College is all about getting exposure to new ideas and experiences. For me, after I made friends with a couple of PC gamers my sophomore year, those experiences began to include countless new games. We routinely played Worms Armageddon or Heroes of Might and Magic III (hot-seat mode on both) until dawn and then kept going through the next day until somebody finally won.
But most importantly: without those friends, I’d never have met Diablo II. They introduced me to the mega-popular classic at a time when it was still THE thing in online gaming. In the fall of 2000 through the spring of 2001, I’d find myself logging onto battle.net at strange hours and exploring my way through isometric-inspired semi-random caverns.
Amazon. I always played an amazon. Because I wanted to play a female character, and because for my play preferences the all-purpose ability of javelins — throw ’em! stab with ’em! — never could be beat.
I still have the actual CD of the Diablo II soundtrack over in a corner of the living room (though I made MP3s from it well over a decade ago). Matt Uelmen’s score added a level of atmosphere to the game that no amount of graphics or gameplay could achieve on their own. Even now, listening still gives me the urge to spend the night exploring. And, you know, slaughtering a demon or two. Or two hundred.
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