Cynder

Everyone has a significant interest in their lives that they are fully immersed in. It could be music, cricket or riding a bike. It helps to connect with similar people like a tether in space. However, not every significant interest can be shown off in a team meeting. My significant interest needs a 4K monitor and a Crossfire Vengeance 5180. Not in a million years did I think there would be an actual person who would cross paths in my life with the same kind of craziness and ignorance to the outside world. Do you want to know about this assassin? this medic with a drop ship? This destruction warlord,  this Marvel future fighter? this girl who has an insatiable thirst for gaming? Well lucky for you, I finally found her. I found Cynder.

Unpack.io

Walking down the crowded pavement with very little room on either sides, I was overwhelmed by the fact that I was with a fellow gamer. Simply for the fact that I have been convincing myself that I was the only one from the planet for the past 23 years. I figured that I was in pandora, invading planet earth and suddenly I found someone from the omaticaya tribe, the bikes on either sides and a loan shark snapped me back into reality. To be fair, I hadn’t interacted with a stranger in the last eight months, and when you go that long undercover, you forget how to talk. How much is too much? How far is too far? It was a big deal for me because I took a leap of faith. It was better to be authentic than to be attractive.

She broke every stereotype in the book from the beginning. Girls should have long hair? Nope. Girls should let the guy do all the talking? Nope. Girls should be interested only in movies and make-up? Nope. She looked at me with her glassy bead eyes, well defined eyebrows and a Ellen degeneres hair cut, I immediately knew I was in trouble.

We walked into the bookstore and I had this feeling that I had travelled back in time. Maybe in 2077 they had asked for volunteers and like a fool that I am, decided to  help. And for some reason, I had told them to transport me back to the writer’s cafe. I didn’t think she took so much notice, but I was leaping in joy. Simply because, now I know for a fact that gaming is just like every other important thing that people do. It is not just for kids who barely know what a Sephiroth from final fantasy is. Gaming can actually bring two people together.

In your face! In your face 8th std chemistry teacher and everyone else who told me gaming is for kids! In your face!

I had prepared for a set of questions like a proper interview, because I was trying to be a professional journalist dropped into a fictional part of Africa (and hope to have more than few story branches) My first question to her was about her pet peeve in gaming.

“Lag!” she shouted, almost instantly. She had nothing on her mind except her internet gone bad.

That set the tone for the rest of the evening, while I tried to keep track of all the questions, she was trying to decide if she wanted to be Mel from Aveyond or Moira from Overwatch.

To the moon

Dr. Rosalene and Dr. Watts are trying to make Johnny to have his last and final wish. To go to the moon. This 2D game, carved out of the black pixels resonates with the most intimate emotional value. Longing.

As quirky banter between the doctors are enough to put a smile on your face, the artwork in itself is quite on par with the much famous Pokemon games. The character detail was well done, considering that they only have a few polygons to play with. The music was surprisingly good, it changes along with the seperate acts in the game which gives you a sense of where you are being taken to. Although it is brilliantly written, the game could have done a bit more fast paced story telling.

There she was, moving her hands in the air and talking about this favourite game, while I was truly terrified of just how much patience she should have had to get through the end of the game.

Having done her schooling in a catholic school run by nuns, it made sense. She surprised me when she told me about her various feats from the World of Warcraft and DOTA 2. Two of the most played MMO games on the planet. She was not messing around when she said she was a gamer. I know a brag when I hear one, but come on –  beating a stronger faction with a weaker gear? That is badass. No matter if its WoW or Minecraft or any game on the freaking planet. Winning as an underdog in a video game is badass. Because you have to beat math with skill.

There are about 3.7 million active players in World of warcraft at any given time. That is almost the entire population of Uruguay. As much as I would like to say that I might be pretty good at the game if I played it, sometime you have to let go of your male gamer ego and appreciate the person who is actually better than you. Doesn’t matter if she is a girl or a guy, if they are a better player – Just smile and wave.

I know what you guys are thinking at the moment. No wait, there cannot be two of you. You were the gamer guy. But lo and behold, there is another. There are even a lot more of us.  (Yes, I did openly confess that I am not the no.1 gamer in your life – I am sorry to let you down fam, There is someone better! Alright alright…Aww come on don’t cry. It is alright. Here are your socks peasants, be free…) 

As crazy as it sounds, she had even designed a game! Whaaaaaat! I sat there for two minutes without freaking out. That is how cultured I am. The game is called the Lady of the lake which is about the mysterious lady from the cult classic King Arthur. It also involves time travel! Microsoft, take note!

All through this chaos, she was concentrating so hard to get BINGO on the question numbers she had with her. The girl just won’t quit playing. I don’t think she ever will.

Cyber City

Smooching over her mint drink and taking notes on the paper, she blurted out that she loved science fiction. She loved the futurist themes, with flying spaceships and hover cars. It was quite obvious that the game she desperately want to play was “Detroit become human”. With storylines spreading like a flare from the mastiff gun, DBH has diverging choices that could either save a person or let them die. You could play that game for 64 times and still have a different ending every single time. If that is not life, I don’t know what is.

Talking about her life, she confessed that she had once went on 14 hours at a stretch playing video games (Girls, Take note. Please.) She was throwing one arc star after the other before I could recover from my previous mind explosion. There was so many things that I didn’t see coming.  Her first video game was paranoid (My current state of mind, thank you.) and she even remembered the helicopter mission from GTA! This girl was a proper gamer and loved how refreshing it was to finally hear someone else talk about how difficult that stupid mission was!

Although she might have failed the semester because her attendence was too low from playing games, she somehow pulled it back together. She has post traumatic stress disorder from watching desmond miles die (Google it dear sir, google the name), She once beat a pro fifa player too, all of that in one person, sitting innocently in front of me.

The whole point of this is not to pick on anyone. You should know that it is possible to admire female gamers without sexualizing them. Gaming is not just for men, it is for everyone. It is not for kids, cus I get pissed everytime they make that comparison. But I was a kid once, wow paranoid city. Long story short, I hereby immortalize this kind person, who unapologetically came forword to tell that she was a gamer and didn’t give a rats ass about what you thought. She also added that video gaming can actually help you out than most of the sports, it transports you to another world where there is hope.

“Hand-eye co-ordination!” she told me, her deep brownish black eyes gleaming in delight while I walked in shame remembering all the catches I have dropped in cricket matches. I have dropped more balls than the bombs that fell from the sky in WW2.

Endgame

Finally the last question was done and dusted and it was time. We did talk a lot more than games. We talked about books, but that is another story. (Aha! See what I did! Basic Pun!) We walked around, almost stole a weird looking book until the cab arrived. We sneaked up the stairs of what looked like a racoon city police department and was bummed that there was no secret hallway or portraits to flip. She had a social life, she had friends all over the place, She made me realize that you can be a hardcore gamer and still have a life outside the console, Although I am not sure if I can ever pull that off. I will always be jealous of her for that.

Gaming always will be an extremely attractive attribute to have, but she was leaving for Italy to pursue her dreams. We parted ways while almost stepping over a dead cat. When the car door closed, I put my head down and went on my different way. I was glad that I spent three hours and got to know so much about the person. Part of the journey is the end, what if it was the whole journey? It had started raining when we were finished with the question. I walked through the same wet pavement, that refelected the streetlights faithfully. I wasn’t sure if I was in reality or I had gotten a really good gaming monitor with an unpredictable, openworld and progressive roleplaying strategy game. I cut through the horde of people, the people who defined what “normal” is for us.

We are not normal. We are not like the rest of them.

We leap from buildings, we push the German defence with a single barrel .45 M6 rifle, We drive through the cities in war tanks, we use mist and magic to make enemies flee, we raid in the dead of night, we travel at 200 miles per hour and still ram a police car and send it flying, we cut through zombie hordes, pillage pharaoh’s tombs, fight face to face with persians on the sea of gallilee, We fly dragons, we add nitrous to our cars. We overthrow dictators from region strongholds, we survive post apocalptic worlds, we hunt rogue machines, we scorn the face of demons and collect their souls. We don’t have one life to live, we have many.

We are assassins, we are racers, we are superheros, we are mercenaries from the future, we are angels and warlords, We are explorers, we are peacekeepers and we are dragon riders. We are gamers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Post credits? Really?

Well, if you were ever a friend, you know I have a few tricks up my sleeve. I didn’t go for the magic card this time. I went for the tic tac toe. The oldest and the first game ever invented by man. Some of you don’t know this, but I can never lose at a tic tac toe game. No matter where she goes, what she does, I will always be the guy who beat her in tic tac toe.

Until next time.

 

 

This blog post is based on the Writer’s cafe incident that occured on 28th June 2019 CSIR, and has been dramatized for entertainment purposes only. All characters, names of characters, places, events depicted in the blog maybe fictional/ or representational in nature and bear all resemblance to real live persons and places. Any resemblence/similarity to any person living or dead and/or event/ or location purely means you are clearly stalking me.  The blog is not meant to defame/denigrate/hurt sentiments of any person, religous group, community, institution, nationality, profession or any class of person, gender, caste or religion in any manner.