What Does A Gamer Look Like?

If you are a Brooklynite or you know one, the perception that Manhattan is like ugh so fucking far, impossible miles comprised of inconvenient steps, is familiar to you. Although Brooklyn is as much a part of New York City as any other borough (holding my tongue against the Staten Island jab, because they've had enough) , when discussing Manhattan destinations, we talk about "going to the city" as if it were a cross-country road trip.

In fact, it's just a matter of train stops. It's not that big a deal. But when I had to go "to the city" yesterday to see the U.S. launch of Dragon Quest IX at the Nintendo World Store, I fully-loaded my iPhone with brand-new music and brought my PSP (YES! I GOT ONE, present from a lovely friend) for the train ride, and in case I had to wait in line when I got there.

Incidentally, what is the etiquette around playing a PSP at a Nintendo launch event? What if you're using it to re-play Square Enix's Final Fantasy VII at the launch of a Square Enix game? These are the things I wonder about, friends.

As it turned out, I did not have to wait in line, but I did play a fair bit on the train -- the early train sequences in Midgar, incidentally. Semi-surreal; Cloud and his AVALANCHE rebel cohort trying to evade train security so they can take the railway to their scheduled Reactor bombing, while all around me the subway interior is decorated with lectures about "if you see something, say something." The ride was punctuated by voice-over drones about "suspicious packages."

You read the 'Hey Baby' post, and how unfortunately acclimated girls from my neighborhood get to long stares, unwelcome conversation-starters like "I like your bounce, Mami," and generally aggressive strange men. So when the guy I sit down next to on the train begins staring at me and grinning stupidly, I simply ignore it, put my headphones on, and keep playing FFVII.

He goes on staring and nodding at me the whole time, this guy in ginormous baggy pants, askew ballcap, sporting a huge diamond stud -- like, not my type. By the time we arrive at the station, I take off my headphones and begin putting them away, and glance to make sure this creeper isn't planning to follow me or something.

But he goes, "Hey, Final Fantasy VII. Old school, that's cool!"
I was floored and embarrassed, and all I could say was something to the effect of "yeah, it's pretty essential, right?"

And he goes, "I was surprised. You don't really look like a gamer."

Ha. Not for one minute would I have guessed it was my PSP he was staring at, either. Damn, did I feel dumb.

I mean, here I've been writing for years about "broadening audiences" and "cultural diversity" and things like that, and yet I suppose I still had in my head an idea about "what a gamer looks like" (those dudes wearing turbans and capes and Slime costumes at the DQIX event, for example).

Do you?

I once wrote this article about the innate desire "we" all have, as part of a culture that's been historically fairly small, fairly intense and fairly marginalized, to "recognize" one another in the public, offline space. When I wrote it, it was 2007; I lived in Manhattan. I felt very much like the only gamer in the world (if you've seen the piece I did for Kill Screen Issue 0, you might recognize some sentiments in common).

To be quite honest, I guess it feels different now, even a few years later. I went to an internet cafe in Williamsburg to print some stuff out and they had a bunch of TW@-branded mousepads there (although, to be fair, the clerk told me I was the only person who'd ever noted the reference). Many weekends I join friends from the local Silent Barn community space in playing and promoting Babycastles, the indie arcade they've got going on in the basement (I recently had the privilege of playing Messhof's Nidhogg with a bunch of my friends whose usual purview is playing music). People at my local hangouts tell me my job is cool. I know one bartender with a Triforce on his arm, and another bartender with a Buster Sword on his calf -- and that's just at one restaurant.

We are proliferating. We should adjust our expectations of strangers.

Bonus material: While we're on really old articles of mine, one about people who got way too into Final Fantasy VII.

Double bonus: I loaded my iPhone with new music, yes -- if you follow me on Twitter you've been picking up the mixtapes I regularly post, but if you missed it, here's volume 2 of my 'summertime mix'. Due to the limitations of free hosting, it'll only be available for a limited time, so if you're remotely curious, grab it now and give an ear to these fantastic artists.

Triple bonus ding-ding-ding: Guess what else I did at the DQIX event? I interviewed Yuji Horii. You'll get to read that ASAP.[Slimes on the cobbles of Rockefeller Plaza]

[Today's Good Song: 'I'll Follow You', White Fence (via noise narcs)]

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