I shall make a Fortress out of Dwarves

I just read the greatest ever method for telling a true gamer geek from one who merely attempts to be one. Ask them the question "Who is hotter, Lara Croft or Samus Aran". If they need to stop to think about the answer, they're genuine. If they ask who Samus Aran is, or don't know it's a she, they fail.

• 100. Bugger me. I didn't even know there WERE 100 facts about myself. Apparently there are. Here's the final one. This year I gave myself three Resolutions (yes, yes, I know New Years resolutions are nothing but a cheap prank people play upon themselves to fool themselves that as an arbitrary measure of time passes things will improve on the incoming measure of time, while in reality if they REALLY wanted to make changes in their lives they would be capable of doing so indepedantly of outside meaningly time-period indicators). 1. Finish my script and other writing projects. 2. Do something with my life other then "Sit around". 3. Get into shape. 2 and 3 are on track (getting into Honours and exercises, respectively) while 1 is struggling.

Well, goodbye cruel worlds. Farewell harsh mistresses of time and space. Toodle-oo reality.

No, I'm not doing anything drastic with my frail mortality. No, I'm not ceasing to blog, or anything drastic like that.

I've just downloaded Dwarf Fortress. So on the off chance I become one of those sucked into it's ACSIC (or however it's spelt) art world of amazing simulation, I figured I should leave behind a message telling people what happened.

For those of you who do not know what Dwarf Fortress is, google it. Go on, I'll wait here.

.... Some time later ....

Scary, isn't it? A ridiculously complex simulation of a fantasy world in which Dwarfs carve a home out of rock and inhabit it, while under siege from various horrible races, friendly races come to trade, and Elephants run amock. And with me playing it, I can see three things happening.

1. I try it, it doesn't grab me, and I go back to wishing giant robots existed in the real world once more, letting my half-formed Dwarven society collapse under the weight of it's ill-supported rock tunnels.

2. I try it, I get sucked in for a couple of weeks, watching my fortress flourish and grow, become amazing in the space of a short time, getting to know the details of all my minions... then a rogue elephant goes crazy and smashes everything in my fortress, killing all my Dwarves and ruining numerous in-game-years worth of work. I delete the game and never look at it again.

3. I try it, and am discovered numerous years later having died of malnutrition, being written off as "missing, presumed dead", with an adendum attached to my autopsy report, saying "his Dwarven society still flourished in the years since he died, however."