One of my major hurdles in gaming has been, and always will be, other people's schedules. My own schedule can be quite flexible, except that much of it is under the control and restraints of the life of my wife, Kiralee and our housemate Cindy. Since both work in the accounting field, both are subject to some fairly nasty time loss for several months of the year (what we call the Dreaded or Doomed Tax season). There have been years when from the tail end of to December to about March 1st it was almost impossible to schedule a game, thanks to long work hours, tough commutes and a need for the concept of sleep. It's been a bit easier the past two years, but there are still huge gaps in the schedule (If I'm not gaming at least once a week, I'm definitely gaming too little).

Being a "house husband" (I manage the normal household operations and don't have a 9-5 office job), Condo Association Building Manager (I'm the one who has to interact with all the wonderful repair, delivery, construction and maintenance people for our condo building during the daytime hours because those who work 9-5 can't) and independent/freelance writer (mean's I don't make much money when I am working anyway as I don't conform well to the corporate world), I have a more flexible schedule in many ways when it comes to running, playing and hosting, except when it conflicts with everyone else in the house's desires. It also means I have more desire to fulfill a gaming itch, as I spend a lot more time playing "hurry up and wait" on the condo building end of things.

My social circle pretty much remains stable, with effort, in regards to the actual number of people I'm interacting with FTF (while my online social circle has been growing in recent years considerably - not useful for gaming for me though in many cases). I don't let myself fall into the dwindling numbers hole that some more mature gamers do, and I work hard to be somewhat flexible to truly new ideas and concepts.

The style problem is caused, I think, by a changing society that is trapped in the concept of "living in the moment" and not willing to think in long term concepts. Too much of the society has an instant gratification concept to life, which things like Hackmaster and D20 all too inevitably try to fulfill. It's not that I don't like short or even silly things (those who know me have had to deal with my liking for games like Fluxx and the original Cosmic Encounters), it's just that I see those as a snack, and couldn't possibly conceive of a steady diet of them every week.

As a player I want a VERY deep game, not a wide game. That is, a setting that is in many ways an onion, where players peel away layers to discover new and interesting levels of detail as the world unfolds before them. This means you need a GM willing to put in the time (something I try to do myself when building an original setting), but which I rarely see from many GMs. What often happens is that the GM centers on their design on a specific area of what they consider interesting, and you then find other details rather flimsy.

I can deal with a GM who keeps adding more backl-log to the setting, so long as it is non-contradictory, as things go, so it's not a matter of having to develop lots of content at the start. I can also deal with a GM willing to look for a detailed setting (or a loose one) and customize it and detail it more to their own plots etc. The problem is that few do, most will just pick something up, run it as stock generic, and ignore inconsistancies or create new ones as they go without respect for the setting background materials.

I want setting depth, character depth, plot depth and detail. It's the same problem I have with many modern movies, novels and book series : they don't think things thru, leave gaping holes and generally fail to show me something interesting or get me involved emotionally or from a logic point of view.

I find it interesting that you find the same problems that we have in the states in your country - I've been told that most of the rest of the Civilized world (except sometimes Japan) has a lot more leisure time and a greater respect for games in general in leisure than we do around here. Of course, in the US, being on unemployment and job hunting can be itself a full time job for some people because of the morass of red-tape, interview demands, etc., according to friends of mine who have been thru that process in the past few years of the Bush disintigrating economy.

Thanks for your input, I wish I had a pile of solutions to offer, but I'm still struggling (there is light at the end of the tunnel, the Western Ave Irregulars may have a second game day schedule once we come out of Tax Season).

Zoning Board : For those who haven't read my Livejournal posts or spoken with me lately, we had our Zoning Board meeting on 2/26. The Board granted the hardship variance for the construction work, and so our basement will become an active construction zone over the next few weeks. This will probably mean that a dumpster will be sitting out front of the building randomly for construction refuse, and visitors should be aware of this as it may cause some parking problems. (There has been some construction work going on at the Youth Center at Hoyt field near our house as well, so this may mean an overall reduction of parking in the neighborhood for the next few months in general).

Bureau-13 : Team Smorgasbord accomplished their second mission this past Sunday, preventing the summoning of Cagliostro, lesser servant of the Forgotton Gods that lurk at the threshold of known reality by the dark magician and her minions. There are a few minor loose ends (what to do with a temporarily invisible legally non-existent hotel in downtown Frisco, a Library of Dark Magic and Pure Evil, etc.) But overall mission was accomplished. I should probably do an update to the team web page when I get back.

The Future : Kiralee and I am flying on Friday into the great unknown.... well Seattle anyway (she hasn't been really back there for a decade, and of course I have never been there at all). We'll be doing wireless access to the web, presuming we get there safely, but this means I will be not doing too much with the website while I am gone. I will be making Live Journal entries, and folks can comment on them there, and I should be reachable thru my usual email.

Cindy will be at home, and various members of the Western Ave Irregulars will be around to keep things functional on the homefront.

I'm going to be busy with trip logistics over the next few days, so my net interactivity leading up to the trip will be sporatic. Again, watch the LJ entries for anything interesting along the way.

Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings.....

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