Diablo II

It was the year 2000 and I was in Massachusetts for a 3-month stint when I found out they were sending me drax0r as backup. I was excited because a 3-month long business trip is excessive, and that leads to boring fast. And although I didn't know drax0r well (he'd only been to the house a couple of times) I knew him well enough to know he enjoyed gaming, and I couldn't wait to get started on some Starcraft LAN games to pass the time!

When he arrived, my boss and I met him at the airport. He got his rental truck, and the first place we went was Sam's Club in Salem, New Hampshire where drax0r purchased a brand new game which had just been released and was in fact sitting on an entire palette of itself: Diablo II. He was very excited about this game about Satan and I feared it would distract him from entertaining me with Starcraft.

But it didn't. Despite having a new game in his hand, because I was so excited about not being in Massachusetts for three months alone - and playing Starcraft with him - he did indeed play many games with me. Later, during one of our breaks, he asked me if I'd like to play his new game with him.

Now I didn't much care for the few RPGs I'd played, and I certainly didn't want to play a game about Satan, but I recognized how magnanimous he had been with me so I reluctantly agreed. IT WAS FANTASTIC! I don't think I'll ever forget that day as long as I live - I had never before had so much fun with a video game. We didn't play anything else the duration of our trip.

And that's how I feel about playing it now its been so long. And my son as well. He's having an absolute blast - really getting into it. I can't wait for him to play Dungeon Siege after cutting his teeth on this. I feel this is going to be one of those things in which fulfills children's desires; quality time with their father. In a couple of years maybe my son and I will revisit this game with my daughter on another terminal? Bring her into the fold...

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I had to make that gif myself. I've looked far and wide for one for nearly a decade without success. And let me tell you something - fire is not easy to master, even when you don't have to render it yourself. There's something elusive in its burning ebb and flow. That's sixteen frames of discrete images and yet it still looks choppy. I feel like a caveman.