Discrimination rears its ugly head

Today I was called shallow. Not because I’m some stuck up prick (I guess I am) but because I’m a gamer. (and possibly because it was made a bit public that I didn't want kids).

I walked past the coffee area of our office and someone asked me what I thought of MW2. I was shocked, but told them that I’m not finished with the campaign yet, but so far its one of the best single player and THE best multiplayer game I’ve ever played. They sounded interested, asked questions, even asked what system I have it for, and why did I pick that system. As the conversation came to an end, I asked them if they were interested in getting the game, and that I’m always willing to lend a hand is someone is just starting to get into gaming….at this, they both laughed hysterically. 

Yup, they were leading me on, called me a juvenile fool too shallow to realize that I’ve wasted my life on something that was totally fake. I admit this made me very embarrassed, not because of what they said, but because I thought they were interested, I fell for it, and didn’t have much of a leg to stand on. Then they said something that I jumped all over. The one said that I have more in common with his 9 year old son than with any of the professionals in this office. 

Me- oh, so your son plays games.

Him- yeah I got him that Call of Duty game and some Mass Effect game last week just so he’ll leave me alone while we watch TV.

Me (with a smile from ear to ear) oh, (spoiler alert) well then ask him if he made it to the mission in COD where you slaughter the civilians, I was rather impressed with the emotional impact they caused as the Russians were cursing and laughing as they cut down the women and children. (I know there are no children in that section, but still)

Him- yeah whatever, unlike some people, my kid knows that stuff isn’t real.

Me- oh, well did he at least get to the alien sex scene in Mass Effect? I was surprised they got away with as much as they did with only a mature rating.

Him- Like they’d put something like that in a kids game.

Me – it’s rated Mature because it’s not a kids game.

He laughed at me…..LAUGHED!! So, I walked away, but I wasn’t done. I pulled up his kids profile (it was easy to find since he just used his email address as his tag an email address his buddy gave me(some friend he was))…a 9 year old white kid claiming to be (in so many words)  of African descent who only kills other African Americans as a form of entertainment and often has non-consensual relations with under age Caucasian and Asian girls while he partakes in crystallized methamphetamines  and then proceeded to list a long, LONG string of profanity and a link to his myspace page where the rant continued with a picture of the kid flicking off a picture of a woman, I’m guessing(by dad’s reaction) was the kids mom….I made 2 copies, one for him and one for his other buddy(just for the extra embarrassment). I filed my complaint against him on live, I guess it wasn’t his first issue since his motto still said “Code of Conduct”, but since dad told his boss he was going to be out of work for the rest of the day, I’m guessing a suspension is the least of this kids problems.

I happened to mention that he may want to pay attention to the types of adult entertainment his kid likes as opposed to using the Xbox as a babysitter while he sat on the couch and wasted his life watching TV…..but I’m not completely evil, I left him a print out of instructions on how to set the parental codes on the XBOX, a sheet describing what the ESRB ratings are and how to read them, and the service number so he could get his kids profile changed back to being a minor.

On the down side of all this, it really did make me feel useless. I really do plenty of activities away from gaming, most are just as frowned on in this environment.  Geeks aren’t very welcome here, (unless the person is having computer problems), and I’ve just been branded for life. Luckily I am not alone in this office; there are other geeks, other gamers.

Auto out-