After years of roleplaying, I'm finally enjoying myself

I used to dread roleplaying. I spent my teens and early(ier) twenties shuffling from one group to the next, because I never wanted to be that one guy in the friendship group who didn't join in. But God, it was a chore. I started seeing sessions as time-devouring black holes, where I'd emerge with only the vaguest of ideas about what we got up to. There were good moments, sure, but I'd spend nearly all my time un-engaged, waiting for it all to end so I could go and play a nice videogame with combat that didn't require me to twiddle my thumbs for 20 minutes before I got to announce that I was hitting a man with my sword.

I've spent the past few months messing around with the Savage Worlds system in my friend's home-brewed sci-fi universe, though, and I am a changed man. It turns out both of those things are fantastic.