| Part of playing a game like City of... for
several years is finding something about it that holds your
interest. For some, it's the friends they meet online.
For some, it's the thrill of decimating scores of Purple
Bosses every time the log in. For some, it's the
chance to put the real world in a box and shove it under the
bed for a while and actually be a hero or villain.
For me, it's a little bit of all of the above. I don't
really role play in the conventional sense. I might
pop off a comment from time to time the way my characters
would, but for the most part, I don't become them when I
play. That doesn't mean I don't have a strong sense of
who they are though. For nearly all of them, I have a
basic background that includes out of game family members,
other skills like cooking or accounting, and the general
personality of each one. Some are more fleshed out to
the point that I know more about them than the people I work
with.
This is what makes the game fun for me. I like the
other aspects too, but for me, it's not so much about
playing a game as it is spending time with (admittedly
virtual) friends.
Around late 2004, the SG I had just joined sponsored a
story contest. Best Background, Best Comedy, and Best
Other were the categories. I decided to give it a shot
and knocked out one background for my main, and an "Other"
story was adapted from something I had written a few years
before. Both were very well received. Since I'd
actually liked writing them, and seemed to not suck at it, I
tried a few more. This has led me to the realization
that I might actually be a writer. To that end, I
offer up some of my works based on the City of... games.
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