Practicum: Tyla #1

I will finally be able to understand this profound obsession with video games held not only by my two younger brothers and my I-think-he’s-too-old-for-videogames boyfriend, but by so many other people around the world. Sure, I played Nintendo when I was younger- I was a champ at Crash Bandicoot, but all of the hype that just recently went on with the release date of Halo and the new FIFA was crazy! I was so out of the loop…until now! I was really looking forward to spending 15 hours exploring, understanding, and perfecting my Xbox and PS3 skills, ha, perfecting? I had played Halo a few times with my brothers on Xbox Live, and I had watched my boyfriend and his roommates’ play all night, so I didn’t think it was really that difficult. Surprisingly, it was harder than I thought. My first game played was FIFA 11, there was much debate as to which game I should play because the boys didn’t want me to ruin their withstanding record. Seriously? It’s just a game, or so I thought. Before connecting to the “live” people, I had a “practice” game with my friend. I scored a goal!...on myself :/ yep. Not ideal, however I did improve…after a few practice games I was able to remember what button did what, I just had to work on my reaction time. I did learn that it isn’t called a “paddle,” it’s a controller and everybody gets frustrated with you if you use the wrong lingo. I felt I was ready to try out the headset and play someone live. The second I put those little headphones on that connected me to the other players I was shocked. This boy began ripping me apart, I said “hi” and the instant he discovered that I was a female, sexual things came flooding out of his not-yet-hit-puberty mouth. Oh my goodness. It was terrible. The kid did not have a lot of variety in his vocabulary that was obvious. He would address me as “sexy bitch” and there were times I became so worked up with what he was saying I stopped playing the game! Needless to say, I took a break from him. He actually left the game, which I think was a good thing for my friends record because he quit. He did do a little bruising to my ego though.