I realised that I actually rant on a lot about games and not much about my actual life. It’s depressing, so I decided to spruce up the joint with an insight into what’s been happening in the wonderful world of your friendly local corporate wage monkey.

• I just finished my final exam for my post-graduate journalism course and it feels good. Really good. It’s always good to accomplish something. I don’t feel like I’m ready to dive head first into a media outlet and start chasing dodgy doctors down the street with a microphone while screaming at them, "WHERE ARE THE BODIES?" But I got some useful skills out of it. I hope to apply them somehow, some way, some day.
• For those that didn’t already know - I’ll be going to the UK for six months starting from January. Yes, I know it’s very far and it’s for a long time. I think I’m at the point where I don’t know what the heck I’m doing with my life and I need a direction rather than resorting to spinning a compass around and just going where the money is. Hopefully I’ll learn a few things on this trip and take back some lessons learnt so at least I have an idea of what to shoot for. I’ve been told that the average person changes careers 3 times in their lives. It kinda relieves me to know that I won’t be stuck in the same job for 40 years. Makes me wonder what I’ll do next…
• I’ll be finishing up on my current work project at Vodafone in early December. I would have worked on this project for 2 years now. I pretty much saw the Australian portion of the project straight through from pre-test planning right up to post-go live support. Overall, I’m comfortable with how it’s all looking and I can’t wait for a long deserved break. I gave up a Europe tour, countless catchups with mates, two events at the Enmore (I still can’t believe I missed out on Jet) and more weekends than I can bother to remember for this fucking unit of work. I hope you Vodafone munters enjoy your phone calls
• Life in general is disturbingly routine. After work, I either go to the gym or bum at home, and after dinner catch up on some solid gaming. On the weekends I might check out some foreign flicks or dream up stock ideas to do with Augi. The week then resets on Monday when I wake up at 8:15am, swearing my head off because I missed the last bus.
• I haven’t been writing creatively at all. I had started a piece that was a combination of elements from Ergo Proxy and System Shock 2, if you can get your heads around that, but I just left it alone when Uni work was starting to suffocate me. Sometimes I dream up new storylines that run along for a while, but I never do put them to paper. Bit of a waste, really.

That’s about it. The only thing that’s keeping me going is that I’m going to be getting the fuck out of this country eventually. Change is as good as a holiday - in this instance, it’ll be both.

Girl gamers aren’t as rare as one would think.

They’re the ultimate untapped market. I’d be willing to bet that the domination of The Sims was brought about by the female demographic. If you google "GDAA" then you’ll be able to find a report with plenty of stats in there.

I believe that game designers and producers are now considering female gamers more than ever. Nintendo has been focusing on "gaming for everyone" for a while now - after all, how gritty and hardcore can a plumber saving a princess be (barring Rule 34)? I’m also seeing more game industry job ads which are stressing the need to "diversify across several different and unique market segments".

Furthermore, girls are no longer watching from afar - they’re getting right into it. I see chicks at JB-Hifi playing Guitar Hero, and I tells ya; they are more co-ordinated than you think. I see more girls perusing game titles when I do shopping during my lunch breaks, and more often than not we happen to get caught up in shit talk about how much of a classic Starcraft 1 was. Even the girl that called me up over my Mass Effect preorder sounded a bit overly excited when she said that they finally had stock (unless she hit some speed prior to starting her shift).

This is all well and good, but as with all things, there are negatives to balance it out.

The first is pretty obvious - gaming has traditionally been a male-oriented past-time. It still is. And the types of males that play games aren’t just limited to the chivalrous knights of the societal fabric (not limited to Yours Truly), but also include the socially retarded. The type that come to mind are pubescent young males, working on building their sik MySpace page or Facebook profile choked with random apps, and dreaming of the big ups they’re going to get in the school yard when Kitt3hShitz finally emails some webcam pics. Another kind are the ones that are secretly angry and bitter at not just the opposite sex but at everyone. "There are no girls on the internet". "TITS OR GTFO". I like to think that it’s all for the laughs…until they don’t shut the fuck up.

And then there are the girl gamers who do it for the attention. I don’t see how a name like "Jessica Alba lookalike" is even meant to have any meaning. Are you expecting us to go easy on you because you say that you look like an attractive celebrity, and that if I don’t blow you into tiny chunks I might get a chance to view some pixellated poon? I also don’t like the idea of chicks saying, "You should go easy on me because I’m a chick and I’m sooo n00b lol". Tough shit - that’s the game. Your ancestors fought for equal rights for women? Well, you got it, woman.

Yes, girl gamers are lot more common nowadays. So, as responsible gamers, we shouldn’t try to alienate them any more than we need to. Work with them. Play with them. Go ahead and take the piss out of them like you would any other gamer. It’s always feels nice to be valiated.
And if you’re a girl gamer, you have responsibilities as well. Don’t bitch. Don’t whine. Don’t blame your poor skills on whatever ailment you have this month. You don’t get better by trying to persuade us to go easy on you. Just play the damn game.

 

Man, I had to get that out of me. That was a dump of epic proportions.

I woke up at 8am, took a shower and was rushing to get out the door, but then I saw that Jo had accepted a delivery from Dell. Mum’s brand spanking new Inspiron was finally here.

So, I could done one of two things: leave now, try to make my bus and get to work a little late, or unpack the Inspiron and admire its curves for a while.

 

I think it’s pretty obvious which option I went for. The Inspiron looks very, very nice.

Pics coming tonight.

2327: Added some photos resized to barely viewable status. I should figure out a way to blow these up easily…