What Does Being A Gamer Mean To Me?

I find this to be an interesting question to ask myself, especially as the "gamer culture" has been growing and changing, or in some ways, resisting change.

So let's back it up a little bit, how do I think about the phrase, "gamer"?  I suppose to me it means some one who both uses games as a major source of entertainment, and identifies as a "gamer".  Kinda circular, huh?  I can't find an immediately obvious way around that.

Personally, I don't only see video games as a source of time-killing amusement, but also as a medium to tell stories and display art.  Some games even take this further and as a player you create things inside the game, and shape your own story as you play.  This is a large part of why I enjoy video games so much, my desire to pretend I live in another world is small; I still enjoy imaging characters in other worlds and realities, and the fantastic stories and adventures that go with them.

All this being said, this is specifically how I view video games, and it doesn't really speak for all gamers.  Also, how I choose to express myself socially and my beliefs are not the same as all other gamers.  This has been made pretty obvious to me by a review of GTA V that seemed to light gamer-trolls up in a fury.  Why? Because a woman reviewed it and gave it "ONLY A 9 OUT OF 10!?!?!?" and mentioned also that it didn't do a very good job of including and portraying women(EDIT:No one really expected it to, but it's still something to hope and aim for).  I'm still trying to get past to baffled stage of trying to grasp such a strong and violent overreaction.

Anyways, games are great story-telling devices and artistic mediums, and there will be some stories and art I like, and some I don't.  Just like with not-games.  Funny how that is.  We're all different in so many ways, yet we still often use our similarities to try to drive each other apart.

Game On Everypony,
Alturiigo

Oh Adventure

People will be like "Oh you should go out more" and I'm all like "See, I totally go out-"

I ride all around, even, no especially, on starry nights.

And fishing is totally outdoors-y

I caught a glowing fish?

Let's make some stew! Remember, carrots are good

for your eyesight.

I remember learning about how these grow from

rocks.  Isn't nature a wonder?

But it's not always lonely, I have friends and kinsfolk

Here we're celebrating the Farmer's Faire

Sometimes I have dance-offs with Orcs

But mostly I like to go hill-surfing-

When I'm not playing my harp that is.

Adventures in Lord of The Rings Online, with Laerawyn(Minstrel) and Ithulraen(Rune-Keeper), members of the Whispers of Hope

Chapter 1(Intro): Just Another Day

The sun shone down brightly as Aldrin drifted through the City Park, happy to not have a passenger for a moment during this beautiful day.  He took a moment to breathe in deeply before banking off towards the park exit, taking in the clean smell of the air out here on the edges of Crastleton.  The fumes of the factories and ambient pollution of the industrial district were just a far off blemish, across a small city's worth of people and places.

Aldrin hadn't been having a bad day by any means, in fact most of his passengers had been either quiet or polite.  This still didn't stop him from wishing he could just enjoy the day, especially considering how bad his last week had been.  I'm not going home sober... not tonight... he thought to himself, wincing as he remembered the way she said those words, "If you want to do anything for me, just leave me alone."  Fine, you weren't that fantastic either...

After making his way slightly into a more occupied part of the city, Aldrin parked his cab and let the machine idle in a near-ready position.  He soon slipped into thought about his recent troubles, drowning out the electric hums and hisses of steam as Crastleton around him bustled with life, but more so, energy.  The city was one of the more developed cities, having taken great strides in harnessing the powers of steam and electricity to produce many modern wonders, like the FloatCabs he himself piloted.

FloatCabs were low-flying vehicles typically holding three to four occupants, often kept near a hovering altitude, but not limited to roads nor placing stress upon them.  These were in fact one of the older innovations that came from Crastleton, often known for trying to "better people's lives".  Aldrin didn't consider the Administration very highly, though it would be hard to argue that life there wasn't pretty easy.

A movement to his right caught his attention, pulling Aldrin from his reverie sharply to see a well-dressed woman part-way through her third decade, quite nearly sprinting towards his cab.  She seemed to have began her day well-kept, though the day's events had clearly taken a toll on her intended appearance, with locks of hair falling astray and a general look of... annoyance, perhaps?

The woman pulled open the door and quickly slid herself inside, nearly alarming Aldrin with the alacrity of her movements, despite the cumbersome and pomp dress she wore.  Clearly she was concerned about presenting herself well, but by all signs to Aldrin, something must have gone horribly awry.  Before she had even fully settled into the seat in that motion, she began directing Aldrin, smoothly saying "Drive west and out, with haste sir."  The moment later as she was firmly in her seat she turned to him and looked sternly as she continued, "Time is of the essence."  No sooner had she finished this statement as men wielding shock rifles came storming from the same alley the woman had came so suddenly out of.

Before Aldrin could decide how to react, one of the uniformed men fired his rifle in the direction of the cab, causing the situation to escalate in a heartbeat.  The woman raised her voice a little more and took quite the urgent tone as she said, "Like it or not, you are a part of this.  They can not stop us from showing the truth.  Launch goodman!"  Aldrin throttled his cab and took off in the direction the woman had told him, suddenly forgetting the peacefulness of the day and becoming unwillingly drawn into a violent chase, involving a woman who was rapidly proving to have far more about her than he might have guessed in any other situation.

Life is... Expression?

So here's an interesting way to think about life or existence - spontaneous or instantaneous existence.  Think like saying, all we or anything ever is, is a bunch of atoms and electric currents and other stuff, at any given right meow.  Existence would then be an infinite sequence of infinitesimally small... let's say frames or moments.  Anyways.

I would argue that consciousness, one of the major ideas centered around our thoughts on life and the debate of a soul, is a... vessel of and for expression.  I think those words are about right.  I like this because if you broaden your ideas of expression, you may say that a reaction is an expression of an action, like saying a flower growing is the expression of it's chloroplasts doing their job right.

As far as people go, I find it much more fascinating to apply this lens to, well, anything.  Even in choosing not to speak, act, or react, it is still a form of expression.  Abstinence of something can be an expression towards or about something.  Communication, which is important to all kinds of animals, is about utilizing different means of expressions to convey an idea or invoke an instinct or emotion.

Communication, Expression, and even Perspective(through Expression), are all incredibly intertwined.  So I think it might go something like this - from a need to Communicate, Expression... occurs.  Expression is an interaction between to entities(Expresser and Expressee(even if the Expressee is never truly existent)) and in such gives way to Perspective, which is the lens through which we understand Expressions.

So I guess maybe Existence is Communication, Expression is Life, and Perspective is Consciousness.  I like to think that your Perspective is your personal context applied to your personal experience, as a frame of reference for what you are perceiving(expression you're interpreting).  Anyways, I'll leave it off here and stop the late-night philosophy.

Exist On Everypony,
Alturiigo

Why Some Nametags Say "Team Member"

Also, why I often refer to the place I work at in the first-person plural -

I was watching the Equestria Girls movie, and there was a bit about school spirit.  I got to thinking a little about this, and as I look back on my own past and think about what that concept means to me, it seems like a pretty great notion.  I was in band, and I played pep band - I LOVED playing pep band.  The songs were fun, and having a reason to get together and play the crap out of your instrument wasn't too bad either.  Maybe you don't have that school spirit?  I can understand that.

People have varied interests, so we see it as kind of normal that people group together(speaking in generalities and opinions here) based on similar interests.  Which is cool and great, until those groups stop collaborating, for whatever reason, which may seem and be completely valid.  So what am I getting at?

I think School Spirit(heck let's throw Team Spirit in here too) can be a great and positive tool in seeing beyond one's own interests or goals, and to use them to help others find theirs.  We are all a part of Team Humanity, and have been attending Universe-ity(see what I did there?), so come on show some School Spirit for Team Earth!  WOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

GO TEAM EARTH!!!

Trot On Everypony,
Alturiigo