Girl Gamers - A Message to Male Gamers

It's clear that 2013 was a bad year for blogging. I am hoping to improve this year. I'm afraid I'm kicking off with a bit of a rant.

I should confess that I am a girl gamer. I've played video games for a long time and I get a lot of enjoyment from them. I've met some amazing people through gaming. It's a hobby that me and Mr Husband both enjoy. And we have had some laughs through gaming!

Gaming has changed in the last 10 years. Increasing numbers of girls are enjoying video games. I remember a time when some clans wouldn't consider having girls and those experiences are now being far and few. I'm very proud to be part of this movement within women and gaming.

I really want to stress one thing before I continue on.  The majority of men play games with women with no problems whatever. We all have a laugh at each other's good and bad points without playing the gender card. But yet, there is still some men who still view women in gaming negatively. Either that we aren't as good or just plan rubbish. These comments don't really bother me. I'm not great at all aspects of gaming, but I'm happy to admit that because no one is.

What bothers me more is some blokes seem to think that women gamers must WANT sexual comments, photos of you-know-wants and clearly want to be hit on. That MUST be the reason why we play games. 

The reason I'm writing this is that every so often, I get a random friend request. There's little information, it's not from a clan that I'm part of and I haven't played with them recently. I want to be polite to people so I kindly ask who they are before accepting. It could be "I was on the opposite team  on name-a-game-here", "I'm a friend of X-Y-Z" or various reasons. The gamers are being friendly, so I'll add them. But today, I got a friend request and did the same. This got a reaction of a voice message with heavy breathing. Then a party invite a few minutes later.  I replied, refusing the invite. By this point, I figured which was going to be the next step - but unsure in what method they were going to do it. I got a message back asking if a was a girl.  I pointed out that I was happily married and no reply came back.

Credit where credit is due here. This person was polite and asked if I was a girl. But this has not always been the case. I've had rude sexual comments and I've had photos of various body parts. But when I've refused to take part in their mind games, I've had rude abuse back, name calling and then sometimes, getting negative feedback on my reputation on Xbox live.

If this was done in any other situation, it wouldn't be accepted. But because it's online it's viewed as ok. I want to send out a strong message to any gamer:

It's not ok to be like this.
It is NOT OK.
It's sexualist, rude and really showing your true opinions that all women are objects.

Oddly, this comes a few days after my friend shared an image on girl gaming. It read "Yes, I am a girl gamer. No I don't want: your phone number, random friend request or to hook up with you." But it started an interesting discussion. With someone revealing that they no longer state they are a female on their account. But it shouldn't be like this. We should've able to reveal that we are women and me not to view it as an invite to hit on us.

I hope that the gaming industry help with this. Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo should actively ban gamers who act like this. And gamers who get this treatment should feel supported by the company. We need to stop this attitude. We should all play games together, regardless of gender.

Fake Girl Geeks

This might come across as a bit of a rant but I really need to speak my mind about this.

I've been given various links such as this YouTube Video and an article about how the term geek is so meaningless, that there's no point using it anymore - especially since there are girls going around doing it for attention

Point One: Who Are These So Called Girls?!
I mean, seriously? Every geeky girl I've met have been genuine geeky girls with either similar interests as me or similar interests to Mr Husband. I'm yet to meet one that acts and behaviours like they are doing it for the attention of a geeky bloke. Also, you are basically insulting the intelligence of geeky guys. How? Well, you are basically suggesting that they wouldn't see through it that girl for who they really are - someone doing it purely for the attention.

Point Two: Who Are These Guys To Judge Girl Geeks on Looks Alone?
If you watch the YouTube video (which I recommend) then she makes a very good point that geeky guys are justifying who is a geeky girl by their looks, not our interests or personalities. What gives any man - not just geeky guy - the right to be so completely sexist towards women?! I have a great personality (even though I'm shy) and I'm sure Mr Husband agrees with me since he's my husband. This this way of categorising women based purely on looks is degrading.

Point Three: The Geeky World Has to Wake Up and Smell the Coffee
It's worrying on some comments towards girl geeks are getting around. And geeks really need to wake up. And I agree, its even more difficult being a girl geek than a guy geek. I'm not saying that being a guy geek is easy - far from it. But as soon as I join MW3 games, I just get abuse for being female. I often play online games without my mice because I really don't want the abuse from guys. I'm really lucky in the sense that those who do know me, know that I might not be the greatest, but I do it for the entertainment. I've met some really great friends from my geeky interests. I even met my Husband though my love of photography (we are both photography geeks). But its not just geeks. Some sections of industry really need to wake up to girl geeks. For example, if you customise your avatar on Xbox 360, the main colours are pink and purple. I hate both of them. Not all girls are over the top, pink lovers. Some are, but most aren't

Girl geeks have made some progress in the geek world. Lets not start closing doors now because of wrong attitudes towards being a female geek. Whether you are male or female, we all have a common interest. So lets not fight over it, lets enjoy discussing the important geeky things - like we always should be

GAME Loyalty

Sorry for the lack of blogging recently. This has been due to major changes in my life such as marriage, moving house and starting a new course.

Bur now that I am back, I wanted to discuss a topic that it very close to my heart – gaming.

I’ve been a gaming geek for many years now. My first exposure to gaming was on my brother’s Amega 800 (I think). It was only children’s games but my parents couldn’t get me off it! When my brother moved out, his room was set up so I could easily access it. And before that, I used to harass my brother into letting me watch him play games. He might have found it really annoying but for me, I loved every minute of it. Even now, I still get enjoyable from watching other people play games. Mr Husband – however – finds this to be very weird!

When I got older, I got my own consoles such as the PS1, PS2 and both Xbox Consoles. But even before them, I was happy on my desktop PC playing silly games like Sims or more hardcore games as the Diablo series and Starcraft games. But I also really enjoyed handheld gaming from Nintendo.

But it was through my love of handheld consoles and gaming on the move that introduced me to the GAME stores. I remember well as a tiny store in the corner of a huge shopping centre. I could only go to it when I was on holiday and every time I went there, I was asked to sign up to their loyality scheme. And I couldn’t wait until I was old enough to move away and be able to go to them everyday – Well, I was about 10!

But that excitement of having an place for easy assess to gaming never went away and when I moved away to attend college, I did go into the local GAME store. No longer a tiny store in the shopping centre. It was still shopping centre but a huge store in its own right. It proudly said that gaming was accessibility for all and not just us geeky few.

But of course, the face of gaming had changed over the years. No longer was it viewed as being done by nerdy boys in their bedrooms but more in the family home for everyone. So GAME got bigger and better. It was focused on gaming, but in a different way. In my eyes, GAME was highly respected by everyone and as a gamer, I wanted to support them as much as I could. So, over the years, I’ve been very loyal to them. Most of my gaming needs was brought from there. And I rarely looked elsewhere.

But in 2011, a storm was coming that would shake everyone up. GAME struggled and it was finally put into administration. The business was re-structured to adapt to their needs. But, ultimately, GAME was saved. As a gamer, I was glad to see that it was saved. Whilst some stories had come out about how it had gained its domination came out, it was still respected and a point of knowledge for gaming. But also, so many staff lost their jobs and their staff MADE the store for me. They were friendly and always willing to help you out.

Now for the main purpose of this blog, we need to back track to November 2009. I just got Left 4 Dead 2 after some nagging from friends. I excitedly went home and played it with the husband. However, my 360 died in the process and the next day, I went and got a new 360 Elite. At the time, I took out GAME care, which was an expanded warranty which would kick in after Microsoft’s had run out. Great! I had a back up in case something went wrong. It was 3 years worth of protection and I was more than happy.

At the start of the blog, I said I moved house. Now in the process, something had clearly upset my 360 and now struggles to connect and maintain connection to my wireless controller. And after some investigation by me and Mr Husband, all the symptoms pointed to the console, maybe even the power pack. But it’s ok, I got GAME care!

Very simple then, I’d call the GAME store and tell them about my 3 year GAME care, which would run out in November 2012. Problem very much solved.

But it wasn’t solved. I called them up and told them the problem and about GAME care. I told them it would expire in 2012. The guy said he would investigate it and get back to me. He said it would be unlikely to be in place still, since they only do 2 year GAME care during Microsoft’s warranty period. But that’s not what I got sold. When I pointed this out, it was a case of “not my problem” since the GAME care was with the old GAME not the new GAME. I argued my point and he promised to check with headoffice.

After 4 weeks, I called them up to check what was going on. He checked and their hands were tied. My mis-sold GAME care was invalid now and they refused to help me. But now they are aware that its invalid, even if I took the console in for repair, they would point blank refuse it, even though it was mis-sold to me.

The loyalty I’ve shown to GAME ultimately means nothing to them. They clearly have enough customers that they don’t need me. I’ve tried contacting them on Twitter and I get no response back. It’s clear that they have lost their way. There’s no phone number to contact head office, just e-mail and online chat. Both of which aren’t helpful really. I prefer speaking to someone over the phone or face to face

My response? Well, I wrote this blog and my next move is to cut up my GAME loyalty card. The business has changed so much, whilst it used to be providing a service to gamers in a helpful, friendly manner, it now clearly about making sure profits are high and stuff the consequences.

I do hope that GAME come back from this and begin to improve again. It’s a store I love going to and I would go back to it, if they improved their service again.

Also, I’m welcome for suggestions on how to fix my 360. I really don’t want to have to buy a new one – especially with the rumours of a new console in 2013 or 2014.

It's Official

We got married

Mr Husband is now officially my Husband and I am officially his wife.

Back soon.

Gaming Age Rating Changes

Before discuss the upcoming changes in the UK, I just wanted to do a quick explanation on why I'm discussing this rather than the new Mountain Lion OSX for Macs. It had been my original plan to do this, however me and Mr Husband have recently moved house. We have some internet however, we don't have enough bandwidth to download the new OSX. I'm disappointed that I can't review it since it will have a huge impact on dyslexics however once I am able to download it, I will do a review.

On Tuesday 30th July, a new game rating system came into force. It was on the BBC news but some people won't understand the impact or the reasons that change was needed. Today's blog will discuss these issues

What's happened?
Over the last few years, the UK Game ratings system has moved from the classification used by the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) to the PEGI (Pan-European Game Information). This week saw that those selling video games must obey the PEGI ratings or face prosecution.

Why has this has happened?
There have been a few reasons behind this changes. Firstly, it is recognised throughout Europe - since it is used in a lot of European countries. It is worth pointing out that whilst the PEGI system is in place in Europe, not all countries have moved to the step of making the legally enforceable. In the UK - this system has created the Games Rating Authority through the VSC [Video Standards Council]. This is important since they will be able to focus on just games ratings, unlike than the BBFC which focused on video games and movies. But more importantly, it is a clearer for families to understand the content of the games and what age range is acceptable to play it. Research carried out in 2010 found that over 60% of parents were in favour of the PEGI age ratings.

What's my personal view on this?
I have always held the opinion that its important to have clear understanding for parents in terms of games and their content. I'm not a parent however, I do plan to be and I want my children to not be exposed to content that they aren't mature enough to deal with. Whilst my parents understood the BBFC ratings, there wasn't much clarity in terms of the amount of violence, bad language or sexual references in the games I was playing.
I feel that this change can only be viewed as positive. I can remember being a 15 year old child playing 18 rated games. But I did this with my parents knowledge and I explained the content of the games. They believed I was mature enough at that age to deal with that content. Whilst I was responsible, I know people who were younger but not as open to their parents. But what was worse, there were no consequences for those selling the games, unlike if you were to sell movies. This changed using the same classification system for movies but it didn't really explain what could be in the game. This new system not only shows what ages are acceptable for each game, but also if it had violence, bad language or sexual references within the game content. This clearly explains the content of the game to the parents, meaning they are able to make an informed decision on whether their child could handle the content or not. Isn't that beneficial to everyone?

The Dark Knight Rises - Spoiler Free!

WARNING: Do not read this if you haven't seen the previous movie. This may spoil the ending. However, this blog does not contain any The Dark Knight Rises spoilers.

Often, me and Mr Husband go to the cinema. We tend to go for the Orange Wednesday offers. If you don't know, that's 2 tickets for the price of 1 on Wednesdays from the phone company Orange. And we enjoy it a lot but the downside is that we don't get to go to many movies on the actual day of release. We almost have an unwritten rule that we only go on the actual day of release if its something really worth seeing before Wednesday.

One movie was Christopher Nolan's conclusion of the Batman trilogy. We wanted to see this for a long time. I am personally a huge fan of Christopher Nolan as a director. I was introduced to him with The Dark Knight and it was an impressive movie. But at the time, I wasn't aware who he was as a director. What really introduced me to him as a director was Memento. I had to watch it as part of my course. Then there was Inception which was an amazing movie and really showed how he preferred to do amazing stunts through the camera and not through special effects - something I agree with so much. In an upcoming blog, I will explore these movies more. But for now, lets focus on The Dark Knight Rises

Without giving anything away and using Internet Movie Database, I will quickly explain the outline of the movie. It's set 8 years after the previous movie. Gotham City has branded Batman an enemy of the city after the perceived murder of Harvey Dent aka Two-Faced. However, another super villain has begun to terrorise the city, in the form of Bane. Batman must return and save Gotham City.

Personally, it was a great ending to the trilogy and leaves the door ajar to another set of movies as well. I really enjoyed it throughout but I really want to sit and watch all three films again to fully appreciate the trilogy again. To be honest, I said the same thing when I saw The Avengers movie. I really felt I needed to re-watch Thor again. Both great movies as well.

So what was Mr Husband's point of view? Mr Husband's quote when we came out the cinema was "Sorry Joss Whedon but Christopher Nolan is now my Master." This is very high praise from Mr Husband since Joss Whedon is one of his favourite directors.

If you get a chance, please go and see this movie. It's really great!!

Before I end this blog, I want to say that my thoughts are with the families and friends of the people who died due to the shooting in Aurora, Colorado. No one should ever lose a person close to them like this. No one.

The Story of my MacBook Pro

When I had the idea for this blog, I still had my original Windows 7 laptop. However, after my exams, I got a MacBook Pro (late 2011 version). And how it came to be is a story I like to tell. With everything else going on, this is the first time I've been able to tell it to my blog

Before I go into the actual story, I should explain how I ended up loving Apple products. If you spoke to me 3 years ago, I hated Apple and how you would end up being tied to the one company without little freedom for other software. I didn't like the products but Mr Husband was even worse. But through his job, he admitted that he would need to know how to program on the upcoming Apple products - just incase he was asked to do it. So he ended up buying the iPhone 3GS and the MacBook Pro (Mid 2009). He didn't want to but he needed to. But over time, we discovered how much better the Apple products were to normal Windows PCs and Linux Operating System (since Mr Husband was using it at the time). The reason that Apple was all tied together was because you didn't need the freedom. Software such as Anti-Virus and WinZip aren't needed. Over time, we realised the advantages of using the Macs over Windows, and we began to use Apple products more.

This being said, I've only recently got my MacBook Pro. This was because I was given a laptop due to my dyslexia. However, whilst I am grateful for the laptop - it wasn't the best laptop. After a few weeks of few, my battery life went from one full hour to only getting between 10 to 20 minutes at the most. I got the laptop when Windows 7 first came out, which meant that all the software hadn't been fully tested for bugs. And it showed through. Over the last year of my degree, I ended up using our Mac Mini (which is really used as a media centre) to complete my coursework and use for revising. And it was at this point, I discovered that the Macs were so much more effective than my current Windows laptop. I began to use my Windows laptop less and my Mac Mini more. There was one major disadvantage though. The Mac Mini is portable as long as you have easy assess to a monitor. However, this wasn't the case at my University. So the long painful method of saving up began.

Fast forward to the last day of my exams, I organised to meet up with my Dad. I don't get to see him much due to his job but when he's home, then we have good quality time together. So, we have a little after-exam traditions. So I was on my way to meet him when I get a call. He asked me to go and meet up with him but to remember my student ID because he needed it for the discount. I didn't really think anything of it but I said not to worry and I would see him soon. After that, we met up and he told me that he wanted to go into the local shopping centre to buy some trousers. Again, this was reasonable so I said we would go. At the local shopping centre, I asked if we could stop at the Apple store. For me and Mr Husband, this is very much a routine to go and admire all the products in the Apple store. So Dad said yes and we wondered into the Apple store and Dad stopped at the MacBook Pro. He then asked someone to help him pick a MacBook Pro FOR ME! I'm telling you now - my jaw hit the ground. I really didn't expect to get a MacBook Pro. But Dad told me that I deserved it for my hard work at University so this was a graduation present and a birthday present combined. Dad understood that the Windows laptop was slowly dying - at this point, most mornings it would squeal for 30 minutes until it had warmed up. But he also understood that the MacBook Pro was needed for my University work for my dyslexia.

I've had it since May and I love it. And I'm glad I got it before the upgrade since all the newer MacBook Pros no longer have a DVD drive. Which is a really minor thing but at least I have it if I need it. I'm looking forward to Mountain Lion coming out since it will have dictation on it as well. But now, my Apple product family is complete and I'm really happy about that.