The Waiting Party

Spyderbyte | 7/08/2008 10:31 am | Game On

This weekend past, the Game On crew (like much of America) had big plans.

One of those plans was to party.  Much of America might hear the word 'party' and think of cocktails and evening dresses or birthday cakes and pointy paper caps or beer kegs and t-shirts.   We like to rock those parties as much as the next citizen, but this Saturday we were planning a party of another kind.

Gamers know what I'm talking about; parties that begin sometime in the early morning and go all day and into the night, parties that involve camping (well, not that type of camping) and swinging sharp objects at dangerous, ugly beasts not just for the experience but also for the XP (which is different than experience and not the operating system of the same name), parties at which though virtually outside the whole time rarely feature daylight or moonlight.

By 9:30am this past Saturday, the Game On crew was geared up and ready to party, but our sole outside member, a very key player, was nowhere to be found.  Thankfully, like good little gamers, we all brought a few other items in our RL gobbie bags to keep us entertained while waiting.  Stephen King novels.  Comic books.  A Playstation 2.  A Nintendo DS.  Water.  Bottled tea.  Oh, and a very sleepy cat.  (We mustn't forget her-she manages our band.)   You see, swords and spells are a necessity for fighting in Final Fantasy XI, but contrary to what much of non-gaming America might believe, these seeming luxuries are often just as important for succeeding in Vana'diel-waiting is simply a part of the game.

Hours past and we were unable to drum up our fifth team member.  We finally needed to break down our camp so we could head off to a more traditional outdoorsy party event.  Some may look upon our lack of in-game activity as an unsuccessful outing, but in my opinion that is not true.  You may need to look a little closer to see them, but we actually accomplished a number of things during our time that day.
So while much of America may have been having July 4th backyard barbecues, listening to their radios and nodding their heads in agreement while Tom Petty sang out that the waiting is the hardest part, I'd be arguing it's not always true.  If you've packed properly for our kind of party, I think the waiting can actually be just as fun.