_... a series of ones and zeros.", the A.I. Zen master Zenyatta says.
He says many other wise things as well but I shall keep them secret for now. Unless you know Overwatch, the game by Blizzard which is, once again as their habit is, a most excellent e-sport.
There was a period in my life when I couldn't play that game for months. The Darg Age it was called. I am kidding, of course. I chose not to upgrade my Graphics device after the old one had burned. Because I knew it would be a distraction and I was hard set to advance on the blockchain. So, less spare time for games. But passion is passion and sometimes hobbies tend to claim your passion, too. Mine, at least.
This is a game you can play alone because the system finds teammates for you online. You are basically competing in a 6 vs 6 matches in a 3d shooter crossbred with a MOBA (Massive Online Battle Arena). It might not be officially one but it looks like one because of quite the number of things.
Each character has a different playstyle and role.
You play in teams.
You have objects other than frags and they are paramount.
You have Cooldown abilities and Ultimate abilities.
Zenyatta, for instance, is a support character, a healer, who can also tag enemies to take more damage with his Orb Of Discord ability. He snipes people with extra high-velocity energized balls. And he casts a radius of super-fast healing around himself as an Ult.
Yeah, he is a robot monk who levitates.
So, back to the part the game is amazing to play with friends. Teamwork and communication, yay. A fun environment where even losing can be hilarious. Great decision on making the game like an animated movie or a comics for (almost) superheroes.
Lots of flavor... Character Skins, Emotes, Highlight Video Intros, Sprays, Voice Lines...
Right, friends... Where are we without them?
I mentioned my long abstinence from the Overwatch that continued more than half a year and ended...
At my bachelor's party. Which was more like the LAN parties we had of old. Yeah, nerds and gamers, what can you do? It so happens that such are my closest friends among...the male half of humanity, at least.
It was totally not my decision...at first.
It was a whole day's ordeal. We had a traditional breakfast after my best man to be picked me up by car and we met others at the feet of the mountain. We climbed some mountain slopes for a few hours, had a beer or two at a hut, then we got back down to the city. And the gathering of laptops. No, we needed no crazy stuff other than what we could find into the dark depths of downloadable gaming.
Overwatch trial versions, I recalled, what do you know. We had a session of many hours. Up until the time, the sky became light again on the morning on the following day. And some of those souls close to me had never experienced the game before, so it was an amazing experience to guide them through it.
I bought a new GPU a couple of weeks after that. A married man should still stick to his hobbies. Right?
What would you do?
Yours,
Manol
