First post on any light forum here for me, mostly on the Living Room. I pretty much am stuck at home due to the severity of my bilateral MM. Nearing total deafness now, with ridiculous levels of tinnitus and sound distortion, and increasingly frequent, increasingly prolonged vertigo attacks. I found computer games a way to disappear from real life and enter worlds where I can still communicate, move, fly, walk without falling, you name it. Until my hearing got too bad, I even used this thing called Ventrilo, where I could talk to other players in my guild during raids (these are computer game activities involving groups of people up to 40 in number, who battle through things called "instances" or dungeons, and kill "bosses" for superior rewards.) It was great fun; I have been in one guild for over five years now, with people from all over the U.S., Canada, Australia, and even a couple from Europe. Now, I can't use Ventrilo anymore, so I stopped raiding because I did not want to be the weak link. But the games are still fun, as one can do so much solo or just typing in chats or conversations. I have made many great virtual friends in the game, a number of whom email with me on a regular basis about our real lives. I have also played many other single player games. The Dragon Age ones are really fun because you gain "friends" who are just NPC's, meaning computer generated non-playing characters, but they join you in your adventures and talk to you and the other members of your group, often making snarky remarks that make you laugh out loud. And age and gender are not issues. We just had a memorial service IN GAME for one of our guild officers, a retired Air Force colonel and beloved guild member who died at the age of 73. I am 63, and there are at least five other guild members older than me. Several of our guild's top leaders have been women as well. So I was just curious if any other Menierians have found this outlet. By the way, most games have easy controls to turn off sound and add subtitles. GIven my hyperacusis, deafness and sound distortion, I have to lose the sonic and musical element of games, which is sad, but I get all the visuals, and the game play, which is enough for me. As an aside, if you are a Kindle user, as I am, there are games for it, too. One of the free ones, "Easy Word," has made me a total addict. You get a set of scrambled letters, and you try to make as many words out of it as possible. If you succeed in finding the longest word, you advance to the next level, up to a maximum of 10 levels. It is a GREAT brain exercise in the verbal sense, and helps expand your vocabulary as well. I guess that's enough for a first post here. I should have posted here long ago. It would be interesting to make a guild in some game that was all Menierians. We would understand each other so much more, and probably have a much better time than trying to integrate into a normal person guild, as I have.
I so hear you. I've never been a gamer myself, though a year or so into my symptoms I purchased a PS3. Never played World of Warcraft, though I finished Dead Space 2 on PS3 a couple of weeks ago. Thinking about purchasing Batman Arkham Asylum next. Pleasure to meet you, Brownrecluse
Hey, Gamer here too - used to play WoW and for many years, but I've given up on it since it's an awful load of dross now. Currently playing Star War The Old Republic - much better! Alex
