I think I suffer from arrested development. I was just thirteen when the Easybeats were top of the charts with ‘Friday on my mind’. I was sooooo in love with this cute, cheeky faced lad…
[My thanks to Bluebird for posting this blast from the past on her blog today]
Fast forward 47 years and what am I doing? I’m playing games and creating male characters that look suspiciously like….
People often ask me why I play so many male characters in games, and my stock answer used to be that I don’t get hit on playing males. Now I’m not so sure. I think I’m actually a little bit in love with my ‘boys’. And let’s face it, if you’re going to spend hours running around in 3rd person view, looking at your character’s butt…wouldn’t you prefer a bit of eye-candy too?
Different people play games for different reasons – wish-fulfillment, escape, compensating for reality, fun, relaxation – you name it, the list goes on and on. I play mostly for fun and relaxation, with a smidgeon of escape thrown in.
Why do you play? And what does your character mean to you?
This isn’t psychoanalysis, it’s just fun, so leave me some words of wisdom in comments. 🙂
cheers
Meeks
Authors' favourite books
NANO 2012
October 13th, 2013 at 3:03 am
Sorry,I can’t talk about gaming but I can admire your taste in music. The Easybeats are a regular of mine on Youtube along with others from that era when I’m working.
xxx Hugs Galore xxx
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October 13th, 2013 at 9:58 am
OMG…?!? You /know/ the Easybeats? I know they were hyped as an international success story but… You’ve made my day. -hugs-
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October 12th, 2013 at 4:04 pm
I read for the same reasons you play, and there is never enough time for any of it… but we manage… dust… pah… who cares.
ACDC and Bon Scott were my Easybeats – a lot less pretty. But I do like the Easybeats and Stevie Wright also, iconic Australian music, two members of which were directly responsible for ACDC.
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October 12th, 2013 at 5:55 pm
Two of the Easybeats were in ACDC?? I didn’t know that. And Bon Scott had the same cheeky charm btw. :p
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October 12th, 2013 at 6:02 pm
Not quite. Vanda & Young were instrumental in forming and producing ACDC. Quite controversially depending on the stories you read. Angus and Malcolm Young are George’s younger brothers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanda_%26_Young
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October 12th, 2013 at 11:11 pm
Damn you! I’ve just spent an hour following the trail of links to an interview with all the guys. They’ve… aged. lol I was really interested in the rock royalty that Vanda and Young became. I grew up with the music but knew none of the background. Thanks Ella. 🙂
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October 13th, 2013 at 7:40 am
It is an interesting area. As you were doing that we were watching something similar on TV re the Australian 80’s music era.
I only knew about the Vanda & Young from the few books about ACDC and Bon Scott I’ve amassed where they feature, mostly controversially, but their story is interesting, and a success regardless.
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October 13th, 2013 at 10:02 am
As I was reading I started to get this sense of familiarity about the name. I /had/ heard of Vanda and Young back in the mists of time but for some reason I always thought of them as Vander & Young [that aussie accent]. How silly that one letter difference could block my memory.
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October 13th, 2013 at 1:34 pm
My spellchecker keeps changing it to Vandal & Young… hmmm 😉
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October 13th, 2013 at 10:21 pm
lmao – so I’m not the only one who has trouble with his name!
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October 12th, 2013 at 12:33 pm
I’m not a gamer. If I was I think I would like to be female, just to prove that anything they can do we can do equally well! As for the Easybeats — I loved them and Friday on My Mind still gets me going.
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October 12th, 2013 at 2:28 pm
Yay! Another one of my mob. 🙂 Good clean rock and roll.. more or less. 😀 And I do empathize with that feminist ambition. There are still far too few women/girls in the gaming world. Are you sure I can’t tempt you to play? lol
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October 12th, 2013 at 2:41 pm
You are a temptress….My problem is that I think I would love it! I am happy to let the housework mount up while I get lost in the computer, but I think an addiction to gaming would mean my unfinished paintings would also mount up. 🙂
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October 12th, 2013 at 2:49 pm
-blush- Yes, the addiction is definitely a factor. Nowadays I usually restrict my playing to a couple of hours after dinner instead of watching TV. Gave up on the housework years ago! You paint? Do you have any pics up on your blog?
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October 12th, 2013 at 11:39 am
I’ve got Friday on my mind, too! Thanks for the “blast from the past.”
I’m only a few years younger than you and I grew up on the other side of the world AND I’m not a gamer, but I understand the inclination to identify with male characters. When we were growing up MOST of the cool characters were guys!
And who doesn’t want to be cool?
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October 12th, 2013 at 2:31 pm
Yes, you definitely have a point there Candy. I think Tomb Raider was the first game that feature a female being cool, instead of needing to be rescued!
God I wish I could nudge you girls over to the dark side. 😀
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October 12th, 2013 at 11:11 am
Your boy’s got some fancy footwork. I never heard of The Easybeats. Curiously similar, yes, you are definitely working from memory on this character. Hope your weekend is full of fun. 😉
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October 12th, 2013 at 2:33 pm
Oops, sorry. I completely forgot the Easybeats were an aussie rock band. Of course you wouldn’t have heard of them. And yes, that early conditioning obvious stuck deep in my subconscious somewhere. The funny thing is I wasn’t aware of it until today. 🙂
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October 12th, 2013 at 10:28 am
I used to play EverQuest, then EverQuest 2, mainly. Also a bit of World of Warcraft, Vanguard (I was a beta tester on that one), and DAoC. It’s been years, though. I don’t have time to play now, what with deadlines and all.
I remember being *very* attached to my characters, to the point of getting a stomach ache if they died. Which they did. Frequently. 🙂 I made my toons as pretty as I could. I preferred to play females – since I played with my husband, mostly, I didn’t get hit on much.
What games do you play, Meeks?
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October 12th, 2013 at 2:42 pm
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay, once a gamer always a gamer. 😀 I tried Everquest II but that was only fairly recently and the graphics were kind of dated [I’m a graphics whore from way back].
Hmm… I /haven’t/ played first person shooters but a lot of rpg’s over the last 10 years or so. FFXI, WoW, Ryzom, Horizon, Perfect World International, Tabula Rasa [ick], Warhammer,Rift, Aion, Guild Wars 2, Star Wars The Old Republic, FFXIV and now FFXIV A Realm Reborn. I’ve missed a few in there but I have played a lot.
I was great friends with two aussie husband and wife teams on WoW and I always envied the fact that they could duo.
If you ever get some down time you should try Guild Wars 2 and FFXIV A Realm Reborn. Both excellent mmo’s.
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October 12th, 2013 at 10:25 am
A guy I used to play Everquest with played female characters because he preferred to look at their butts as well. I’ve never gotten into the gender swap in gaming for long periods. But now when I play fable 2 there is a point where you can gender swap your character. Every game I play to the end I end up switching and it bugs my daughters.
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October 12th, 2013 at 2:47 pm
lmao! My daughter is a gamer too and she’s cool with it as she gender swaps as well.
I was playing last night and discovered that a friend in my guild is actually a guy playing a female character. We laughed, but there’s a lot of that happening in FFXIV. To the point where you have to assume that most female toons are being played by guys.
I don’t understand why more girls don’t play. Ah well, maybe by the time I’m 90 it’ll be an even split. 🙂
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October 12th, 2013 at 5:57 pm
There’s an old jokey explanation for the acronym MMORPG. It is said to mean Many Men Online Role Playing Girls. 😀
The only MMO I play with any sort of regularity is Eve, and I have two characters there. One male and one female. I have to admit that the male character is cuter. *cough*
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October 12th, 2013 at 5:59 pm
lmao! I hadn’t heard that one but I love it. 😀
The nice thing about playing Japanese mmo’s is that the guys are ALWAYS cuter. 😉
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