Episode 17 – True Colors; A Case Of Gamerism

Yesterday I told you all about my PS3 experience. What I left out was what happened on my way back from the first part of the event.

At the event there were both boys and girls on hand. The boys were getting their hands dirty and the girls made gift bags (hence, hat and tee shirt) and ran the registration and Polaroid’s.

There was one girl there who was absolutely gorgeous. Tall, skinny, blonde… flat out, she could have been a model. What the hell was she doing at a PlayStation launch event? It was clear she was no gamer. I have been playing video games long enough to know that this girl has never even seen a controller, let alone picked one up and used it.

Anyway, while waiting for the subway back from Brooklyn to Manhattan I discovered that the train I was waiting for just stopped running and that I had to instead take another one that took longer. Fine. I can do that. As I was about to get up, the girl I spoke of in the previous paragraph sat down in the bench next to me.

I tell her what I just learned. She’s not too happy then asks what train to take. I tell her what my plan is and she decides to take the same train I take. As we walk to the other platform I ask, “So are you coming back tomorrow morning?” There is a moment of slight recognition. She says, “Um no,” with this look in her eyes that adds, “and don’t talk to me.”

I don’t care. I talk anyway because 1) there was just no reason for that, and 2) I’m pretty sure she needs to be there tomorrow for registration (she wasn’t btw). I tell her I had to be back there at 8, which meant not too much sleep. She asks if I’m actually getting a PS3 or if I just went with someone who wanted it. There is a bit of “I’m better than you” in her voice. It pisses me off. I realize she thinks I was one of the people from the line.

I tell her, “No, I was working. With you.” That immediately makes her feel a lot better. The evil looks, and superior tone vanish. She is instantly more comfortable. We start trading stories about what we did that evening and what we saw… basically gossip. She tells me about the goings on in her booth, and that people were asking if they could get more than one PlayStation etc. Apparently, she was one of the girls in charge of Polaroid’s.

She launches into a tangent about “the shady guys who, like, still live in their parents basements” that had gotten in line for the PS3. And how videogames are so pointless and useless. This girl basically told me that these people who play video games need to get lives, and that they are inherently dirty people that gross her out. She mocked our entire community. Based on what? Some people waiting in a line? I defended, but not as much as I could have.

It kind of pissed me off though that she only opened up to me only after she found out that I wasn’t some “crazy gamer” that had been camping out for days. God, if she only knew that secretly I was a gamer… oh and I read comic books as well, if I brought that up she probably wouldn’t even have made eye contact!

I said I didn’t defend gamers to the best of my abilities. There was really one main reason for that. I really wanted to get a sense of what people outside of the community thought of these launch events. What the common folk think of events that I just come to expect and consider the norm. Also… to be honest with you, dear readers, because I always am, I did want to talk to this girl. She may be the most attractive person I have ever had a conversation with. We talked about a ton of stuff for the length of 45 + minute train ride even after she was done with her gamer bashing (and my verdict on that is she is spoiled, and dumb, and while she is quite pretty on the outside, the inside doesn’t look very good at all… needless to say she is not someone I really care to talk to ever again).

But she really did give me a sense of how the public looks at our people. It’s hard to remember that videogames are still not seen as the thing to do by the beautiful people. I think dance clubs and cocaine still hold the top slots… for some reason. It’s even harder to look back and see that I was part of some serious gamerism… its like racism or sexism… just go with it. This girl would not have spoken to me had I been a person in line, and not a person who was working the event… as if somehow she was better than me. Me? Come on.

But now I have the public’s opinion. I’m not impressed. It’s going to take more than a pretty girl to make me change my mind about anything… well not anything. She probably could have convinced me of a lot of things. If she had said that the moon landing was faked, I would have believed her. If she told me to become a republican, I might have done that too. But turn to bashing videogames? I had an eight bit childhood, and no one is going to change that.

[as an aside, I wanted to add this to my post from yesterday. There was a tremendous amount of violence for the launch of a videogame system. And to be honest, it is very symbolic of what I have been saying as of late. Sony’s advertising and their gearing their system to the more “hardcore” type I think contributes to the violence. I am not saying that it caused it, or created the violence. No. Videogames won’t make you rob someone at gunpoint. But people who don’t play videogames can see how profitable exploiting these ‘hardcore’ can be.

You will NOT see this kind of violence for the Wii. Partly because there will be enough for everyone. I guarantee that. And partly because the Wii is such a happy system, from concept to appearance. It’s about having fun. And I will bet that any midnight launches for the Wii will be organized, cooperative, and peaceful… but then again, maybe I’m a Nintendo fanboy… ]