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And then he passed me the wrench
Dec. 16th, 2003 09:36 amI was going to title this rant Why I Hate Gamers, but that wouldn't be precise enough. I stop off at the store to play some cards last night, and the place is full due to card players and a mechwarrior tournament. There is one table in the back holding all the bags of the mechwarrior players. One of the card players asks them if they can move their bags, so we can play. The mechwarrriors say "No, we're having a tournament and we can't move them now; we need a place to put our things." We then offer to move them somewhere safe and out of the way. A few of them, one short woman in particular, turns and says in a low menacing voice. "Don't. Touch. My. Things."
First of all, this behavior epitomizes two of the worst stereotypes about Gamers: self centeredness and obnoxiousness. Common courtesy in a public store dictates that tables are used for gaming, not coat racks. While one of them did have a very nice leather coat, we offered to find a place off of the floor where it wouldn't get stepped on, yet he refused because "he was there first." We tried several times to arrive at diplomatic solutions, and were met with third grade rhetoric and intimidation.
Now, I'll put up with lots of grief at work. I'm in tech support, it's my job. But I'll be damned if I have to put up with inconsiderate rudeness on my own time. So my voice started to raise and the adrenaline was coursing through me, and I was a hair's breath away from a brawl in the middle of a gaming store (ponder the ridiculousness of this for a moment) when one of the players tapped me on the shoulder and said "Kevin said to take this" and then he passed me the wrench. A heavy duty, plumbers wrench, the kind you take apart sinks or toilets with.
And I calmed down. I smiled, tucked it into the waistband of my pants, and sat down. I wrestled my anger back under control, with a few sarcastic barbs thrown their way, and catty comments among our play ground. Admittedly, I could have just kept my mouth shut, but I was on the Edge, and I needed to wind down slowly. Emotions are not binary. And so we threw cards, engaged in our trash talking, and then I left the game to meet up with an old and dear friend at Ceremony. Where the people were pretty, and the music was moving, and people respected one another's space and didn't behave like 11 yr olds trapped in a 44 yr olds body.
First of all, this behavior epitomizes two of the worst stereotypes about Gamers: self centeredness and obnoxiousness. Common courtesy in a public store dictates that tables are used for gaming, not coat racks. While one of them did have a very nice leather coat, we offered to find a place off of the floor where it wouldn't get stepped on, yet he refused because "he was there first." We tried several times to arrive at diplomatic solutions, and were met with third grade rhetoric and intimidation.
Now, I'll put up with lots of grief at work. I'm in tech support, it's my job. But I'll be damned if I have to put up with inconsiderate rudeness on my own time. So my voice started to raise and the adrenaline was coursing through me, and I was a hair's breath away from a brawl in the middle of a gaming store (ponder the ridiculousness of this for a moment) when one of the players tapped me on the shoulder and said "Kevin said to take this" and then he passed me the wrench. A heavy duty, plumbers wrench, the kind you take apart sinks or toilets with.
And I calmed down. I smiled, tucked it into the waistband of my pants, and sat down. I wrestled my anger back under control, with a few sarcastic barbs thrown their way, and catty comments among our play ground. Admittedly, I could have just kept my mouth shut, but I was on the Edge, and I needed to wind down slowly. Emotions are not binary. And so we threw cards, engaged in our trash talking, and then I left the game to meet up with an old and dear friend at Ceremony. Where the people were pretty, and the music was moving, and people respected one another's space and didn't behave like 11 yr olds trapped in a 44 yr olds body.
