My Thoughts on Skimpy Armor Bikinis

K forwarded me this hilarious link to the Female Armor Bingo, where you can rate a fictional warrior lady based on the impractical components of her outfit and see if you get five in a row. It's definitely true – many video game costumes are strategically designed to show key body parts. I know a lot of real-life women who are highly offended at these characters for various reasons and/or don't feel comfortable with their significant others viewing them. I guess I must be in the quiet minority because I've been known to put together outfits like this:

Guilty as charged... at least I didn't win Bingo ^_^;;

Why do sexy video game girls not bother me? On one hand, I recognize how males are highly visual creatures, and for many, even glimpsing a scantily clad set of polygons is a dangerous temptation to be avoided. I have a personal conviction about dressing with modesty and not being a stumbling block for men. That being said, I am not affronted or intimidated by beautiful women (much less digital ones) who may not follow these same beliefs.

The summer after college, I went on a summer-long mission trip to South America. Long story short, God really made me face these body image issues I didn't know I even had. I hated my fuzzy hair, acne-prone complexion, wide hips, you name it. And yet, He showed me that my true worth comes from Him, not what the world thinks of me or even what I think of myself, and I am truly precious and wonderful and beautiful in His eyes.

Now I have a much better understanding of who I am and what makes me beautiful. Of course I have my moments of weakness where I crave reassurance from K (especially during pregnancy >_<), but ultimately he's not my source of confidence. Therefore, I see no reason for me to get jealous of any lovely ladies (real or not) that may cross my husband's path, and that attitude encourages K to openly tell me if anything does tempt him, rather than hiding it from me. Besides, I am seriously the best thing that has ever happened to K (and vice versa), and he knows better than to mess up a good thing. ^_~

Demon's Souls wins the award for "Least Sexy, Most Practical Female Armor" in my book. (Source: Demon's Souls Wiki)

Question:
What's your stance on letting your significant other play video games with skimpily dressed girls in them (or even playing those games yourself)? Do those characters bother you?

Fake Girl Gamers Make Me Laugh

Apparently, I'm way behind but there is a new meme called gurl gamer, aka fake girl gamers who like to tote their l337 gaming skillz to attract guys. I first came upon it when I saw this hilarious picture of a sexy gurl gamer mouthing a controller (and then subsequent people mocking her):

Girl vs.guy gamer eating hardware (Source: The Meta Picture)

Lol, that kills me! That inspired me to find other common poses and match them up with the guy equivalent. The results were amusing.

Girl vs. guy playing XBox (Source: The Raw Story, Shades of Zero )

Lara Croft cosplayer vs. Chuck Norris wielding two guns (Source: Getty Images, Know Your Meme)

Girl vs. guy posing with arcade machines (Source: La Carmina, Kotaku)

Honestly, I think all of it can be summarized with this simple comic. Sorry, most of us gamer girls don't look like super models... except for Shawn's wife. :)

(Source: I Waste So Much Time)

Enjoy your Thanksgiving, and try to avoid any dishes that serve electronics!

Too Much Geek for Me

This grandma is very proud of
her Level 99 Knitting achievement.

As much as I love knitting and crocheting, it's more of a solitary sport for me. Don't get me wrong; I love my fellow crafters. In fact, I used to belong to a knitting/crocheting group at my old company and am forever grateful to them for teaching me how to knit. However, whenever I see announcements in my community for a new knitting group, I fully intend to attend but always end up skipping at the last minute. It's just that from the few times I've gone... the attendees at these groups are just way too hardcore for me! For example.

• They revel in buying high end, specialty fibers from boutique yarn stores. I still mainly use cheapo Red Heart Super Saver, purchased at the local Michael's or (gasp) Walmart.
• Knitting/crocheting seems to be all they do and talk about. I've never heard of them talk about any other hobbies besides weaving, spinning, needle felting, or other fiber arts.
• They wear t-shirts screenprinted with inside jokes about knitting or come decked out in outfits that they've crocheted themselves
• They knit/crochet constantly and will start projects even if they have no idea who it will be given to. I only whip out the needles and hooks if there's a reason. (It's kind of like window shopping vs. shopping with a purpose. I only shop when the refrigerator is empty or K's shorts all have holes in the crotch.)

Somehow I just don't feel like I belong...

These yarn groupies have a very intense love for their craft, which is why I'm more of a lone wolf creator.  The one exception would be the mother of the little girl I taught to knit. Although the lessons have officially ended, the mother and I still get together once or twice a month to communally craft at Starbucks, but really, it's just an excuse to escape the kids for a little while. :) We do less talking about our favorite patterns and more chitchatting about our families, life, and anything besides what we're holding in our hands.

K says the same thing is true with his hobby of HeroClix. Even though his friends have stopped playing regularly, he's not up to attending tournaments at comic book stores. The guys who show up are super obsessed with the game, which can be a little overwhelming. Plus, they don't really play "for fun" to try out new characters – everyone's out for blood. The same powerful figures that can do really cheap shots get played week after week. K claims he might be done with collecting HeroClix because of the lack of friendly players in the area. I responded with a sympathetic "Aww, that's too bad," but quickly had to excuse myself because of the massive grin spreading across my face. I'm a bad gamer's wife sometimes. ^_^;;;

Everyone's got their serious game face on! (Although the guy waving in the back looks like he might be having fun.)

Question:
Do you attend or have you attended yarn crafting groups in the past? What's your experience with them?

Digital Honeys Attract More Flies

K's friend Shawn told me the craziest story this week that had me collapsing with laughter in our booth at Outback Steakhouse. Apparently, back when graphical MMORPGs were brand new, Shawn played one called The Realm and picked the thief character to start with. Unfortunately, the way this class of character levels up is by pickpocketing, so even though Shawn was trying to play a "good thief" (one who steals for his team), everyone avoided him like the plague for fear of being swindled.

Yeah, I probably wouldn't want to be friends with him either

This not only made for a very lonely experience, but also made leveling up a slow and painful ordeal since no one would help him. So Shawn decided to do a little social experiment. In this game, people who are linked as "friends" could use the same house as a base for storing and sharing equipment. Therefore, he made 4 new login names and created 4 very attractive (aka sexy) female characters. Then he would go around typing newbie phrases like "I'm new to this game, can someone help me?" and add a few winks and smiley faces for good measure.

Yes, it's exactly what it looks like: a harem of elves

And what do you know, all the guys swarmed to help him! "Let me show you how to use your spells." "Come join our team, we're about to go on a raid." "Here, have some of this extra level 15 armor I have lying around." After accepting their generous offerings, Shawn would teleport to his home base to dump off the loot, and then would log back in as his main character to sell everything for ludicrous amounts of gold. His thief character really was like a digital pimp!

Welcome to Shawn's house of ill repute!

While K hasn't gone as far in exploiting the system, he knows at least ten other guys who have, and he did note that it was easier to find people to join his team in Monster Hunter Tri when he used a female character. What do you think? Is it wrong to deliberately choose a female character because you know you'll have greater favor among the majority male population in online gaming? Have you ever done it yourself?

More Female Characters = More Female Players?

Over two years ago, I wrote a post called Scary Angry Gamer Girls where this female columnist for Kotaku argued that adding more female characters to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 would increase the number of women who would play the game. And I think that's hogwash. But hey, maybe there are girls out there who really care about that kind of stuff, and I'll admit, I'll choose to design a female character by default if it's available.

So let's take a look at a couple of examples, and you tell me what you think. At the time Modern Warfare 2 came out, so did Aliens vs. Predator – another first person shooter that employs soldiers, but this time with both genders represented. Here's what a female marine looks like in the game:

Trust me, this one has boobs

I'm assuming the female is on the left because the other person is balding...

Now before you say, "Well, they cheated and just used the same body rig that has a woman's head slapped on it," here's what a female marine looks like in the movie Aliens:

Private Jenette Vasquez has been doing some serious P90X!

Long story short: when soldiers are all suited up in full gear, you can't really tell what gender they are, especially with all the regulations on even their personal appearance (no beards, long hair, piercings, etc). And that's the point, because they're supposed to be a homogenous fighting force that stresses "esprit de corps" over individualism. So if you want to go for true accuracy in a modern-day military game, a) there won't be a lot of women on the roster and b) you won't be able to tell they're female on the field anyway (at least visually).

Okay okay, if the whole point of playing a female character is that you should be able to tell she's a woman and she should embody feminine characteristics, let's go to the other extreme. In terms of third-person pure action games, God of War stars the very masculine and chauvinistic Kratos, destroyer of gods and user of women. So if you were to make a female version of Kratos, what would it look like? Well, the video game industry will try anything new that might make money, and so we have two female-driven titles: Bayonetta and Heavenly Sword.

Who would you rather play: Kratos, Bayonetta, or Naiko?

Out of the two, I've seen more of Bayonetta, and oh boy, is she feminine. One might say "oversexualized." So does that make Bayonetta just another male fantasy game? From a feminist point of view, you could say she encompasses many ideal characteristics: intelligent, physically strong, comfortable with her sexuality, and member of a matriarchal organization. Is she a powerful, liberated woman or just a different flavor of exploitative eye candy for teenage boys? Is Bayonetta what girl gamers are really looking for?

Now that we've seen both ends of the spectrum – butch, faceless marine #12 versus provocative, sexy warrior princess – which is better? Or is there another alternative? What kind of female character in a traditional "male-oriented" game genre do you think would really attract more female players?

Related Links:
Why Modern Video Game Armies Lack Female Troops

Needed: Video Game Preservation Society

  Movies and video games are treated completely differently when it comes to age, kinda like men versus women. If I said, "Hey do you want to watch Spider-Man 3 tonight?" to some friends, there would be nothing special about that. But when K told his friend Shane he was finishing up Fallout 3 last week, Shane looked at him like, "Dude, that game's ancient."

The thing is, there's an artificial expiration date on games that doesn't exist on movies. For example, there's not much price drop between buying a really old or a really new movie, maybe something like $12 versus $19 (assuming the film didn't totally suck). Although you pay a premium to get the latest stuff as soon as it releases, there's not much of a pricing floor. If Ghostbusters was good in 1984, it's probably still pretty good in 2012. Old movies are in print forever and preserved in some form or fashion, but games are gone forever unless the publisher makes an HD re-release much later. Most VGs come out at $59.99, drop to $14.99 within 6 months, and then vanish from public consciousness. If you didn't get it then, you're out of luck unless you can score a used copy. Not cool and not fair.

Plus, with games, lots of great titles were released in the 80's, 90's and 2000's, but because of "technological advances" - ie, graphics – people are only interested in the latest and greatest. What does that really mean? From the PS2 on, games haven't fundamentally changed. Yes, Metal Gear Solid 4 looks better than 2, but the game play is hardly different. PS3 titles just look like higher resolution PS2 games. And nowadays, the resolution improvements are just a matter of degree, not radically different like night and day (anything past the PS1's primitive polygons tends to look pretty good).

Metal Gear Solid 2, 3, and 4

Update: check out K's additional thoughts on the topic concerning Atari games and emulators

Question:
What do you think? Do games automatically expire or should they be preserved like movies? Would you still enjoy a game from 10 years ago?

Top 3 Reasons Why K No Longer Buys Video Games (As Much)

As a bachelor with disposable income, K used to visit GameStop every Tuesday to "browse" the latest releases (and inevitably take a few home). Any time he was stressed out or in a bad mood, a new video game or movie DVD from Best Buy was sure to cheer him up. And besides, playing a wide range of games helps him design better games, riiight? ^_~ However, in the past few years, I've noticed that K has been buying fewer and fewer video games, so I decided to confront him about this interesting trend and here's what he said:

1) A Waste of Time
I know this might be controversial to say, but it's true: video games (VGs) are not the best use of time. No need to get defensive on me; I can extol the virtues of VGs all day long, but come on, there have to be some negatives and one is that they take time. The older I get, the more I realize how little time we have on Earth, and I could be using those VG-playing hours to actually accomplish something. How about actually making my own VG or writing a book or fila movie? It really hit me when I listened to a podcast by one of my favorite fantasy authors, Brandon Sanderson, who said he used to play 8 hours of VGs a day. But he ultimately decided he needed to give them up in order to pursue his dream of writing books for a living. That story really resonated with me because I would rather be making my own stories than playing others' stories.

2) Finite Waking Hours
It also seems like the older I get, the busier I am. I just don't have tons of free time on my hands like I used to in my 20's. Gaming is a big time commitment, so with the number of games I buy, I can't spend 30 to 40 hours per title. And then there's no good way to "pause" in the middle of playing a game; if you put it down for a while, you completely forget what you were doing when you try to pick it up again (Oblivion, anyone?). So why not just buy fewer games? As a designer, I really need have more breadth than depth in gaming experience. I can't stand VG developers who don't play games (more on that later). So I find myself downloading a lot of demos or choosing to go deeper with a particular game to figure how a system works.

3) The Methadone Factor
In the past, my game-buying habit mostly involved VGs for handheld consoles because, well, no hardcore gamer can be without a system for long. However, ever since getting a smart phone, I find myself only rarely buying new retail portable titles. With all the gaming apps out there, they satisfy my need for bite-sized entertainment. The quality isn't as good but it's cheap and readily available, so unfortunately I end up settling for it because of the convenience factor of always having my phone on me. If an anticipated portable game comes along (like Super Mario 3D Land), then I'll take the extra effort to carry around my handheld again. As much as I dread it, they'll eventually solve the control issues on smart phones, making handhelds as obsolete as standalone GPS devices.

In summary, it's totally an age thing. In my 20's, I thought nothing of putting in long gaming hours. But when you have more responsibilities, like a wife and kids, there's no point in buying games if they just end up staying in the original shrinkwrap. Time is precious; you can either spend your time in other people's creations or you can make your own. And I'm the kind of person that isn't satisfied with the former.

Commercial: Moms Protest Dead Space 2

Have you seen the recent commercial for Dead Space 2 that shows the horrified reactions of moms in a focus group? I thought it was kinda funny and even paused the TV so K could see it. Well, it seems that a lot of people, including many gamers, are outraged at EA's marketing campaign, saying that it only perpetuates the commonly held belief that video games = violent and immature. Here's what I think:

1. The intended audience for this commercial is gamers, not your toddler nor grandmother. (Just like Axe body spray ads aren't really aimed at me.) And as a gamer, I found this commercial humorous because of the fact that it made fun of the stereotypical violence we find so entertaining.
2. Dead Space 2 is not the best example to convince people of the worthiness of video games anyway. If I wanted to show why movies are great, I would use an Oscar-winning film and not Zombieland (despite its awesomeness).
3. Some people will always think badly of video games, no matter what you say. For example, catching catfish with a fist covered in stinkbait may be quite the fun and honorable pasttime, but I'm just not the type of person who will ever agree with that statement. :)

I guess I'm just not as easily offended and can appreciate the occasional oddball humor thrown my way (must come from living with K ^_~).

Related Links:
Behind-the-scenes videos for Dead Space 2 commercial

Scary Angry Gamer Girls

Along the same vein as my previous post, one thing I really don't understand is ultra-feminist gamer girls. The ones who deliberately interpret everything that male gamers and game designers do to be directly aimed at causing offense to the female population. Now I will admit outright that I am not a feminist in the traditional sense, someone who focuses on more rights and legal protection for women. In fact, with that definition K probably embodies more feminist ideals because it always enrages him if he hears about a woman being abused by some guy. As an female engineer, I've always straddled the line of understanding both genders. I like computers and cats, and yet am uncomfortable talking about football and fashion. Weird mix.

Bottom line: I tend to accept things for the way they are. Especially if it's concerning something as "silly" as video games. A female columnist for Kotaku called Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 a "typical male fantasy" and felt guilty for enjoying such a sexist piece of software. Okay, think about what you're saying:

1. Is it wrong to produce products geared toward a specific gender? (e.g. skirts)
2. Does having negligable numbers of female characters prevent anyone from using the product? (e.g. the film Saving Private Ryan)

With uniforms so thick, I think only the 5 o'clock shadow gives it away.

Also, her top suggestions include adding more women in different clothing and body types, having a lead female character she can identify with, and hearing radio commands in a woman's voice. Hmm, somehow I just can't imagine that increasing the "female presence" will grow the number of girls who play Modern Warefare 2. I'll admit that I tend to choose a female avatar if there's one available, but avatars are not the reason why I choose to play a game. It's about the game play, the art, the story, the soundtrack. If you're a gamer girl who plays first person shooters, you're going to try out the #1 selling game of its genre, regardless of the number of women you can find in the background scenes. And don't let any feminist tell you otherwise.

That might be a girl, but I prefer to repect his/her privacy...

Knocking Down the Gamer Girl Pedestal

A few months ago, Busted Analog posted an article titled Gamer Girls Aren’t Special Anymore. His stance: stop putting gamer girls on a pedestal because females are more integrated into the gaming world nowadays and therefore should be treated with gender-free equality. The post also introduced me to the concept of the "single game girl," someone who was introduced to a title via a male friend or old boyfriend and obsessively plays only that title. While Busted Analog makes a very stimulating point, I was more interested in the comments that ensued afterward, both online and in real life:

"Like some of the others have said, I think the mystery is still there because 90% of the gamer girls out there aren't what most of us consider gamers. Playing occasional games of Guitar Hero and Tetris does not a gamer make. Girls who play MMORPGs like WoW don't count as well as that is more of a female nerd than female gamer."

Having attended an engineering college, I experienced first hand the perks of being a woman in a male-dominated environment. I never stooped as low as some of my female classmates, who would deliberately wear low-cut, tight-fitting tops to weasel extra computer time from the lab assistants. But yeah, guys would willingly help me with a homework question, while brusquely declining if another dude had asked the same thing. Plus, on the anime chat room where I downloaded episodes, I used a seemingly generic username. But once people realized that I was female, the number of chats I received suddenly tripled.

Yes, college was exactly like this...

I talked about the phenomenon with K afterward, and our conversation turned back to the article...
K: I don't see what the big deal is. An attractive female that actually can beat me at Mortal Kombat seems like quite the rarity to me.
A: Now that I cannot do.
K: True, but you probably could get to my level with practice. I think that the real issue is that you don't like competitive games in general, so your motivation to do so isn't there.
K: Anyone who gave Metroid a big try qualifies as hardcore to me - that game's hard!
A: I definitely prefer co-op; even Left 4 Dead would be ok (if it weren't so creeepy ^_~)
K: After your experience with Monster Hunter, I bet you'd be 4000% better at Metroid's gameplay skill aspect now. I mean, if you can decode timing and tells on a monster and move in with a precision hit... well, that's Metroid in another form.

Aww, thanks for the boost in confidence, K! #^_^#

Related Links:
Seven Types of Girl Gamers

Mythbusters: Aren't Video Games for Little Kids?

A common misconception that I've often heard from my non-gaming girlfriends is that video games are for kids and any man who still indulges, well, just needs to grow up. Hate to burst the bubble, but last year's famous "US Video Games Industry Report" by IBISWorld says that your average American gamer is a cool 35 years old. So why hasn't your man grown beyond this odd little habit? Here are some top reasons to help you see the motive behind the madness:

1) Nowadays, most guys grew up with video games.
There are two types of Wii owners: the "I've never bought a console till now" non-gamer and the "I can't believe I can play through Ninja Gaiden II again on Virtual Console!!" hardcore gamer who wasted a whole summer of his 12-year-old life trying to beat the game. The same strong sense of nostalgia you get when watching Scarlet kiss Rhett is what your gamer feels when he races through Super Metroid for the 74th time in less than three hours so he can see that Samus chick without her battle suit on. So no need to ask if he's going to buy Metroid: Other M when it comes out in 2010. You already know the answer.

The famous Samus-in-swimsuit ending

2) It's a great way to relax and yet be engaged.
My coworker Max tells me that TV seems like an even greater waste of time than video games, where at least you feel like you're working toward something and improving your skillz. "But how can one muster the required brain power after a grueling work day of crunching numbers?" I asked. Nah, just toss in a competitive first-person shooter or slower-paced role-playing game, depending on the available mental resources. And as Steve put it, at least you know exactly where your guy is at night. ^_~

3) Keep in touch with family and friends (without those awkward pauses in conversation).
I probably should've put this one higher on the list because almost every gamer I've talked to has offered it as a reason. Derrick left his entire extended family back in Little Rock for work, but once a week, he dons his Xbox headphones to play Call of Duty with his brother - and feels like he never left home. My husband K hasn't seen his childhood best friend in forever, but the years melt away when they both log on with a copy of Crackdown. Girls, think of it as the male version of calling your mom everyday.

4) It leads to a great career in the military.
Have you seen all those TV ads that show pilots flying unmanned aerial vehicles for scouting out enemy positions? That's right, they're targeting the gamer audience, hoping to entice them with playing a Flight Simulator for money. So don't scoff at your boyfriend's dream of being a professional video game player; those mad button pushing skills may rake in the big bucks yet. ^_~

5) Sometimes a guy just needs his cave time.
As much as I love to watch my husband play games every night, most men have a regular need for cave time. Since his work schedule is later than mine, the perfect time to play games without interruption is when I'm asleep. True, that means I go to bed most nights with no one to warm my feet, but the trade-off is totally worth having a husband who now has greater Reserve Tanks for lovey-dovey time when I'm actually awake.

Disturb gamer dragon at your own risk

Fwd: Living with First-Person Shooter Disease

Every summer, my company goes into overdrive in a coordinated attempt to synchronize all its best product launches of the year. This big push means that lunches are skipped, work laptops are brought home, and I don't get to blog as much. But at least I have my health. Check out this poor fellow who has been plagued by FPS Disease:

Video Games vs. "Doing It"

As you know, time is gold. For many of us, the majority of our waking days are spent at the office, with a few scant hours to enjoy in the evening. (Make that minutes if you have kids.) By the time you've finished cooking dinner, cleaning up, and possibly working out... that leaves practically nothing! So what are you going to do with your precious spare time? Apparently an online British game store surveyed over 1,000 men in relationships (read: married or dating) regarding said evening activities: would you rather play games or have sex? 32% of men choose a night of playing games over physical intimacy, where as 72% of men prioritized a new game over having the s3x0rz.

As you can surmise, the comments to this article have been flooding in, most of which fit into the following categories:

1. Haha, married guys have no balls! Who in their right mind would pick games over sex?
2. Well, being married means no sex anyway, so of course we choose the games.
3. Married men can get sex anytime they want... why not have both in the same night?

It's amazing how much emphasis our culture places on sex nowadays. For me, sometimes it's just really nice to end the day by reading a book or crocheting a few rows before bedtime. So I can totally understand (and appreciate) guys who aren't 24/7 horndogs that constantly want to get it on. If K has a new game, well I want to see him play it too! I would think our sex life is healthy enough that one day without monkey business doesn't mean our marriage is doomed to celibacy.

And another thing: I hate this perception that married couples never have good sex or even sex at all. And typically the blame is placed on the wife. If women are already aware of the stereotype going into a marriage, wouldn't they want to actively fight against it in their own relationship? Knowing how important this is to men, my personal conviction has always to make my partner for life the luckiest man alive in all aspects. ^_~

Avoiding the Gaming Wardrobe

Despite having owned every console at some point in his life, plus actually working for the gaming industry, K does not look like a geek. His high school and college pictures may tell a different story, but his current visage just screams "rock band drummer" or "motorcycle gangster." (Imagine my mother's delight when she found out who I was marrying... ^_~) Having suffered through his awkward stage earlier in life, K now subconsciously monitors the level of geek clothing in his wardrobe, tastefully weeding out any sudden upsurges. Consequently, I have to resist buying him cute Mario or Pacman-related paraphernalia because it may cross his threshold. But guess what I found today on threadless.com...


Is this not completely awesome?? How could you not want this shirt? Gah, if they make this shirt, I'm totally going to buy it for myself (geekiness be darned).

Video Gamers: Aggressors or Intellectuals?

One of the things that really gets under K's skin is when people automatically assume gamers are violent. In fact, even my own mother freaked out about this very thing when I got engaged. The shaved head and piercings she could kind of handle, but making video games for a living? "We don't know anything about this kind of profession. What if he is a very aggressive man who will beat you every night?" Ahahahaha!!! If I hadn't been fuming at her crazy irrationality at the time, I think I would have peed in my pants laughing.


Bald + Piercings + Video Games = Psychopathic Charlie Brown?
Yes, video games have been painted with red warning flags in recent news, but really, it's a familiar gauntlet that every new form of entertainment (books, film, music) has had to go through. I was actually quite surprised/pleased when I came across an article in The New Yorker titled "Brain Candy" that argues for the intellectual benefits of video games. Here are a couple of nice quotes:

Most of the people who denounce video games, he says, haven’t actually played them—at least, not recently. Twenty years ago, games like Tetris or Pac-Man were simple exercises in motor coordination and pattern recognition. Today’s games belong to another realm. Johnson points out that one of the “walk-throughs” for “Grand Theft Auto III”—that is, the informal guides that break down the games and help players navigate their complexities—is fifty-three thousand words long, about the length of his book. The contemporary video game involves a fully realized imaginary world, dense with detail and levels of complexity.

The point is that books and video games represent two very different kinds of learning. When you read a biology textbook, the content of what you read is what matters. Reading is a form of explicit learning. When you play a video game, the value is in how it makes you think. Video games are an example of collateral learning, which is no less important.

- Malcolm Gladwell, "Brain Candy," The New Yorker, 5/16/2005

My Gaming Background

Thus far, I've mostly talked about my husband and his work as a designer, but not really about my background and what I think about his gaming lifestyle. Usually, gamers' wives are split into 2 polar-opposite categories. The first type (and the overwhelming majority) believes that playing video games is an immature waste of time that sucks the life out of grown men. There are even chapters dedicated to husbands seeking to avoid wifely wrath for dipping into their favorite pastime. The other, much rarer breed of wives proudly declares, "I'm a complete gaming geek myself and we LARP/play WoW/attend conventions together."

As for me, I guess you could say... I'm a recent convert and somewhere in the middle. I think the only computer game I played growing up was King's Quest, but the older I got, the more it morphed into my younger brother doing all the crazy button-punching while I struggled to focus on the rapidly moving enemies. It wasn't until I was dating K that he one day surprised me with a Nintendo DS. "I just wanted to, ah, foster your interest in what I do," he innocently claimed. Since then, I've gone through about 15 games, hungrily conquering them one-by-one like a dying man on a mission.

Least you think my hands have permanently assumed a claw-like grip from being glued to my portable, my interests can be quite cyclical. Sometimes I get obsessed with reading and visit the library every other day. Sometimes it's cross-stitching, flatwater kayaking, or blogging (like now). I'm a woman of many pastimes and expert at none, but I know K is quite pleased with himself for adding video games to the list. ^_^