My wife turned to me, and in her cute little apology voice, she said, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do it. I never mean to do it."
She had taken all of the loot. Again.
A couple of weeks ago, I introduced my wife to Sacred 2: Fallen Angel and the realm of action-role-playing games. She plays games such as Tetris Party, Lego Star Wars, and Mario Kart Wii with me. But she's never tried anything this complicated, detailed, and, dare I say, nerdy.
"Couch co-op" is one of my favorite aspects of action-RPGs on consoles. I played through the Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and X-Men: Legends series with some of my closest friends, and I prefer the direct interaction of playing with someone who's sitting next to you over playing online. But I no longer live near those friends, so my wife was willing to give Sacred 2 a spin.
Little did I know that she was just waiting for the right game to unleash her inner lootwhore. And I couldn't be happier.
We've been playing Sacred 2 for the past two weeks, and she's gone from RPG neophyte to loot-hoardin' munchkin in record time. When it comes to grabbing all of the items after a fight, my wife pleads innocence. She says that when she clears the screen of items, it's because she's just trying to help me kill the bad guys (my Temple Guardian, while capable, can't keep up with the killing machine of a Seraphim that I've help my wife create). Or she just "forgets" to hold up and collects everything. If I were playing with a friend or some anonymous netizen, I'd most likely start howling like an enraged Wookiee as item after valuable item disappeared from the screen.
But I don't really mind that she takes the loot. Part of this attitude, I'm sure, has to do with preserving marital bliss. But it goes deeper than that. She goes to her inventory screen after every item she collects, studying its stats and analyzing whether it's a good fit for her character. She understands the value of an item with silver or gold upgrade sockets, and she knows that her Seraphim deals much more damage with a two-handed sword than a hammer or an ax.
Most important, she's having fun playing a new type of game with me. And that's what I love the most about this. Games are special for a variety of reasons, and like a good book or film, a game can open a player to a new set of experiences. Before Sacred 2, my wife's dealings with the realms of fantasy were limited to her love of movies such as "Underworld" and the weekend fare on Sci Fi. But now her mind's open to a whole new world of adventures, a world that I hope we can continue to share.
Even if she won't share the loot with me.
