Sunday, May 16, 2010

Reality versus perception for a gamer

As a gamer in my 20's I often here how I'm a no life for playing or liking video games, never mind the fact that the average gamers age is actually 35. I guess people think once you hit 18 or become an adult your supposed to stop the thing's you enjoyed when you were growing up? Well I don't think so, in fact I feel and think and believe in the same thing's I did when I was 16, 17, 18 years old as I do now.

I actually use online gaming as a nice release, my job tends to see a lot of suffering and abused animals and to be honest I've dealt with a ton of really, really cold hearted people. Animal abusers and such. I pretty much like to think of the outlandish way I act online is just that an act.
It's a fun and entertaining way for me to blow off some steam. Take Howard Stern for example, does anyone still think he is like the person he portrays on the radio? I don't think so.

Does that mean I take crap from people in real life? Hell no! I absolutely don't take crap from anyone, I don't care who they are. Not to brag but I've never lost a fight and anyone with a brain wouldn't want one with me. I am a big guy and there is no shame in my game, my pictures up everywhere, I played High School and College Football, currently I own my own successful Dog training business, but I spend a lot of time volunteering, mostly helping to rehabilitate abused animals.

Success is measured in different ways, I mean I own a business, house, cars, nice things, electronics and I am in school learning how to design Video games and working on computer graphics as well as programing. I am learning these thing's just to expand my knowledge and to get a little change of pace, sometimes dealing with abused animals can be tough, it would be nice to work in a cleaner environment without the harshness that I often see.

I like to think of my clan as being the classic villain, the one with the mustache who is over the top and annoying, the more buttons we can push the better I like it. Not because I'm a bad guy, but because it's all fun and games. If anyone takes what my clan or I say seriously then you need to get some thicker skin.

The perception I here most often is as follows:
1.I'm a no life
2.I live in my moms basement
3.I'm a little punk kid who would get my ass kicked
4.I'm an asshole who must not have a girlfriend or friends in real life

The Reality is:
1."No Life" is all relative, I own and run a business, have a nice personal life, have time to volunteer and go to school and the people who call me a no life because I'm better then them at a video game are on said video game at the same exact time as I am. WTF???
2.I live in Florida, sorry no Basements here. Fact is I have lived on my own since I was 17 years old. I do well for myself and have owned my own house for years.
3.I'm in my 20's and I'm 6'5" and about 330 pounds, I don't take crap from anyone.
4.In real life I'm far from an asshole, I help out whoever I can as often as I can, Animals people, anyone in need. I trained dogs for Domestic violence victims as well as seeing eye dogs for the blind.


Am I competitive? Hell yes! No matter what I'm doing I want to win and be the best I can be. Am I the best at everything? Nope! Not even close. I wont admit it often though. I don't care if it's bowling, fishing, video games, football, cards, pool....It don't matter.

If I were a terrible person or a bad leader I doubt I'd be able to inspire the greatness from my clan over the last 3 years. 100's of members and over a 700% winning percentage.
Are we cocky? Hell Yes! then again I don't claim all these things and spout off that were "humble" I don't apologize for anything over the internet or games.


So in closing, don't take the person at the other end of the voice chat or chat box seriously. Most likely they aren't being themselves, most people feel powerful online because there are no consequences. So just ignore it or have fun back, but remember if your calling someone a "no life" but on the same game at the same time, your an "Idiot" or possibly "Canadian" Just chill and go with it. the internet is where we are freest to do and say what we want. We kill Nazi zombies, Locust hordes and stop terrorists in their tracks! I like to hear colorful people over the mic, so like I said don't take it seriously, don't get mad, just go with it and have some fun.

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