Gear is Better than Roses

Day 37 (repost from Day 2): Virtual and RL Trauma

This morning was a teacher in service morning and that means I can’t take my kids to school until 10:30 am.  Though I did have plans to drag my kids on errands with me instead I spent over an hour just watching them play Diablo 3 on the PS4.  I was putting away dishes and then I just stopped to watch for a moment and before I knew it I was dragging them to the car because we had to get them to class.

It made me grateful that I am reflecting on this 100-day experiment because I forgot how much I lose myself in games.

Patches Can’t Fix Everything

When the mind experiences trauma, it is hard not to dwell.  Actually enjoying or focusing on day-to-day matters seems impossible.  I know it is not impossible but I also know that it just feels that way at the most unexpected times.  In many ways internal noise is like frustration with a video game.

When a game glitches it makes everyone crazy; controllers are thrown; there is online trolling for solutions, and venting.  It is hard not to hold on to that one annoying moment even though a patch will fix it the next day.  But not everything is fixable with a patch.  If a game is just bad, sometimes we still keep in our cabinet and save our progress on a hardrive just in case someday we get bored and don’t want to start over again.  Trauma can be a little glitch or a bad game but in either event it is not worth giving it too much time from my day or space on my hard drive.

I know its pathetic that I keep fantasizing that Blizzard is going to offer a patch for my life that I can just download direct to my brain and play past all the bad stuff.  Instead I have to consciously remind myself to stop trolling and occupy my mind/ hard drive with better games and memories: like watching my kids side-by-side on the couch playing Diablo and giggling at their Barbarians bikini mid-drift.

Playing: Diablo 3

System: PS4

Developer: Blizzard

Reflection: Because Wednesday evenings are filled with catechism, daycare, and homework, time for games is sparse.  In the morning before we even left the house we set out to complete one quick mission in Diablo 3 that took less than 10 minutes.  As I said in my first post I can’t change the big picture or deal with all the hard stuff in RL, but 10 minutes of hack and slash and teleporting back to town is manageable.

For those of you who don’t know me, Blizzard was instrumental in helping me decide to marry my husband.  After anything Blizzard, the most romantic game I ever played was Animal Crossing.  I remember waking up and first thing turning on my Gamecube excited to read my new love notes on the message board.  The first Diablo and WoW have both been a mechanism to love one another with gifts, and healing, and time together even when we were apart.  Yesterday while in game, I walked right by the mailbox in town and my hubs had to remind me to “check the mail.”  He had left me gear that I am not a high enough level to equip, it was both thoughtful and a great motivation to keep leveling up so my warrior can look even more awesome. 

Today I offer this tip: For the gamers out there that are in love with a fellow geek…send gear, its better than flowers.   

The Return of Hope aka Wil Wheaton

Day 27: Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should.

This weekend was full of organic soup, family-time, cuddling, and games.  I set a personal goal for the weekend to beat the hill troll and find one thing to be hopeful for.  As my regular readers know I have had a hard time lately, and I have found a new obsession/ hope: Wil Wheaton. 

Wil Wheaton taught my Toddler Sarcasm 

Bakersfield was quite a flutter when Guy Feiri came to town and sampled a few eateries.  Guy is great and everything, but be-still my heart that the geek gods have spoken, and Bakersfield might officially be on the map.  I heard a rumor that Wil Wheaton might host an episode of Table Top in Bakersfield at Paladin.  Tabletop has been crucial to both our choice of board games and has strangely become a new family past time.  We watch tabletop so frequently that my 5-year old son Nathan has started mimicking Wheaton voice inflections, and not so charming in-game sarcasm. 

Gaming Updates

Since I have last blogged, we have hosted board game night where the hubs was named the new champion in Ticket to Ride Europe.  This also affirmed that we need to invite more couples over to play because it expands our board gaming options.  We finally beat the second act in Diablo3.  We found a rainbow goblin (will explain further).  Bur first, and most importantly, we finally killed that f*cking hill troll and beat the second scenario in the Lord of the Rings Card game.  

Wheaton fanboy/ gamers the next gen 

Dominating at Ticket to Ride

Don’t Kill the Unicorns

Many eons ago, before my career and children, the internet was upset that Diablo game art might be too cartoonish.  In response, and because Blizzard developers are awesome, the game creators included the ever-popular cow level.  The infamous cow level transported players from a horror movie landscape, into a level that was filled with walking cows constantly moo-ing except the moo's were made by humans to much hilarity.  Fast forward to 2015 and playing Diablo 3 on the PS4 when we chase down a rainbow goblin and it opens a glowing rainbow portal in the middle of a gulag.

In the game, me and the hubs, follow the portal and enter a land filled with flowers, pink teddy bears, and even unicorns (click the link to watch a video of us running from pink bears).  Then they start attacking our game characters and when I realize I am taking damage I start to flee. John wants to stand and fight, and bits of dismembered unicorn appear in the corner of my screen.  I yelped and started running away to the next rainbow to escape the fury of the adorable enemies in whimsvile.  In the end we only hurt a few characters enough to get away and took a video of the whole  endeavor.  The huge menacing guy holding an axe and running is my character and the violent Korra character belongs to the hubs.

HELP: Send Wil Wheaton

Tip of the day, just because we can kill unicorns does not mean we should.  And, Wil Wheaton needs to come to Bakersfield.  If that rumor is a lie, then we need to make it true, I will start the petition in moveon.org and work on a video plea from my 5-year old Wheaton fanboy.

*Note: I do realize there were several spelling errors in my initial draft the most notable the misspelling of Wil's name.  This is a hobby people, remember I don't proofread carefully.  Forgive me. 

Hey @professorCCB Where could this magic portal lead? #PS4share pic.twitter.com/HXfDIp7IUK
— MrNinjaman (@JohnRBoone) February 2, 2015

Me and @professorCCB #Diablo3 #PS4share pic.twitter.com/R4sCouI8e9
— MrNinjaman (@JohnRBoone) February 2, 2015

Trade-In Underwear for Games

Day 9: Did I mention I hate shopping

Normally I would have been incredibly excited that my husband bought me fancy chonies for Christmas.  But since things have been rocky, I decided to return the unworn gift which FYI is super awkward.  I actually mailed the stuff back via UPS and wrote a letter to the company explaining why I didn’t want these garments.  Reading my note must have been as uncomfortable as writing it because against their normal policy they refunded the entire purchase. The point of the story is I am buying us a new game with underwear money from Christmas and percolating on what to purchase.

Choosing between Lore and Legends 

In an attempt at geeky romance this influx of unexpected monies is getting spent on my 100-day quest to save my marriage with games.  Three games I am considering with some pros and cons:

Game: Firefly Yahtzee

System: Tabletop

Developer: Hasbro

Pro: The only reason I want this game is because I am obsessed with all things Joss Whedon.  This game is also playable with the kiddos.

Con: Normally I would not feel compelled to own Yahtzee but I would play this and also prominently display it because it looks awesome.

Us with Tim Schaffer forever ago at E3. 

Game: Grim Fandango

System: PS4

Developer: Double Fine 

Pro: Tim Schaffer.  Nuff said.

Me 2014 Dia De Los Muertos

Okay I am going to say a few other things.  This is also an adventure game rebooted that could be played while the kids are awake.  And I heart me some adventure games.  Plus its on the PS4 which is all shiny and new and we currently use more than anything else.  The artwork is amaze-balls and as you know I love all things day of the dead inspired. 

  

Con: It is not out today and I would love to buy something I can have in my greedy little hands yesterday.

Game: LotR Card Game

System: Tabletop

Developer: Fantasy Flight Games 

Pro: Once upon a time there were two gamers who spent every Friday night playing magic or pokemon card games.  Card games were nice because unlike a PS4 they fit nicely in a clutch for a portable date night or gaming in nature. We also have other friends who play this game as a couple so we can ask questions.  I just finished reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy to the kiddos this summer so I love the lore.

Con:  I have read that there is a steep learning curve when starting this game.  It is a a better couples game and not a family game for people with young kids.  As we learned from Netrunner, small children like pretty cards and will likely not leave decks undisturbed.  

 

Would be great if anyone out there has other suggestions?  Please reply in the comments bellow and weigh in on what would be fun and why. 

F-ck Tropes and Resolutions

Day 3: Hair Styles vs. Games

Since my marriage fell apart I have attempted to style my hair every single day.  I say “attempt” because my hair is still mostly big, glittering, and unruly but not for lack of hot irons and smeared goop.

  

Forfeiting my Girl Card

I know that I am not an unfortunate looking woman.  However, I have never been a girly-girl.  I do not enjoy shopping and do not feel like its necessary to purchase special occasion attire annually: I have a good LBD.  I do not own a cache of smelly lotions and perfumes.  I do not coordinate things like make-up, accessories, or jewelry for occasions or seasons.  I like the color black because you can wear it all year round.  If I have a special occasion I have to watch youtube tutorials for how to apply make-up and eyeliner or just pay someone to do it for me.  My mother-in-law helps with the girl-ifcation process and is in many ways my own personal shopper.  I am compelled to mention her during this post and give her credit, because if you are pleased by my appearance you should know she has bought the majority of the make-up, purses, and jewelry I own.     

I spend my spare time watching Hulu, reading books, doing yoga, and now a lot of time (gasp) playing games.  But now that I am having relationship troubles I feel like the fact that I am a semi-attractive geek is not enough.  Society and culture condition us to believe that if things go wrong it is probably because we aren’t pretty enough.  And I did not write this blog post fishing for validation, praise, or compliments (comments are completely un-necessary).  I wrote it because it is not fair that women are made to feel shitty about themselves when we do not have a Sephora card.  Even in the midst of how crappy I feel about myself, I have resisted going into the make-up mecca because of my firm belief that if it’s not on Amazon prime I can live without it.

Resolutions

The New Year has amplified the problem, including the many smart educated women in my life, everyone seems obsessed with looking better.  Not being happy but physically looking better.

Resolved 2015:

I will daily remind myself that my brain makes me hot.

I will continue to not go to Sephora.

I will spend more time gaming than primping (FYI grooming aka showers is not primp).

Tropes

I wrote about in my masters thesis a topic that has been popularized by Anita Sarkeesian that gaming tropes are not helping women.  Side note: I am totally geeking out about Joss and Anita hanging out and talking patriarchy.  As a geek I think that I am immune from social standards of beauty but that’s a big ole’ lie.  Booth babes, hypersexualized female game characters, and young attractive gaming journalists continue to make women geeks feel like shit.  I am writing this post because I don’t want to save my relationship by looking more like Christie Monteiro, Chun Li, or Lara Croft.  Instead, I am just going to keep being an awesome professor with hermoine hair, non-trope curves, and a ginormous brain.  

Beauty Rant Ended Some Other Stuff About Playing Games

Playing: Diablo 3

System: PS4

Developer: Blizzard

Reflection: Last night was my best friends birthdays so after a yoga class I joined her at a local gastro pub for a night out.  After I got home the kids were asleep and lunches were packed so I picked up my controller and played Diablo 3.  The bad news is that when you have had a margarita sometimes you run up to your party members thinking they are enemies in game.  The good news is that I leveled up twice, looted some new gear, and took the lead on teleportation. 

We decided yesterday that my husband should do some guest blogging.  We will ease into that with an interview format and maybe he will build up to actually contributing his own reflections.  Overall, it might be good to have more than a one sided conversation with the internet.