Oops, I Did It Again… Casual Gaming
When I first started playing Halo over XBox live, I learned how to play from a highly ranked female gamer. We laughed every time she would receive a message in her inbox that made the accusation she must be a “fat ugly loser” to become good enough to beat her male counterpart. Because obviously her only option in life for any social engagement would be to sit on the couch and play Halo with strangers and that could be the only explanation for this guy to have his ass handed to him by a girl.
None of their accusations were true – to this day she is a very beautiful model. That very fact is probably why we laughed so hard at their ridiculous comments.
Of course, whenever I would play I would get my ass beat and a flood of messages would come in about how I should go back to playing house with Sims. Not only did these interactions bring up the obvious problem of the male-dominated world of video games and their very anti feminist points of view – but it also made me think, “I really like Sims and when I am working on my computer waiting for something to render – I really love my casual gaming.”
But then that calls into question: can I still call myself a gamer if my work has forced me to spend more time playing Doodle God, Angry Birds, Cityville or leave me wondering if I should start to play online bingo?
I guess the real question is: What defines a casual or hardcore gamer?
If I love my FPS and MMO‘s but I don’t have a few hours everyday to dedicate to it and I use casual games on my phone to get my fix – am I just a poseur now?
Kind of like people in NA, I still consider myself a hardcore gamer because I know if I start, It’s hard to stop. I get easily addicted to bettering my head shots and I had to cancel my WoW account to make sure I spent more time working on my business than on raids.
So, if really I am just being responsible with my gaming and casually playing Borderlands and Halo every once in a while – maybe the real question is: What’s wrong with being a girl and casual gaming?
