Goodbye & Farewell

[Neko Princex]

This has been a long time coming. I am leaving gaming and The Piazza and all other forums associated with gaming. I have finally mourned the loss of this side of myself and am ready to move forward with the rest of my life. All of you have been good friends to me, but it now time for me to sail under new winds. Our paths may cross again, but for myself it will not be as a gamer.

[Yaztromo]

Well... you can stop (role)playing regularly on a tabletop, but you can't stop being a "gamer" in your heart when you do whatever else you do in your life.
It becomes a sort of personal approach to things or, if you will, a sort of education. Give it some time and then think about it, looking at how you live your life

I hope I managed to make myself understood, even if words (specially in English) usually come short of some concepts I would like to communicate.

[Rafael]

Take care, TAD.

Gaming is not a lifestyle, it's a hobby. So, it's not something you give up. It's something you take a break from. See you when you're back.

[Havard]

Its been great having you here TAD! Hope we will see you around

-Havard

[finarvyn]

Gaming is not a lifestyle, it's a hobby. So, it's not something you give up. It's something you take a break from.

Rafe -- I both agree and disagree with this. I agree that gaming is something you take a break from sometimes, but I'm not sure about the "not a lifestyle but a hobby" part. I say this because even when I have stretches of my life when I'm not actively gaming, my mind is always thinking about that stuff. For me it's a lifestyle and a hobby. Just picking a small nit.

Having said that, it always saddens me when someone decides to walk away from gaming or walk away from message boards. Gaming is something that makes me happy and the opportunity to communicate with friends and fellow gaming spirits online is a huge part of that. (Sometimes folks get so angry on boards that they delete their account and purge their posts. That makes me even more sad, since those posts represent hours of conversation and thought and debate about something we all enjoy.)

[Rafael]

I'm not sure TAD might appreciate if we discuss this here, old friend, but I think this is a purely semantic issue. I define a lifestyle as something I cannot simply walk away from, something that owns me, if you will. Not gonna lie, I've had phases were some hobbies, or, really, side affairs, owned me, but whenever I got self-aware about things, I usually quickly rearranged my priorities. Now, gaming is not a lifestyle to me; it's something that I do - and if I ever decide not to do it, well, then that's it. That doesn't include personal relations built through the hobby; but the act itself, what? - I can spend my Saturdays playing Poker instead.

[finarvyn]

I define a lifestyle as something I cannot simply walk away from, something that owns me, if you will.

Gaming owns me. If not the physical action of playing, the process of tweaking and discussing gaming. I'm 52 and have been gaming for 40 years. I cannot imagine a life without gaming. For me, it's a lifestyle. 8)

[Rafael]

Hehe, my friend, the existentialist in my heart is yelling and running around in circles. My friends own me. My family owns me. The moonlit sky owns me. Gaming is pleasant, but it doesn't own me more than, say, Karate, or Boston Hardcore.

But I know what you mean. You are what you do. And I guess that means I am a proud gamer.