Motion Sickness @ MindSay

So, this is how I spent my St. Patrick's Day: My friend's birthday is also this weekend so I drove to her house to spend the day with her, her husband and her three kids. She lives in the northern suburbs about 45 minutes from my house. Fought traffic and almost got hit twice. Made it there only to learn we had to go back to the city because her Mom borrowed her car and it wouldn't start. Got the car started. Went back up north to a packed Irish restaurant and had Irish chicken fingers. Went to her oldest kid's final "social dance" recital and spent an hour listening to the dance teacher trying to justify her existence. Also listened to her husband holler at her youngest, who is a small yet evil child, and who he mercifully finally took outside. Got whacked in the forehead accidently by my friend with the car door and spent 10 minutes getting the small gash on my forehead to stop bleeding. Went back to her house to have brownies and ice cream. Decided to go out to the mall. My friend asked her Mom (who lives with them) to watch the youngest, evil child. Grandmother refused. Spent 10 minutes listening to my friend, her Mom and her husband fight with each other. Went to Kohl's (with the evil child in tow) and pushed her around the store in a cart so my friend could get some shopping done with the other two kids. Tried not to get motion sickness in the car on the way to Old Navy because her husband is an angry driver and the evil child will only shut up if she is watching a movie in the car. Went to Old Navy. Went to Walmart. Lost her 10 year old middle kid (a boy) in the store because he wandered off without telling anyone (he went off with my friend while I went with her oldest daughter). His sister found him. I got to him before his mother did and hollered at him for wandering off like that without telling anyone, mostly because his mother is a good person but is the most wishy washy disciplinarian ever and has raised three of the least street smart children on the face of the planet. If there was ever a child who would be abducted from a store, it would be one of hers. Scares the crap out of me because I have known these kids since they were babies. Made him cry in the middle of Walmart (and of course made me feel like shit even though I was livid). Went back to their house. Thawed a frozen cheese pizza for dinner. Went home.

I think my day would have been better spent drinking myself into a stupor like everyone else.

So, as you might have seen on josiejunk's  blog, I had gone out to visit her this past weekend and we had a marvelous time. We have been friends since I was 10 and she was 12 and my life would be a lot less happy without her in it. I always hate leaving after a visit since we live so far from each other. This time was particularly hard. But leave I did. The plane ride was uneventful, and we arrived back in the delightful Midwest, where it was in the 20's and snowing. I also don't fly well (motion sickness) and as usual had a headache. By the time we got in it was 8pm, I had eaten one lowly bagel for dinner, and I had to be up at 5:30 the next day to get on the commuter train to work because the car was in the shop.  I turned on my cell phone and saw that I had a voicemail message. I checked it, naively thinking it was my family or a friend. Big mistake. It was one of the higher ups at work, who left the following message "Hi! Hope you had a great trip. Everything is fine here, but we've been busy. Just wanted to let you know the secretary has resigned, we have three interviews set up for tomorrow I would like you to sit in on, we have a two hour training on how to use the new phones, and you have an 89 page contract sitting in your e-mail that you need to review tomorrow because the client needs to sign it tomorrow. Hope you're well-rested!"

Oh joy.

So, I walked my sorry ass to the El station (that what we call the elevated train/subway for those of you not from the Chicagoland area!) to catch a train home. My brother picked me up at the station and spoke to me in one word sentences and scowled at me while I tried to shove my suitcase in the tiny space behind the front seat of the pickup truck (not wanting to throw it into the pickup part since it was snowing!). I came home to a giant pile of mail and my bed had a mysterious stain on it from the dog. So, I did what any modern, hip, together woman would do - I burst into tears.

Never fear - a warm dinner and one giant reality check later, and I was back to normal (ok, well, normal is a relative term) and I did manage to get all those things done today at work. It's just that reality can be such a bummer....

I just can't compete against a guy who writes games and plays games constantly, even at work.  I can kick butt in twitch games (centipede, space invaders, etc.).  I can even excel at most quick games: Freecell, Minesweeper; and well, forgive me, a game that gamecoder wrote for my birthday... TheLimitGame.  I can beat my husband at a game he wrote.  Oooh, that makes me so happy. 

With 3D first-person games, however, I get motion sickness quickly.  Other people (that I know) that also have that affliction tend to be far-sighted.  They also tend to be detail-oriented and fairly intelligent.  I wonder what the real cause might be.  I mean, is the fish-eye lens or other affects applied to 3D games just not quite right, so our bodies object to the wrongness?

With StarCraft, I have a chance.  I beat my husband once (or he let me) and I did the little dance.  What's more fun is playing as a team where I just collect resources, scout, defend my base, and occasionally help with the war.  I'm a zerg fanatic.  This is a game that has gameplay.  It doesn't need 3D or FPS (first person shooter) effects.  In fact, those game aspects tend to detract from the game, as far as I'm concerned. 

Let's have a vote. 

What's more important in a game... gameplay or visuals or other?  If gameplay, what's your favorite genre: FPS (first person shooter), RTS (real time strategy), etc.?

Secondly, is first-person or isometric (or non-3D) view better?