My Guilty Pleasure

Here an installment which I haven't continued on for quite some time.

Maybe that's cos I've been working too hard this past few months that I haven't had much time to do anything pleasureable which I would find myself to be guilty about. ;-p

Neways, here my attempt at reviving this series of blog posts.

In previous My Guilty Pleasure blogposts, I've revealed my unexplainable affection for tv shows like Queer Eye for a Straight Guy and The O.C., talked on my affinity for comic books and gushed on my love for film-making and movies as a whole.

On today's blogpost, I'll reveal my final guilty pleasure (there's a LOT more pleasures which I find myself guilty for enjoying them, but then, a MAN's gotta have some skeleton's to be kept in the closet as well,non?) : that for a card game called Magic: the Gathering.

What is it you say ?

Well...the official word from the game's makers go something along this lines:

In 1993, a new concept took game players and retailers by storm, and in the years that followed, became a passion for millions. The Magic : The Gathering game paved the way for a whole new genre of play - trading card games (TCG) - combining cards that looked cool and were deemed collectible by players, each card sporting a unique design, with an intense head-to-head strategy game.

Once they picked it up, players found it hard to put the trading card game down, and the same holds true for the Magic: The Gathering TCG today, as it is still the most widely played trading card game.

Created by award-winning game designer Richard Garfield, a former math professor, and published by Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. Magic: The Gathering combines the dynamics of a card game with the excitement of trading and collecting. Magic players try to reduce their opponent's score from 20 to 0, casting from their deck of cards: creatures, spells, artifacts and other cards of varying power-levels and abilities in a series of attack and defense moves.

Over the past 10 years, more than 6,300 distinct Magic cards have been created. Today, there are several billion Magic cards in circulation, and the game is available in 70 countries and nine languages. There are more than 100,000 Magic tournaments held off-line each year and another 12,000 that take place monthly in Magic Online.

For more information about Magic: The Gathering,
visit www.magicthegathering.com

Well.....that sure was a farkin lengthy read, non ?

Neways, whenever people approach me while I'm playing the game in public and ask me what the game is; I just give my text book answer of "It's a strategy game kinda like Chess only instead of Chess pieces on a board, the pawn, knights and bishops are in card form in a deck of cards".

This is usually followed by much blinking and nodding from the curious folk in an attempt of mock understanding. They usually just walk away then from the 2 geeky wackos turning gaudily coloured pieces of cards back and forth on a table at this point. ;-p

I think the best analogy I've had yet in trying to explaining the game came from a lady friend of mine: "Ohh...so this game is like Pokemon-lah kan..." followed by much winking and ribbing from her all week long about how a 24 year old adult still plays a kiddie game.

*Sigh*

Damn those Japanese for knowing how to market a product more effectively than the Americans that it becomes a cultural phenomenon and is known worldwide.

The Japanese can turn a card game into a Saturday morning cartoon serial, then animated movies, then video games followed by the multitude of merchandising from keychains to activity colouring books, t-shirts, etc. making Pokemon as a world-renowned product

Give a trading card game to the Americans to market and the best they could come up with is an online version ten years after it was created. ;-p

*Sigh*

So long story short, "Yes" basically, my guilty pleasure which I have indulged in for the past 8 years of my life, IS like Pokemon...kinda like Pokemon for adults (or in this case pre-pubescent teens and early 20+s who don't wanna grow up) ;-p

To know me is to accept my obsession & passion for this game.

Which kinda explains why I spend most of my Saturday afternoons flinging cards in USJ Summit with other 20+ year olds who don't wanna grow up and pre-pubescent kids; instead of having quality time and fun with friends or someone of the opposite sex. ;-p

I've played this game for the past 8 years and made enemies and friends along the way, and seen people move on with their life onto work, girlfriends, marriage, etc. Yet some of them always come back cos at the end of the day, the same constant drives our passion, our reason for being, our lives.....

And that is our undisputed love for the world of fantasy and the unexplainable high we derive from gaming.

Yes, yes, some of you ppl out there would dub us as social deviants: sad losers, geeks or nerds...but hey, what's SO wrong with embracing the REAL you ?

I doubt I'll ever leave this game totally, eventhough there'll come a point where I'll have to make the mature choice and move on with my life.

It has defined me through my teens and my early adult life...like a crutch I fall onto in times of need...you could say Magic is my *drug* in life.

I had some of the best experiences in my life from it, made me travel to incredible locales around the world, meet people I would have never ever met in Europe if it weren't for our shared passion, it's like it's a part of me, what makes my character...well...ME....

Without it...I don't know what I'll be....

It would be a dark day indeed, and perhaps a new beginning; the day I would decide to finally walk away from Magic : The Gathering and the world of gaming.

I hope that day does not come too soon!

;-)