I got an interesting gift for my birthday, and it makes me think that maybe I've reached some new stage in my life. The gift? A video game.
That, on its own, isn't an eyebrow raiser, as there's a good chance that one day I'll get a tattoo of a hobbit (or maybe Gimli). In short, I am into the electronics and the emotional immaturity that come with them.
This game is something different though. It's a sports game but it doesn't have any sports in it, because the premise of the whole game is that I'm the GM of a baseball team. When I describe this to people in real life, they ask, "Like fantasy baseball?" And I respond sharply, "Yeah, if fantasy baseball handled certain things like the Rule 5 Draft and scouting for Japanese prospects!" Then I lunge at them while screaming something about Value Over Replacement Player.
The interesting thing here is that the game isn't about accomplishing things via my own efforts, it's about managing this organization and get the others around me to accomplish things; it's like going from playing Oregon Trail to playing a game where I run the General Store inside of Oregon Trail. What intrigues me here is that this parallels changes in my job over the past few years, where my focus has shifted from my own bodacious code to my team's bodacious code. We're getting metaphorical here, dudes! (Or perhaps this is an allegory, I'm not sure on the difference. Maybe it's a metallephorigy?)
I guess I have these mature thoughts sometimes and I get slightly concerned that I'm turning into an Adult. And then I think that, just last weekend, I nearly wet myself with excitement over a cookies and cream ice cream cake (OH YEAH) and that I'm pretty serious about that Gimli tattoo. Maybe older, yes, but hell, it's just a video game.
Posted by Cody at March 26, 2009 8:51 PM