Split-Screen :: The Game-Geek’s Daily Read

by ess-see

My name is Sunaina. If that isn’t enough of a tip off, then let me add that I’m a girl. Actually I suppose that woman is the right word by now, since I’m 26. But I haven’t started using that word for anyone else I know yet, so I’ll be damned if I start attaching it to me! I’m also a gamer. And a pretty hardcore gamer at that. And that sound right about now is you chuckling at the thought of the poor clueless girl. Well, how about a round of CS, or pretty much any other game you can think of to prove a point?

It’s not easy being a gamer girl right now, at least not here, not yet. There’s definitely a few all girl groups out there in the wide world, who are doing pretty okay, though I’m not sure that that’s not just because of the hype of the concept. But for me, even now, playing games online means people refusing to believe that I’m really a girl. I’ve lost count of the times, playing WoW, when I tell people that I’m a girl – and they ask me for pictures to prove it. Either those are the saddest, horniest men possible, or the dumbest. Then again, there’s a lot of overlap there, so let’s not think too much about it.

But if it’s sad enough that American teenagers (almost always – it’s like there’s something in the education system there) keep insisting that I’m a fraud, and usually start messaging the word gay again and again if the subject ever comes up, then it’s a lot funnier to watch what happens if you walk into a live gaming session.

I walked into a Reliance Webworld a while back, and sat down to play a round of Counter Strike. Two of my friends were with me, both guys, and we all sat down, and asked for the access codes to start the game, it needed a CD key. And it was all fine while the guys were getting the codes, and then I asked for them too. Big mistake it seems. Not only did the admin freeze and try and decide if I was perhaps joking, but there were some other guys, also playing CS, who stopped their round just to make sure that they’d heard right.

But the silliest experience I’ve ever had was in Palika Bazaar. I had bought an Xbox 360 just a few weeks before this, and I wanted to break in Halo 3. I was really kicked about getting into Halo again, and had already called one of my friends over, for video games and beer. So I went to the shop and asked the shopkeeper to get me the game. And he just smiled ingratiatingly at me and asked me if I was buying it for a friend, because he had some other titles too which the person I’m buying it for would be interested in! I told him off, told him to stop grinning, and that of course it was for me.Wrong thing to say, it turns out.

He told me that I must be mistaken, that Halo 3 was not the sort of game for a young girl. That I must be looking for something else if it’s for me. I got a little angry then, and told him very loudly to shut up and just get the game. And I think that maybe just perhaps I also abused him a little. Well. Maybe a little more than a little.

But it did work. I did get my disc, and half an hour after that, I was shooting up the Covenant. So I think a little abuse wasn’t really a bad thing.

I’m a gamer. I’m a girl. People are just going to have to deal with it.