I Don’t Play for Gender. I Play for Skills.

In light of all the controversy going on in the gaming community over gender equality, I would like to share some things with all you fine people.

Firstly, if I want to play as a dude in a game, I’m going to play as a dude. I don’t care that some games have the main character as a guy or a girl. I’m playing to enjoy the game.

I had a conversation with someone recently dealing with the new Borderlands game coming out Oct. 14th. For those of you not familiar with the Borderlands franchise let me give you a quick rundown. In Borderlands 1 you play as a vault hunter. You’re looking for a massive treasure with lots of loot. In Borderlands 2 you are a vault hunter that must stop the villain, Handsome Jack. In these games you can play as a male or female. In the first installment of the game you have the options of Brick, Roland, Lilith or Mordecai. They all have different skill sets and special actions. None of them are alike in the least. When I play a game, I usually go for tank or sniper so obviously I would pick Brick or Mordecai. Their stats and action skills are set to those specific gameplay styles.

Mordecai, Lilith, Brick, Roland

In Borderlands 2 you can choose Axton, Slavador, Maya, or Zer0 (Krieg and Gaige came with downloads). For this game I had two choices for “tank:” Salvador the Gunzerker or Krieg the Psycho. The sniper or rogue character was Zer0. Now the skills and actions are a little different from the tradition tags of tank or rogue/sniper, but it’s the same idea. Salvador’s action skill is to wield two weapons at once; any gun could be paired with any other type of gun. Krieg had his buzz axe which made melee such a thrill. Zero has sniper stats, but his action skill was to make a clone so you could get some distance from your enemies or (as you built up your skill tree) to keep melee actions going so long as it was a one hit one kill or enemies were present.

Axton, Maya, Salvador, Zer0, Gaige, Krieg

Now in Borderlands The Pre-Sequel, it takes place on Pandora’s (the planet the previous games take place on) moon, Elpis. You are helping the villain from BL2 (Handsome Jack) take his place over the Hyperion company. It’s like an origin story, but in space with the most kick ass villain I’ve fought against except you’re not fighting against him. You learn the backstory of how Jack got to power in the Hyperion Company. In this game you can play Wilhelm (a boss in BL2), Athena (a former ally from a DLC in BL1), Nisha ( a boss from BL2) and everyone’s favorite robot Claptrap (or CL4P-TP Interplanetary Ninja Assassin).

Not his official title.

Now the decisions for these characters are a bit taxing. There’s no set label such as the tank, rogue, magic user, etc. So right now, I don’t know who I am going to play. I’m leaning more toward Wilhelm because of his drone action skill. I will go more into The Pre-Sequel in a later post.

But this brings me back to the conversation I had. I was explaining all this to a person who does not play video games. Yes, she has played a few but it’s not her hobby. I told her about the characters and the vast amount of options you had with each one. It was kind of cool to have someone listen to me babble on and on about a game that wasn’t my husband. She paused for a moment and asked,” Which character are you going to play?”

I responded that I didn’t know, but was thinking of Wilhelm or Claptrap. Her brow furrowed and she tilted her head a little. “You’re not going to play a girl character?”

What? I… don’t think so… I don’t like their gameplay styles. I might when I do a second playthrough just to get the experiences for that particular character. What she said next made me realize that gaming related gender issues come out of the community and leak into the rest of the world… at least a little anyway.

“But you’re a girl. Why wouldn’t you want to play a girl character? The people who made the game put the girls in there so chick gamers can play as a chick.”

Me^

I’ll admit that game developers have come a long way to include the female gender in the gaming world, but that’s not the reason there are female protagonists in games. For instance you have women like Mrs. Pacman, Lara, Faith, Samus, Sonya…. I could keep going. Some games you don’t have a choice but to play a female just as there are games where the main character is a male. If the game gives me a choice, I’m going to play the class I feel will get me the best results in the game. Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Skyrim, and Fallout are wonderful examples of what I like most about picking a character. You can be a guy or a girl while customizing that character to your specs. It’s freakin’ awesome.

So while I don’t mind playing as a female character in most games, I will pick a character to play that I feel will benefit me most in the game. If I like what that character’s stats are then I will pick them. The gaming world has become largely more inclusive to women in the recent years and I’m glad that I’m here to take advantage of that opportunity. Just don’t think differently of a person by the character they play.

Don’t Assume Anything

no·tion

noun

1.

a general understanding; vague or imperfect conception or idea of something: a notion of how something should be done.

2.

an opinion, view, or belief: That’s his notion, not mine.

3.

conception or idea: his notion of democracy.

4.

a fanciful or foolish idea; whim: She had a notion to swim in the winter.

5.

an ingenious article, device, or contrivance; knickknack.

After reading the question of the day, I realized that there are tons and tons of “notions” that people of on a variety of subjects. Thinking a little more about it I thought of how funny the word actually sounds. The fourth definition of the word seems to be my favorite due to the comical example. I wanted to choose something that affects me personally. Being a young person, I do a lot of young person things. There are also a lot of things I don’t do that most young people do. For example, I hate going to clubs. Most people my age enjoy going to clubs, though the only ones around here worth mentioning are gay clubs; nonetheless, it’s still a club and they go to it. I like staying indoors and reading a book or making jewelry, but the biggest pastime favorite I have is playing video games.

Ah, I said the foul words most parents hate to hear. VIDEO GAMES!!! Yes, I play them….. very often. Now with the notion part: People think video games are damaging to the younger generation. NO. Just no. Yeah, there are kids out there who will not budge from their television for hours in order to complete a massacre of fellow online players. Or even computers for that matter. Those PC gamers are just as bad for not wanting to go anywhere other than the next map. I’m not a PC gamer. I’m willing to try though. I don’t like WOW or any other popular MMORPG that involves me socializing with people through the tubes of the internet.

I really don’t want to talk to that.

Yeah, I know you can interact with people through console games too. I used to be a PlayStation girl growing up, but since I met Jesse he introduced me to the GameCube and the great XBOX360! I still have my PS, PS2, both PSPs (God of War editions) and play on them. You can’t take PlayStation away from this girl. I used to watch him and our friends play those hardcore war games like COD and HALO with others across the country. I really didn’t mind the thought of playing with these people, until I heard a child one day. That is what turned me away from online gaming. Those disgusting snot nosed children who have nothing better to do than cry and whine about how you or your friends aren’t playing fair and you’re a “fag” and such things like that. I hate it. Absolutely hate it. In a strange epiphany one day I realized that the video games aren’t the problem with kids. It’s something completely different: PARENTS.

Yes, I said it. It’s the parents. That’s the notion that world has wrong about video games. It’s not what the kids are getting from it. It’s what the parents aren’t keeping their kids from. Okay, let me explain from my point of view.

I work at WalMart. I help out in electronics all the time. Some people don’t like the idea that a girl knows more than they do about computers, HD tvs, iPhones, iPads, iPods, games, movies and cell phones than they do (I’ll probably do another post on this later). Anyway, one of the jobs is to get games out of the case for customers wishing to purchase them. What gets me is that these moms will come in with their kids (sons mostly) and buy all these adult themed games. For example, not even last week this woman came in with her son and bought a Modern Warfare game. This kid couldn’t have been more than 10. Whenever this happens, I usually take it upon myself to let the parent or guardian know the games rating and they have to carry it out of the store. I usually get strange looks but they comply nonetheless. It’s like they don’t even care. 99% of the time it’s the mother who buys the game and they don’t spare a second glance at what the game is about. I get the rare parent who asks questions about what their child would be playing if they bought this game or that. I commend those parents.

There you go. That’s the problem. It’s the parents. They get the games to shut the kids up and that’s that. If they were good parents they would monitor what their kids played and kept them away from it. If you’re going to blame video games then blame yourselves for letting your kid play that shit. Games have ratings for a reason. You wouldn’t let your 10 or 11 year old watch porn, would you? Then why would you let them play crap like Grand Theft Auto?

Still don’t believe me? I’ll leave you with a little something that all mature gamers hate. It’s a video of a child that is playing an adult rated game online. Lay off the game violence and look at who is letting them play.

What do you do for fun?

You’re basically looking at it. 😀

1. Obviously

No seriously though. I do write……a shit ton. Sometimes if you’re lucky you can catch me at work writing in a little notebook. I can’t help myself. I have come to the conclusion many many times that I really don’t have anyone to talk to about particular things. So I write them.

2. Gaming

I. Am. A. Gamer. Girl. I’ve been through the whole “not the cutesy wutesy chick in panties and a bra.” I sit in my pajamas and play for hours on end. Newest obsession?

Oh Kaiden….you lovely douchebag. Still not as cool as Vakarian.

I still play the hell out of Skyrim. Why? New DLCs mainly.

3. Jewelry Making

I think I’m pretty good at it. It’s fun. I do sell some things to friends, but I mostly wear what I make. I have strange tastes.

Yep….made this.

4. Piano

Kind of pointless to repeat myself from previous posts, isn’t it?

5. Cross Stitching

I have taken up a new hobby! I’m learning to cross stitch. Sometimes I have a real bad tick that makes me try new things and I get too in depth and can’t stop. This is one of those cases. HELP ME!