Thoughts from a (girl) Gamer

By Kat

Game: (geym)

Noun/Adjective (In this instance, a Noun)

A competitive activity involving skill, chance, or endurance on the part of two or more persons who play according to a set of rules, usually for their own amusement or for that of spectators.

Gamer: Gam·er (gā’mər)

Noun

One who plays a game, especially a role-playing or computer game.

There is little known reason why there is a separation between male and female gamers online and in the real world. Some deny it, and some say articles like this feed it. Some say, “It’s all in your head,” and some say, “Girls don’t play games” while others jump the gun to ask me on a date just because I have a little 360 controller keychain on my purse. I am a gamer and have been my whole life. I’ve had every end of it from being hit on to kicked from a lobby because I spoke and people realized I was a girl, even though I pwnd the previous round.

Instance #1 – Left 4 Dead

I was gaming with some friends from an online group called Roam. We had made our game public, for it was a survival, and we wanted fourth team member. My name at the time was “Katia”, which is my standard gaming name, derived obviously, from the common name “Katie”. While we were waiting, I went afk to fix myself a snack. While away, someone entered my team, who welcomed him as they always pleasantly do, and told him that the wait was going to be just a few minutes because I was away. He saw my name was Katia and immediately started throwing out sexist comments about how “women take forever to do everything” and about my gaming skills, or lack thereof since I was set to “away”. My team immediately kicked him, and when I returned, they were very angry. I then changed my name to one that did not determine gender. Another gamer joined and we began the survival. We all did really well, and I was the last to be taken down. I did not speak this entire time, and decided to type instead, to see how different it would make things. When I was comfortable, a few rounds later, I started speaking with the mic and he was surprised to see that I was female. He left the following round without word, even though we earned silver and had developed a working tactic.

Instance #2 – Soul Calibur 2

It was college and I was nearing the final courses necessary to graduate. I was taking a class that allowed us to bring in game systems and play them in an effort to “study” current titles. (We basically just played games and had tournaments, how much better could a class EVER get?!) I decided one day to bring in my Soul Calibur 2 game for GCN, which I had won tournaments with in the past. I was one of the first people in the class, so as far as everyone knew, there was a game on my desk, not that it was mine. A classmate swiped it, and put it in the GCN, not even asking me for permission. I was right there, so I just let them start it up. After a few rounds, I asked if I could have a go. They made me wait; I guess not thinking I was serious? I waited, and then the controller finally came to me. I won. They gave the looser so much crap for being beaten by me which he defended with “I’m not warmed up is all,” regardless of his win streak before me. Someone else grabbed his seat, and took up arms. I won again. He couldn’t believe it, and we had a rematch, which I won. I fought about 11 more matches before finally loosing, and was called “bitch” about 30 or so times. (This happened also in many a Super Smash Brothers Melee tourney.) After much screaming and cheering, some of my classmates told me that they could kill me at other games, and some of them asked me out.

Instance #3 – I’m either fat (which apparently every frowns upon?), or extremely hot and naked, holding game accessories.

This is my favorite one. I’ve read so many blogs about girl gamers online (Just Google it for yourself!) and have seen these classic cases. If you’re a female who plays games, you are one of the following: A naked girl with a moderate to smoking-hot bod sprawled out with controllers covering your flesh, or standing naked (or next to) with controllers, cords, and game boxes conveniently placed in prime locations to make it “classy.”

“Most gamer chicks are fat and lesbo. [I’m] not saying you are, but it’s the truth”

–anonymous

“She later admitted to me that she didn’t really like video games all that much and that she bought the system to impress guys.”

–anonymous

Fortunately, females of all ages are striking back with getting into games under no assumption of how most hardcore gamer girls are being treated.

According to the website http://www.bit-tech.net, ( *to see the full article, click the link at the bottom of this blog ) Nintendo has 9.36 million female fans, Xbox 360 has 1.29 million and Sony recently made it to 1.05 million girl gamers. That means that to the male population of gamers, which is about 33.3 million, female gamers have crept up to 11.7 million. I would find it hard to believe that this population entirely consists of females who are tousling with weight issues or who over expose themselves with an attempt to get the title of “Girl Gamer”. Every girl likes to feel sexy and beautiful, and that’s normal, but to females who take this hobby seriously, or even as a way of life, being judged in this way is sometimes difficult to deal with. So many times I have witnessed girls jumping aboard a conversation about a game, or bragging about how good they are in an attempt to get attention. My favorite part is when I ask them to play with me and they have an excuse in a desperate attempt to not get smoked in front of the crowd. I’m a part of Thoughts from a (girl) Gamer because I believe in the cause. I believe that girl gamers should be liberated, and those who use games to get attention should be called out. I’ve witnessed these types of images before, and when Tara told me about Raychul and I took a look for myself. Is she getting funded for doing what she is doing? What does she do? Does she just dress up as the most scantily clad women in video games, show up to comic cons, and get renown points for it? (lol Fable) Does she game for money? How come I’ve never heard of her name in tournaments before? Does she do what we do on TGG, except she’s more provocative, which equals higher status? I’m sure she’s a very nice gal, and she’s having fun doing what she’s doing. She may even be a really awesome gamer. I have bills to pay, and have dreams lying in the game industry. If I did what she does, is that all it takes to make it in on your own? Not competing or a legit interest in gaming? Or having your writing ability critiqued by professionals on game reviewing websites? I’m not sure, but I’d really like to know. I have a game design degree and big dreams of working for a game company and making them very proud. I will continue doing what I do, and hopefully, it will pay off. I will do it the old fashioned way, with hard work, not showing off my body. I will go on; encouraging girl gamers to stand up for themselves in a mature way when that one sexist person logs on, and ruins their fun. Girl Gamers are real people. The cashier at your grocery store, your home economics teacher, your best friend’s lawyer, the soccer mom that cut you off on your way home from work. I should know! I help them choose new titles to play at my job!

Here are some pictures of me actually playing a game. Not posing with a controller to look like I do something. See if you find anything like this in your “Girl Gamer” Google search…

“Hey, I’m going to take a picture of you!” – Cory

“Huh?” -Me (and my awesome music blanket b/c my apt was FREEZING!!)

And here I am playing and evaluating Fable 2 for my friend in the picture below, fully clothed. Just and average girl, sitting at home, playing games with her friends…

See? Girl Gamers can be normal people

* http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2009/11/27/nintendo-we-have-80-percent-of-girl-gamer-m/1

GAME ON!

Some photos from Tara’s urban exploration adventure.

There really isn’t anything like this on the site…. and it’s definitely not video game related, but I thought it was cool. Near my apartment there was a factory that closed down about 25 years ago, and was later bought by a apartment complex . Now it’s used for storage. I got permission to go in and look around, and here are some of my pictures.  It was really weird being in there because there is some old stuff from when it was a factory, like the time card holder… nurses office… punch clock…. and then junk that is being stored there… such as a sea of refrigerators. I hope you enjoy. If you’d like to see the image larger, just click it.

One of the most entertaining aspects of Comic Cons and Wizard Cons are the cos play. While I’m sure they aim to please whether it be eye candy or sheer awe, there are a few who take it from wow! to wow…. Fortunately enough today most were pretty creative, awesome, and fun. Take a look at some of the individuals from Philadelphia’s Wizard Con cos play.

Space Balls and the Baroness

Self Explanitory

Black Manta

No Clue

A different version of The Joker. I liked it

Chewbacca

Thats a wrap. Enjoy!

By Kristianna

Whether it’s opening night, matinee, or a group of friends hanging out, there are just some people you cannot enjoy watching a movie with. They make it completely miserable for others around them, without the slightest idea of how incredibly rude they are. Here are the top 5 people you hate to see a movie with.

The Know-it-all
How to spot one:
There is no classification for a know-it-all. They come with any gender or age.

Why we hate them:
The know-it-all will find a way to ruin every scene of the movie. They know every line to the movie and will recite it verbatim as the movie plays. We personally don’t care if you have seen the movie 47 times. If I wanted to know what happens before it happens, I would have fucking stayed home and read a spoiler killing review. The worst type of movie to see with this person is a horror flick. They will kill every moment of suspense and gore, rest-assuring you that this scene was the only good one in the movie, and the next 90 minutes are a bore fest. As if listening to you wasn’t bad enough.

Their Death Punishment:
Death by exhaustion. We will strap you in a chair, tape your eyes open, and force you to watch every movie ever made. That way you can fulfill your dream of ruining every movie ever made. That is of course if you don’t die before then.

The Pig
How to spot one:
They can range from any age or gender, but are generally found overweight. Although, there are exceptions to this.

Why we hate them:
There are two different types of pigs; however, they’re level of annoying is just as equal. The first type of pig is the person who lacks jaw muscles as they’re mouth hangs open as they chew. The food sloshing in their mouth spits out in tiny debris as they breath in and out. This is more traumatic than the museum scene in Mother of Tears, causing you to set your attention on the popcorn speckled saliva that hangs from your lips. The second type is the person who brings a buffet in their personal belongings. Instead of being considerate and opening a small hole in everything prior to the movie, you hear the crunching of their wrappers every five minutes because they can’t decide if they want the Crunch Bar or the BBQ Chips. Rest assured, you fat ass, you wont die of starvation if you go 5 minutes without fucking eating.

Their Death Punishment:
Starvation. While doing so, dangle some potato chips just far enough out of reach. If you can deprive people of a good movie experience, we can deprive you of food. It’s only fair.

Tweens
How to spot one:
Children 11-16. They horde like schools of fish, traveling in packs of 20 or more on a Friday night. Their infestations are most severe on an opening movie night.

Why we hate them:
They will do anything at all possible to up their social status, even if it’s at the cost of your patience while still making complete fools of themselves. While we’ve all been there, we also got our asses beaten if we disrespected our elders. The biggest gripe with this one is that their parents are the dumb idiots that buy their 12 year old kids rated-R movie tickets, and then wonder why they’re out fucking and getting knocked up at that age. Because of this, they’re often spotted in clusters running around the theater well after the movie has started like it was a chuck-e-cheese play place, smacking their gum, and recreating social acts of idiocy. They often have overly verbose reactions to every scene from blood curdling screams to that’s gross. That’s the very reason why there are age restrictions on movies in the theatre.

Their Death Punishment:
Put them and their idiotic parents in a locked room together. I’m sure if the parents actually spent five minutes with their kids they would see how fucking annoying their child was and end up killing them their self while following the murder with an act of suicide.

The Hoochie
How to spot one:
The Hoochie is typically a teenage to mid-20’s female. They usually travel in packs, and are undeniably annoying on all accounts. They’re signature trademark is a bad attitude, a bad weave, and unnecessarily uncomfortable shoes.

Why we hate them:
The hoochie is rather different then any other. They acknowledge that they’re a disturbance, but they don’t care. They’re generally the ones that travel in small little groups and talk loud enough for everyone to hear about that nasty rash they received from a one night stand. When asked to quiet down, they make a confrontational scene to exert their dominance. The bigger the audience, they nastier the confrontation where you couldn‘t get a word in edge wise anyway. There is no winning with them. We don’t fucking care about that bitch you want to beat up, that “boi” you want to fuck, or your new pair of way too tight pants. Sit down and shut the fuck up.

Their death punishment:
Record hours of them talking, cut out their tongue, strap them in a chair and make them listen to themselves speak over and over again, but never allow them to talk again. If that’s not enough to depress them to death, nothing is.

Mister Important
How to spot one:
They’re usually males (not all the time) of any age, but often they’re traveling with hoochies. They have their phone either glued to their ear or in their hand to receive the next important text.

Why we hate them:
They will answer phone calls in their seat during the movie carrying on a conversation as if nobody notices them. If that wasn’t bad enough they will then whip out the phone texting through the whole movie shining the cell phone light in everyone’s eyes. If you’re that important that someone needs to be getting a hold of you every second of your life then it would be for the greater good if you did something else. Their cluelessness to how inconsiderate they are is unyielding. No, your loud and pointless conversation and bright cell phone light isn’t bothering me at all, thanks for asking.

Their death punishment:
Deadbolt a cell phone to their head with Gilbert Gottfried talking on full volume on the other side. I believe this one speaks for itself.