritten fantasy heartbreakers can be one. Posting about the same topic over and over again can be another. At the table it can manifest in odd rituals, or requirements that everyone sit at the same spot, or always having a 6 pack of mountain dew.

The reason I’m bringing this up is because I’m suffering from a bit of gamer OCD at the moment. After having the chance to play D+D for the first time in YEARS, and Stonehell to boot, I’ve had a hard time thinking about much else. You may have noticed. I’m pretty sure that Nickolas Mizer (the DM) has, considering I think I’ve sent him an e-mail pretty much everyday this week.

It definitely goes a long way to showing why blogs tend to be more DM written and focused. How much can you really post about your character? Not that much. Heck, you might have noticed that I actually haven’t posted about him directly, because I don’t want to be the guy who’s all “let me tell you about my character” because I know you don’t really care that much. I don’t really care so much, except that I want to play again.

In fact I want to play right now. Sadly as this is going live I have to do real work. Hopefully, with luck, I’ll get to play again soon. Maybe with enough recent play time under my belt I might be able to focus a little better on the things I’ve been planning on writing about.

1 comment:

  1. As a Stonehell DM, I love getting email from players about the game. Even if it is every day. This is my first time reading your blog on the site instead of my reader, I love the background.

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