SpiderCultist wrote: »I'm a tech IRL so inherently I'm quite nerdy, enough to repel most women 50 yards around. No need to label myself also a gamer for that.
You know that scene in the latest Wonder Woman movie where she's just stopped a plot to destroy London and then someone at her day job asks what she did over the weekend and she says "Nothing very interesting"? That's kind of how I feel sometimes.
This weekend I spent a chunk of Friday night getting the Summerset Pathfinder achievement on both PC servers, then realised I'd never played the Summerset tutorial so I made a character on NA to do that. Saturday I was out for Pokemon Go's community day, meeting up with other people from my Pokemon Facebook group to catch Chickorita and do raids. Both myself and my husband finally got a Mewtwo. Sunday morning I finished my Kanto pokedex when I finally caught Mew.
Then I spent most of Sunday helping other people with the Summerset pathfinder achievement, had a humorous run-in with the Alinor guard when I discovered 'prevent attacking innocents' was not active on my crafter in the most dramatic way possible - I accidentally left-clicked while galloping down some stairs, leapt off my horse and smacked a guard round the head with my mace. Instant 100g bounty and 'kill on site' so I made a mad dash out of town and spend about 30 minutes hiding from the guards (why are there so many in Summerset?) before I could finally head back to town and craft the carpet I wanted for my inn room.
Monday, which is a day off for me, I finished the latest Guild Wars 2 story, helped more people with the Pathfinder achievement and traded furniture for jewellery with a friend.
Then I get into work on Tuesday and my co-workers (who are mostly women in their late 30's or older and all fairly traditional types who think video games means Candy Crush or 2D Mario) ask what I did over the weekend and I realise there's nothing I can tell them that wouldn't take far too long to try and explain so I end up saying "not a lot, saw some friends but otherwise just stayed home".
It's kind of frustrating, it feels like this big secret and I don't want it to be, but the one time I tried explaining ESO to one of my co-workers (because she saw me on the forum at lunch time and asked about it) I said it's a video game and got "Oh so like Candy Crush? Or more like Angry Birds?" - there was so much of a gap between what she knew about games and the reality of an MMORPG that I couldn't seem to explain it properly. I tried explaining that it's like Lord of the Rings, but you control one of the people and choose what happens but she literally laughed at the idea of a game telling a story and couldn't understand how it could be done or how it could be fun for more than a few minutes at a time. You'd think Pokemon Go would be easier but even then I can't seem to get across that there's more to it than seeing a Pokemon pop up and mashing buttons until you've caught it, especially that there's a whole social side where people play it together.
Has anyone else felt the same? Or got any advice for explaining games to people who have no experience with them? I don't want to convince them to play or even to like it, it would just be nice to be able to say I did get up to a lot of stuff over the weekend...even if it was via the computer.
SpiderCultist wrote: »I'm a tech IRL so inherently I'm quite nerdy, enough to repel most women 50 yards around. No need to label myself also a gamer for that.
Hippie4927 wrote: »SpiderCultist wrote: »I'm a tech IRL so inherently I'm quite nerdy, enough to repel most women 50 yards around. No need to label myself also a gamer for that.
Don't sell yourself short. A lot of us women are attracted to nerds and gamers!
nurrtibub16_ESO wrote: »"Women in their late 30s"
I'm a woman in mid-30s and I grew up with games. You must have a workplace with extreme stereotypes I guess because 35-40 is not so old.. I cant imagine they dont know what roleplaying is? 50+ I could understand. But heck, even my grandmother grasped the basic idea of games and she is 95 :P (of course, she still went on claiming that "all this time at the computer will make you crazy in the head")
RABIDxWOLVERINE wrote: »I talk to my son about video games lol he loves them just as much as me and doesnt judge me like my wife and family and co workers lol. The only downside has been that he plays the xbox all the time and I only get to play when he goes to bed so Im still working out the kinks.
profundidob16_ESO wrote: »Also, it's best to just be honest in life. It gets you the furthest. So next time they ask you just tell them the truth about what you did:
"started the weekend off by hanging around town talking to some people. I joined some of them to go on a field trip through nature, discovering new locations."
"the next day I broke into a house, stole some things but got caught red handed by owner who I killed in response but then got caught by law enforcement and managed to run off but now I'm a fugitive until they hopefully forget about me."
SpiderCultist wrote: »I'm a tech IRL so inherently I'm quite nerdy, enough to repel most women 50 yards around. No need to label myself also a gamer for that.
SpiderCultist wrote: »I'm a tech IRL so inherently I'm quite nerdy, enough to repel most women 50 yards around. No need to label myself also a gamer for that.
if you need to do anything you need to overcome your false need to impress other people.
It’s taboo. I just don’t talk about it in mixed company. Imagine when my gf asks how my day is going. I say it’s great. She tries her best to remember things from game I’ve explained. Asks a question. It’s pretty random but I appreciate the gesture. Last night she asks if I’m 8 traits in crafting. Reminded her it’s per item type and “unfortunately no, I’m still 7 on most things and don’t even get me started on the row of nirnhoned in my CraftStore addon. But I did just complete a master writ for 150 gold per voucher and promptly turned a profit selling research scrolls.”
She’s great. But I totally get what you’re saying. I do have a gamer friend and co worker that plays WoW. We can relate. Everyone else, not so much. I just tell them I spent the weekend lounging around and relaxing.
I've worked in IT for over 25 years. It has nothing to do with anyone I have dated or married or anything else.
I've been a gamer for over 40 years. It has nothing to do with the age of the people I game with.
I do understand a certain type of IT personality that you may want to help out, but please don't do it by making half of the planet into a sex object in your attempt to assist.
If you feel that you need to express that kind of a message, you probably should make that kind of a post as a direct message to someone...
Your other post was great and I'm glad you have a way to communicate gaming to your girlfriend! Awesome! One of these days she may join you in gaming too. It took my wife a while to come around. Now she runs around with axes in her spare time chopping limbs off of people... but don't you dare pull a wing off a butterfly or she will hunt you down.