Since day 1 on the blockchain, I have had Gamer as one of the 6 words on my profile to describe who I am and what might appear in the blog. I remember sharing some funny screenshots and stories from a couple years ago when the crew assembled for some Grand Theft Auto 5 (GTA5) screwery. Since then, I have woefully underrepresented gamers on Hive and not yet even delved into blockchain games.

It started with hand held games in the 70s my dad used to sneak away with through consoles like Pong and Colecovision, through the dawn of PC gaming and building my first 486dx2. We have LANfested for decades since and I have always had some sort of gaming computer and never really stopped gaming.

With the sudden lack of stigma on huddling in the mancave safely away from the public to prevent the spread of disease, we have really had a good couple of years. Online gaming has become a great way to hang with friends from everywhere and act like college kids again.

Here are a few we have played in the last couple years.

GTA5

Source: Rockstar games

We were late to the game on GTA5 by years actually but it was free by the time we started and some good mindless gooning. So you get to act like a thug, build an empire and blow that money on weapons and power and hookers? Damn straight I will give that a go.

This game is literally the most popular game of all time so there really is no need to try and describe that which is widely known already. Instead, I will share some funny shots while in Los Santos with the crew.

You can see we love to dress up our thug barbies for laughs. Whether you want to walk around in boxer shorts, dress sharp with red contact, pimp it up with some Mayhem hair, or blend in with the rest of the douchebags, free reign. Damn funny watching your jackass crew bumble through missions and open world destruction.

Sometimes, you have evidence of guests staying at some of your businesses or apartments.

Other times, it is drinks with the guys.

My console shows I have over 2100 hours logged in this game. a very large chunk of these hours were from when we played very regularly and left the game running when we slept. It didn't benefit us in-game but this game takes SO DAMN LONG to load, we often preloaded so that it was running when others decided to play and didn't want to wait 15 minutes for each person to load up.

This game is literally the most popular game of all time so there really is no need to try and describe that which is widely known already. Still, I will have to dig through all my other screenshots as some are quite entertaining.

Dungeons & Dragons?!?

A good number of the crew today became acquainted back in the day and actually did it up old skool with dice-rolling D&D. A few of them have actually moved back to that hometown or never actually left, and were gathering weekly to play D&D. Despite having lots going on and being hours drive from there, I longed to be nerding it up with these guys.

All it takes is a little googling and a bunch of beer to find a platform like https://roll20.net or https://www.fantasygrounds.com/ and either look great for remote gaming. We tried both and, while both did the trick, Fantasy Grounds seemed easier for the DM to manage (tokens and monsters and maps and lighting and such) and flowed smoother from turn to turn. The unfortunate part is the platform may be almost free to join, you have to purchase the Dungeons & Dragons content/campaigns...on each platform. It would be nice to see the company include a digital copy to use when you buy the physical books and have it work on any licensed platform. The investment in these modules wasn't cheap and we filed that under white people problems.

I rolled myself up a Dark Elf Desert Druid joined the campaign that started in person in my old hometown, but went online when the nerd cave closed due to covid. That is a silver lining if I ever saw one. Covid is a big black cloud but I get to play with friends from college across this continent weekly. I am such a nerd.

World War Z

This is a game I picked up for free with other friends who have Amazon Prime. You see, that subscription I purchase for my business entitles me to movies, image storage, music and even games! Who knew? There was an offer that you can download this within a certain timeframe, and it was free. Zombies? Multiplayer? Free? IN!

I am a fan of the art put into the cut scenes and loading screens. Some folks shut off the music because they don't like to be told what to do but I always leave the soundtrack on. Poorly done music and ambiance can be turned off but I find some games really enhance the experience when done right, which seems to happen plenty with the latest games.

At this point, the game action has been so frantic and I have had too many pints to have been able or remember to take any action shots. We still play this one regularly and I will have to make it a point to get you some game footage in future game posts.

More along the zombie killing theme, we have the recently released Back for Blood https://back4blood.com/en-us While the style is familiar and we have played so many Left4Dead hours (by the same development team,) this game is a bit different for us as we purchased it, full price, right at launch. Bargains R Us for sure but we owed ourselves and the producers of this game to pay full price based on the enjoyment we had from L4D and L4D2.

The unfortunate part is that it is also so frantic and immersive that I haven't developed my action screen shot game.

Let' s Game

I have a renewed zeal for penning the posts I have been meaning to for a while, and a huge folder of screenshots, stories and gaming insight to share. FPS, MMOs, Role Playing Games, trivia, live comedy nights, strategy games and hopefully Blockchain games! What a time to be alive when you can make a few bucks with a global network of folks who also enjoy photography, sports, exploring, innovating, smoking and gaming.

Stay tuned for more gaming insight as I work on my gaming, game.