Oswald Rant: Female Gamers: MsC
Given Name: Shannon F.
Alias: MsC
Age: 32
Location: United States
System: Celeron 600 overclocked to about 720, 640 MB RAM, GEForce2 DDR (64 MB RAM), Natural KB, Logitech mouseman, not enough HDD space — will hopefully be upgrading this when I’m employed again in the near future.
Oswald: How do you balance your real world social life with that of your Internet life?
MsC: I’m organized and I tend to plan ahead. If friends want to do things, we usually schedule a week or two in advance since all of them are busy as well, and they have additional scheduling in terms of family and babysitters and such. I’m usually online in the evenings, and since most of my friends are employed (and I’m not at the moment), I’ll meet them for lunch or something during the day, then will game online at night. When I’m working, the only thing that’s really different is that time with friends moves to weekends, and I tend to be online weeknights. My close friends know my schedule and my commitments, and if I tell them I’ve got a scrim or one of my ladders has a #1 match that night that I need to attend, they’re very understanding!
Oswald: When did you start playing games and how were you introduced to it?
MsC: I started about five years ago, when a friend of mine showed me Team Fortress. For a while, all I had was a PowerPC (mac), so I played the Mac port of Quake and some TF on that. He helped me build my first system based on the system specs for Quake 2. I joined his Quake clan (Clan Phule’s Company) and I was hooked! I started working with him and another friend — at the time we were all roommates — and the rest of the CPC gang to improve my playing skills, and was doing fairly well. I signed up for Queen of the Hill 2, mostly for fun / experience as I wasn’t sure I could compete at that level. As it turns out, I didn’t do as bad as I thought I would, and the friendships I made there got me even more involved in the community. I spent some time with PMS (Psycho Men Slayers) playing RA2 and LMCTF, and then with =V= (Valhalla) playing LMCTF with a mixed group of guys and gals. It was a lot of fun, but playing competitively was more stress than I really wanted. I stayed with PMS because it was a great group of gals, playing primarily for fun, but when that group broke up, I went back to playing for fun with friends and helping out with administrative chores for CPC.
Oswald: What drew you to Internet gaming?
MsC: Initially, the fact that it’s a lot of fun, and that a lot of my friends were playing online — it was something different to do, and a great way for me to expand my technical knowledge and skills while having a lot of fun. The community and the people, and the fact that I have a lot of fun keep me coming back.
Oswald: What sort of reactions do you receive from your friends when they find out you enjoy computer games?
MsC: One of my best friends from college thought I was strange — until I got her into some of the RPG’s like Diablo and D2, she also plays some of the shooters, and now she’s as much of a junkie as I am! Other reactions range from “you WHAT?!!” (like I was committing public indecency or something) to “huh?” (no clue, it just doesn’t register) to “Oh, neat!! What’s it like?”
Oswald: Do you feel a difference in how you are perceived because you are a female gamer?
MsC: At times, yes — I get people hitting on me in their clan channels instead of dealing with the OGL issue I’m there to discuss, or perceiving me as a pushover because I’m a female and tend to take a softer approach to some things than a male in the same position has or would. On servers in-game, it’s not usually too bad. We’re there to play, and most people do exactly that. Yes, there’s the occasional idiot making comments, but they’re everywhere (IRC, the game, e-mail, my OGL ladders, and even in main channel when I used to work for ETG as a Services Admin), and if I were to get upset at every stupid thing that came out of someone’s mouth, I’d be doing nothing else. I’ve developed a thicker skin over the years, but I still have a few of what I call “hot buttons” — situations or circumstances that really make me see red.
Oswald: While it might be a misconception, some males are more serious when it comes to online gaming. How serious are you when you sit down in front of you monitor?
MsC: I play for fun, and I see no shame in admitting it. I’m not in this to exchange insults with some troglodyte who’s gone and got pissy because I happened to kill him — I’m here for fun. I’m going to keep playing because I’m having fun playing and have learned to ignore the crap. If the people on the server are mature and are there for fun, I’ll stick around — if they’re not and are only there to “compete” and be pricks, I’ll go somewhere that I can have fun. I tend to play with friends, on their servers, where I know I won’t have to put up with that kind of thing. It’s a GAME, gang, it’s not real life; it’s pictures and sounds made up of zeros and ones transmitted at incredibly high speed over spun glass or drawn copper. THIS IS A GAME — get used to it, get over it, or go elsewhere!
Oswald: In many of the school related shootings, one contributing factor that seems to rear is head is computer gaming. We hear, “He played Doom, that is what drove him to commit this act of violence.” What are you thoughts on violent video games and how they effect kids today?
MsC: Oooooh, boy. I was one of the kids that DID get beaten up on a regular basis in junior high, and I’ll say right now that the kids at my junior high were lucky. I didn’t get my hands on a gun. Yah, I’ve been there. It’s not fun, it’s not pretty, and until these sub-sentient little troglodytes learn that torture is an acceptable form of social interaction, it will continue. The zero-tolerance polices, the locker searches, the cops in the hallways — it means dick, people. The key is teaching kids that there’s a difference between fantasy and reality, that they’re not the only ones this has ever happened to, they’re NOT alone in their problems, and that getting a gun and killing people, IN REAL LIFE, is WRONG.
Oswald: Are you known in the gaming community because you are a skilled gamer or because you are female?
MsC: Neither — I think I’m actually known more for the work I’ve done than as either “a female” or as “a skilled gamer”. Honestly, I’m not all that great in-game — my talents lie elsewhere, and I’ve learned to develop them and use them to benefit the community. I’ve been a ladder administrator with OGL for 2-1/2 years, served as an ETG Services Administrator for 18 months, and worked on QuakeCon for 2 years. I work more than I play, because there’s worthwhile stuff out there that needs doing.
Oswald: How does your online persona differ from who you are when you are away from the computer?
MsC: Not much, actually — I have a tendency to speak my mind, and that doesn’t “tone down” easily! I hate political pussyfooting in real life, work, and other stuff every bit as much as I dislike it in the gaming world. I hug my friends, ignore people I don’t like, and take delight in helping those I can. I get called “strange” a lot, but I’m used to it by now — and coming from most of the sources I hear it from… it’s a compliment! 😉
Oswald: Any thoughts, comments or shout outs you have for the community?
MsC: I’ve really enjoyed working with the Urban Terror Community on the OGL Urban ladders — it’s nice to find a community that is (for the most part) mature, intelligent, and likes to have fun! 😉 Shouts… oh, boy… One of these days when I finally get my personal site up, I’m going to put up a page for these people, cause there are WAY, WAY too many to name ’em all. You ALL know who you are — there’s no way I could’ve done what I’ve done without ALL of you, and each of you is very special to me!!
Live, Learn, Love, Laugh, and never, ever forget that you can do ANYTHING you want if you’ll only try!
