Video Game Overload

Sometimes I feel like my life has been taken over by my xbox 360. I am pretty sure some of my friends would agree. Especially since I don't spend nearly the amount of time online with them then I normally do. I am also sure my mother would agree- since she now has to send a carrier pigeon to get a hold of me. I can't help that I turn my phone on silent when I play- I think it's rude to have a phone go off while playing a co-op game. The only phone I cannot turn off is my work cell, and there is no way in hell that I am going to give EITHER of my parents that number. My father would never stop calling it. It's bad enough he has my office phone number....

Now that I have completely gone off topic, today's post is about video games. I played a few different ones this weekend and decided to share my thoughts on them.

Team Fortress 2 (on The Orange Box):
I managed to hook up with about 11 other people to play the various types of games on TF2. It was a decent game, with cartoonish type graphics that made the game very fun. No one took it real seriously, and although it took some false starts to figure out what the hell was going on, we took it stride. There are some people that I was very good at playing, such as the Engineer (I tend to be very devious when setting up the mini-gun and portals), the Pyro (I don't know what that says about me that I enjoyed setting the other team on fire), and the Soldier (long range missiles worked quite well for me). The people I didn't so great on were the Scout (moved too quickly for me to be any good), the Spy (I may be devious, but not THAT devious) and the Medic (too boring for me to run around healing people.) I also suck at capture the flag, but do pretty well at the well points and other games.

Lego Indiana Jones:
Ok, normally I LOVE the Lego series, but I just could not get into this game. Maybe it's because the only movie I know really well is The Last Crusade. Sometimes the controls drove me nuts, and I am not much of a puzzle person, so trying to figure out what the hell I was supposed to do next sucked. I ended up taking the game back to blockbuster.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2.
The reason I rented this game (as I previously had no interested in ANY of the Tom Clancy games) was because my friend Kendra was trying to find a good co-op game with an actual story that the two of us could play. I discovered that I really enjoyed playing this game- it was fun to play with someone on the same skill level as me, and although we died quite a few times, we managed to get through the game in two days. We plan on playing it again, and we also had fun playing some of the 4 player games with other people. I might actually purchase this game later, if I find the replay value to be there. I also enjoyed that you could be either a male or female operative in this game (although they made her look ridiculous with all the equipment on- holy huge hips batman!

One of the main things I discovered over this weekend is that having a good solid group of friends to game with is crucial. I have tried playing with random people online in the past, and although not all of the experiences have been bad, most of them are not very good. I find that I run into 3 main problems (at least for me).

The first being that most games don't allow you to find people who are the same skill level you are on. So what ends up happening is that you either are way above the people you play with or way below. Either option is not very fun. If you are of the higher skill, you end up dominating the others, and can get bored quickly. If you are way below, then you get frustrated easily and may get harassed by the other players until you quit. What's the fun with that? And how hard could be be to set up those options in games? Even in TF2 when you don't play a "ranked match", you end up playing with people who aren't in it for fun, but just want to dominate people who suck. I really disliked the poor sportsmanship that is displayed. I am very glad that Kendra and I found each other to play with, as we both have the same skill level and temperament for games- and tend to enjoy the same ones.

The second problem is that once they find out you are a girl, it's like the Dumbass Switch is activated in guys heads. All of the sudden they think you can't play, and are totally patronizing. Then, if you happen to be decent, 2 things happen- you either are not a girl and are having your brother play through the hard parts, or something is wrong with their controller, game, it glitches, etc. Very rarely do they actually say anything like "good job" or whatnot.

The third problem is that once they find out you are not only a girl, but a lesbian, the Dumbass Switch is then revved up to the Dumbass Homophobic Switch. So, not only are you a woman (which is bad enough) but apparently you are a man-hating bitch. It's at this point I either quit the game or switch off my mike, because there is only so much "you must be a fat bitch" and "I'll show you a real man" and other derogatory comments.

I am very lucky that thanks to AfterEllen and the Gay Girls Who Game Vlog that I met some other people (not all are lesbians or even women) that are decent to play with. What makes me sad, though, are the lesbians/bi women who perhaps are foraying into the world of xbox live, and may end up quitting because they can't find people to play with or are getting harassed too much. Even the women-only group on xbox live, GamerChix, is not always an opening and welcoming place. I have observed that the lesbian posts get deleted or are monitored quite closely- and if anything somewhat inappropriate is written, the post is gone. I find there is a double standard, as I have seen posts by straight women who are much more graphic that nothing is ever said too. My hope is that we will find those lesbian/bi women who want to play, and be open and welcoming to them in whatever games they like to play. Here's to hoping.

Geek On.