Video Killed the Radio Star

The need for instant gratification has been the bane of some of our favorite activities. Why should I play a board game when I can play it on the computer? Why should I roleplay when I can play an MMO? In our modern microwave society, it is difficult to find people who aren't looking for instant gratification. When I was a kid, we mailed off UPCs to get something cool in 6 to 8 weeks. I can't imagine a child doing that now.

I'll admit that sometimes it's nice to get the instant gratification. I play Guild Wars on Friday nights with my friends to get that, but we also play tabletop RPGs. The tabletop crowd has thinned quite a bit with the introduction of MMOs. To make matters worse, now people can't even wait to level up their character or get their special equipment. They buy money and items on ebay and pay other people to 'power-level' their characters.

Right now I'm playing a browser based game called AstroEmpires. One of the biggest complaints is that it takes forever to do anything. The game is played in real time, so even while you sleep, people are building and moving, and maybe even attacking you. It takes time to build up a strong empire, but some people would rather just play Starcraft, which is an awesome game, or something else where they can have everything built in less than an hour. My dirty little secret is that for me, AstroEmpires is a form of instant gratification. It reminds me of a play by email game I used to play called Fire on the Suns. You used to have to wait 2 weeks to get a turn processed, and you would accomplish only about as much as in a day of AstroEmpires. :)