Gamers In Meatspace
Mar. 17th, 2007 08:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thessalianToday, armed with Clue, my copy of Anansi Boys and my big stompy Mary Janes, I went off to the Salisbury over by Leicester Square to meet a bunch of people from the JusNoctis crowd. As generally happens in these things, I was early. However, I did manage to secure us a table and sat at it, with my plush lobster-shaped bludgeon prominently placed on the table. I had mentioned Clue in the forums posts detailing how we would recognise each other and even if people hadn't noticed that, I figured that they'd work out that anyone mad enough to put a plush lobster on display in a pub would have to be one of the nutters they were there to meet.
Sure enough, a bunch of people surrounded the table some ten minutes after I sat down. Never mind gaydar - it's gamerdar for most of us. You could just tell these people were gamers. Never mind the fact that all but one of them wore glasses and every last one was dressed in some counterculture couture (casual goth, emo-boy, white 'n nerdy and the male equivalent of my own "I seriously just don't give a shit") - that really wasn't what gave it away. Some Goth chick had walked past me in the bar and I just didn't peg her as a gamer. There's something in the stance, the way they carry themselves. Something about gamers screams, "I am impervious to embarrassment". Well, I suppose you'd have to be, given some of the things you wind up playing.
Eventually, we all turned up. I'd played with some of them but mostly, not so much. Drinnik (another bloody Andy) was very much keen for me to roll up a vampire for JusNoctis and he and Daz gave me hints on how to play Vamp when you have the political intuitions of a garden snail. Daz ... oh, I do like Daz. He was the ST who approved my character, and apparently makes it a habit to ask other players what's been going on in game so he can keep track - fair enough, he's the ST. So I explained about feeding Jack the Anachronistic a tab of Ecstasy and having been informed who set Jack on fire and why and all that sort of thing. The look on his face was priceless and when I told him about how Jack the Anachronistic reacted to internet porn while high on E, he laughed until he nearly fell off his barstool. He seems to be keen on my plans for finding out what Jack's brother is up to computer-wise, ridding one of the local VAs of his gremlin infestation and calling up a zeitgeist of the 21st century to explain modern times to Jack the Anachronistic, in that he said "I don't judge these things by how good they are; I judge them by how entertaining I find them". So apparently, my ideas are 'entertaining'. I like this group.
Yshala and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
msgeek were separated at birth, I have decided. They've both got that 'fireball with feet' sort of deal; small women who should seem completely unassuming but automatically take the matriarchal role in every group activity in which they participate because they just radiate this aura that's a cross between utter competence and "do as I say or it will go hard with you". Sherbs was sweet - I really did like her, and not only because she was the only other smoker in the group so I didn't feel so bad for lighting up. Gav hasn't even been on the boards for quite some time, though everyone was trying to nudge him back to JusNoctis, and Tiffan was ... very, very quiet. If she spoke above a low murmur the entire time we were out, I must have blinked my ears and missed it. We did discuss going out and finding Ike (player of Jack the Anachronistic), who was apparently working at Waterstone's that day, but decided against it in the end.
Anyway, we told gaming stories and talked books, films and characters over drinks and bowls of chips. Then, after a wander trying to find a Kinko's or something for Gav (and tripping over the new location of the Intrepid Fox, which is not only ugly as sin but is also apparently situated directly below where a previous game of the group's had a Technocrat base), we wound up in Camden, browsing the shops and market stalls and watching some aged moron in swim trunks jump into the canal repeatedly and wind up cutting himself rather badly. Oh, and a man with more tattoos and face-metal than Skank - a lot more.
I had a great time, all told. And now, I'm going to grab a shower and see what Vana'diel holds for me. After that ... who knows?dodgyhoodoo is visiting his mother for the weekend so I have the house to myself. Which is kind of nice, in that "OMG it's too quiet" kind of way.
Sure enough, a bunch of people surrounded the table some ten minutes after I sat down. Never mind gaydar - it's gamerdar for most of us. You could just tell these people were gamers. Never mind the fact that all but one of them wore glasses and every last one was dressed in some counterculture couture (casual goth, emo-boy, white 'n nerdy and the male equivalent of my own "I seriously just don't give a shit") - that really wasn't what gave it away. Some Goth chick had walked past me in the bar and I just didn't peg her as a gamer. There's something in the stance, the way they carry themselves. Something about gamers screams, "I am impervious to embarrassment". Well, I suppose you'd have to be, given some of the things you wind up playing.
Eventually, we all turned up. I'd played with some of them but mostly, not so much. Drinnik (another bloody Andy) was very much keen for me to roll up a vampire for JusNoctis and he and Daz gave me hints on how to play Vamp when you have the political intuitions of a garden snail. Daz ... oh, I do like Daz. He was the ST who approved my character, and apparently makes it a habit to ask other players what's been going on in game so he can keep track - fair enough, he's the ST. So I explained about feeding Jack the Anachronistic a tab of Ecstasy and having been informed who set Jack on fire and why and all that sort of thing. The look on his face was priceless and when I told him about how Jack the Anachronistic reacted to internet porn while high on E, he laughed until he nearly fell off his barstool. He seems to be keen on my plans for finding out what Jack's brother is up to computer-wise, ridding one of the local VAs of his gremlin infestation and calling up a zeitgeist of the 21st century to explain modern times to Jack the Anachronistic, in that he said "I don't judge these things by how good they are; I judge them by how entertaining I find them". So apparently, my ideas are 'entertaining'. I like this group.
Yshala and
msgeek were separated at birth, I have decided. They've both got that 'fireball with feet' sort of deal; small women who should seem completely unassuming but automatically take the matriarchal role in every group activity in which they participate because they just radiate this aura that's a cross between utter competence and "do as I say or it will go hard with you". Sherbs was sweet - I really did like her, and not only because she was the only other smoker in the group so I didn't feel so bad for lighting up. Gav hasn't even been on the boards for quite some time, though everyone was trying to nudge him back to JusNoctis, and Tiffan was ... very, very quiet. If she spoke above a low murmur the entire time we were out, I must have blinked my ears and missed it. We did discuss going out and finding Ike (player of Jack the Anachronistic), who was apparently working at Waterstone's that day, but decided against it in the end.Anyway, we told gaming stories and talked books, films and characters over drinks and bowls of chips. Then, after a wander trying to find a Kinko's or something for Gav (and tripping over the new location of the Intrepid Fox, which is not only ugly as sin but is also apparently situated directly below where a previous game of the group's had a Technocrat base), we wound up in Camden, browsing the shops and market stalls and watching some aged moron in swim trunks jump into the canal repeatedly and wind up cutting himself rather badly. Oh, and a man with more tattoos and face-metal than Skank - a lot more.
I had a great time, all told. And now, I'm going to grab a shower and see what Vana'diel holds for me. After that ... who knows?
dodgyhoodoo is visiting his mother for the weekend so I have the house to myself. Which is kind of nice, in that "OMG it's too quiet" kind of way.![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Heh.
Date: 2007-03-18 03:30 am (UTC)Yshala and msgeek were separated at birth, I have decided. They've both got that 'fireball with feet' sort of deal; small women who should seem completely unassuming but automatically take the matriarchal role in every group activity in which they participate because they just radiate this aura that's a cross between utter competence and "do as I say or it will go hard with you".
I take it that's a compliment...right? ^_^
Re: Heh.
Date: 2007-03-18 01:07 pm (UTC)