Across the Multiverse!

I don't know about you, but I find this grimy, unforgiving world we live in to be just a tad on the oppressive side sometimes. It is, therefore, a good thing when an opportunity comes along to escape it for a while. Books and movies are, of course, the primary vehicle for such a journey these days, but they aren't the only ones. Games, too, have become a way for us to explore the realms of the imagination and, unlike the other media, which allow us only to observe, games can let us interact with these worlds in a more satisfying way. Case in point, Magic the Gathering (what, you thought I was talking about World of Warcraft?). This card game has taken me on quite a wild ride over the years. I started playing about a year after the game's inception and it has been an on again, off again companion ever since. Recently, the gaming wizards responsible for producing Magic have come up with a unique new idea for us to enjoy. You see, the gist of the game's concept is that each player is a "Planeswalker", a being who is born with a special 'spark' that allows them to navigate between different realities, gathering magical power as he/she/it goes. This is represented by the collection of cards one gathers over time. New sets with new abilities come out every so often to keep the game fresh. However, the worlds themselves, the "planes" of reality where this all takes place have never been integrated into the gameplay as actual cards. Now they have. As a variant to the basic game, you can now buy "planes cards" that you can use to "planeswalk" during the course of the game. Each world has an effect on the game rules, but to me that's secondary. What is primary is that you actually feel like you are battling a rival "planeswalker" across a Multiverse of unique worlds during the course of the game. And that is just Fantasy Gamer Nerd Heaven! :)

I don't mean to sound like an advertisement for the game maker, but the new cards come out today and I'm fairly excited about getting to play with them tonight. I know what you are thinking. I'm too old to be into this kind of thing, right? Well, maybe. But maybe imagination isn't something that should only be the province of youth. I'll take my "weird" hobbies over boring mundanity any day.