Monday, July 16, 2007

It's Official...I'm a Geek

Weeks ago our household bought a new gaming system!

I thought I could resist this whole gaming thing! It started with my brother. At 7 or 8 he began collecting video games and continues to this day. Early on I dabbled. I would play Mario Kart or Smash Brothers with him from time to time.

I stopped playing when video game worlds became 3-D. I never mastered moving around a 3-D environment. It's sad, really. My avatar aimlessly walks around the getting stuck in corners, looking backwards while walking forwards, and just generally sucking at the game! I really do try, I'm just inapt! I honestly don't have it in me. It's ok ~ I've come to accept this about myself.

The past few years I've shared living space with serious gamers... and without even the slightest interest in playing. I've been introduced to many of their friends via Gamer Tags (even though we were face to face) because that's how I would recognize them. At school my students are constantly talking video games. They *flip* when they hear Tim plays!! I quickly learned that adults who play video games are way cooler than those who read books... who knew?

In short, as hard as I tried to stay away...video games have surrounded me like Ghosts would a stationary Mrs. Pacman!
Consider this Mrs. Pacman's weakness... the 360 gaming system. It's different. It has *my* games. Tim *loves* first-person shooters and occasionally dabbles in flight simulators or battle tactics games. These are of NO interest to me. *My* games are your basic, old-school two button games. The kind where you walk, jump, and kick. And if they're really fancy, you can jump and kick at the same time! I'm good at these games. I'm not really sure whether it is a highly trained skill or just pure-dumb-luck from punching the buttons 100 times a second. Either way, I'm good! Maybe even better than the serious gamers...

Favorite Games:
  • Catan: A favorite board game and now a favorite video game! We currently have 6 out of the games' 8 achievements. My brother is #1 on the Leaderboard!
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: I am #3 on the Leaderboard! I have not only consistently beat Tim at this game, but also Joe! This is a source of GREAT pride for me! I feel it really 'gets their goat' that I have them beat at such a classic. That must be the competitive Emily talking :o).
  • UNO: We only have about 8 games under our belt so far. Our gamerscore is 65/200...it'll go up as we play more.
  • PacMan: Our ranking is not exceptional (yet), but it's fun!
  • Galaga: Tim is #1 on the Leaderboard! Gamerscore 110/200. His current high score (117690) doesn't even compare to scores from our older version of the game...he's just getting started! Right now Tim's world-wide Xbox Live rank in Galaga is somewhere around 12,000.
  • Hexic: I am #1 on the Leaderboard! Gamerscore 110/200. My current high score is 190185 and my world-wide ranking is about 67,500!
Tim has told me I'm competitive. Competitive? Me? I'm flowy. I'm easy going. I'm patient. None of these things lend to competitive. I'll let you decide for yourself~

My Video Game Routine:

#1: Finish Work
#2: Start Game
#3: Restart Game if I don't get a Perfect Score on the First Level
#4: Repeat Step 3 for the Second and Third Levels
#5: Continue Playing Until my Previous Score is Topped
#6: End Game and Go Directly to the Leaderboard to see my name in a new, *higher* position!

Does this mean I'm competitive?

2 comments:

Cold Spaghetti said...

I'm with The Boy on this one... you're a shark! :-)

I'm very sad to hear that adults who read books aren't as cool as those to play video games.

Emily said...

It saddens me too!!

Books are a thing of the past unless your family is a 'reading family.' I've actually seen bumper stickers that simply say, "I still read books." That's one I'd put on my car.

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