Sadly I can't actually throw fireballs

I am just getting over (with the aid of much penicillin) a nasty bout of some bacterial infection that was apparently not strep throat, but might as well have been. It's nice to finally be on the upswing again. I've been a mess for the past week!

So, here's something random I've been giving way too much thought. Colin bought the new World of Warcraft expansion pack, Burning Crusade, and started a female character. I spent some time making fun of him, naturally, and then got to thinking about it. While I've never tried playing a female character in an online game before, I remember I did once in the single-player Neverwinter Nights original campaign (OC). What's more, what I consider one of my better pieces of writing, a short story called Thirty-Eight Swords, was inspired more-or-less directly by this character, Reskar. What's unusual about this is that NWN's OC is not particularly inspiring or interesting, and it's very odd that it was that campaign, of all things, that sparked a story. But here's the thing: in every other game I've played, I've naturally enough played a male character, and have pretty much just thought of my character as an extension of myself - i.e., well, that's me, if I could throw fireballs, or whatever. But I think by playing Reskar, I removed that 'this is my avatar' aspect of the game, and she became a character unto herself: a person, a Barbarian woman, actually, with a potentially interesting backstory and personality. Her motivations and goals were something more than George with a sword writ large, and this is what enabled a tale to form, and the creation of a character who was, in my own opinion, probably the most interesting and well-developed personality that I've ever written down.

I've decided to pick up a copy of Burning Crusade -- I suppose Colin takes a bit of the blame for this, but essentially I'm just bored of the games I currently am playing, and haven't ever really exhibited the kind of, shall we say, fanatical devotion that causes some people to spend way too much time playing this game.

With this odd revelation in mind (and also because I'd really like to play one of the new Horde Paladins, and let's face it, the male Blood Elves are pretty much the epitome of uncool), I've made the odd choice to begin a female character in an online game.

Let the mockery commence! It's a small price to pay for inspiration. (The monthly fee, on the other hand...not such a small price to pay.)