AQ3D

What you see here is a screenshot of my character from a game called Adventure Quest 3D. 

Now, I don't play a lot of video or even mobile games, and the games I do play rarely keep me occupied for more than a month or so. I don't know, a lot of games seem repetitive and I get bored, which means I'm constantly cycling through the play store in search of something new and interesting. 

I didn't grow up with video games in my house like most of my generation. It just wasn't something my family did, which is totally fine. But I've played enough with friends and my own family to know that...well, I'm kind of terrible at them. And no, I am absolutely not ashamed to admit it. For this reason, I don't even really like to play them. (I'm not counting The Sims in this. Totally different type of gaming experience to me.)

Wait, hold on, I know what you're thinking: "But how can you be such a huge nerd and not play video games?! It doesn't make sense! It goes against nature! Aaaaa, my brain!" ...or something like that. The answer is simple: it's all about the story. I would much rather experience the story of a video game with out the actual playing part. I get impatient, and trying to remember which button to push gets in the way when I only want to know what happens next. I don't want to end up on a cliffhanger and then have to literally jump through a million hoops and die in lava a million times before I can move on. Personally, it's not fun to me. It's frustrating and sometimes anxiety-inducing. 

Soooo I don't play them. I let all you other talented nerds who are amazing at gaming do all the work. Then I look up your full videos with the cinematic cutscenes on YouTube and watch them like a movie, haha. And that works for me.

There are a few rare exceptions, though. Ghostbusters: The Video Game was really fun and not too complicated. School of Dragons was great because HTTYD and it had some very unique aspects that no other game had. Sadly, it got shutdown about a year ago. RIP.

And then there's Adventure Quest 3D. Dorky name, I know, but the game's action-with-an-infusion-of-pure-goofiness angle is part of the reason I started playing it about five or six years ago and still love it.

Let me briefly sum up why I enjoy it so much:

-It has a storyline that I haven't seen before. It's engaging without being too messy or complicated, even when content is added.

-It's hilariously self-aware, constantly makes fun of itself and not-so-subtly sneaks in references and parodies of other franchises.

-The controls are pretty easy, and you don't really "die". You just sort of get sidelined for a few seconds and then you're back without losing all your stuff. "Where's the fun in that?" you ask. That depends on your definition of "fun", lol.

-There are so. Many. Options. There are about twelve different classes to choose from which you can easily switch between whenever you want, dozens upon dozens of outfits, equipment and accessories, and an insane amount of quests and worlds. There is literally something for everybody. Pirates. Vampires. Magic. Aliens. Dragons. Derpy unicorns. Bird people. Angry land sharks. Your run of the mill meet-at-the-tavern-and-go-hunt-some-trolls-with-your-guild stuff. Or you don't even have to be in a guild. I could go on and on.

It's not hard to determine that it was the customization aspect that really drew me in. I LOOOOVE to customize. Being a creative person, I tend to function better when I'm allowed to put my own personal spin on things, so having the option to dress my character up any way I want is especially appealing to me. When I think about it, it's probably why I love cosplay so much. 

...All of which is a very, very long segue into the real point of this post: this year's cosplay plans.

I haven't started working on my 2024 FanX line up and don't currently have any plans for a big competition build, but I would be lying if I said I'm not itching to get my hands on something complicated and armor-y-ish. (That's totally a word now, you're welcome.)

That being said, I've taken Astrid's dragon armor about as far as I can for the time being, and other than some upgrades and repairs, probably won't do much with it this year. Everything else on my list are remakes or updates.

But I was thinking...

What if my main build this year was something completely original based on my love of customizing? Something that's purely me like the outfit in the screenshot that I created in-game.  

Or...

Another idea I had was for a build I would call "Gamer's Inventory", which would basically be a mashup of a bunch of different items and outfits that one might pick up in a video game. Those of you who like gaming know that when there are a lot of options, your backpack or vault or slots or whatever fill up fast and you end up having to decide what to keep and what to drop. My own game inventory is packed with stuff I've earned through quests and such, and all of it is cool and I just want to wear ALL THE THINGS, ALL THE TIME. Then I end up with a an alien-mushroom-wizard lady with space blasters, two swords and flower crown...and it's awesooooome! I often go into my inventory simply to see what wild, funny combinations I can come up with. As you can probably imagine, I find this endlessly entertaining, probably even more so than the game itself.

Anyway, a cosplay mishmash like this would be really fun and challenging to make, but I'm not sure about it. There would be a lot going on and it might be a bit too far over my current ability so I might stick with something a little more uniform like the picture above.

What do you think? Should I jump in and unleash the ultimate cosplay monstrosity on the world or go for the more streamlined cool matching armor set?