Ah, hobbies – one of the greatest cesspools of toxicity and a discrimination mingled with good-hearted fun. Some people prefer more conventional hobbies like music or sports. Others go for the more peculiar ones like glass-blowing or harassing people anonymously on the Internet. Being the incredibly predictable person that I am, I belong to the former group—specifically, the books and games faction.
As you noticed, I used and – not books, period or games, period. Yes, I do belong to both. I read novels and play video games. Preposterous!, you gasp, clutching your chest like an old lady does her pearls. It’s really not that hard, I snap back as you feel a story that you did not ask for about to unravel.
“There is no point in creating this divide between readers and gamers because everyone is enjoying the same thing anyway: a story.”
Anyway, the point is that there is no point. There is no point in creating this divide between readers and gamers because everyone is enjoying the same thing anyway: a story. There is no point in belittling gamers, thinking they are of inferior intellect. Gaming simply requires a different set of skills as does critical reading. But at the end of the day, it’s all about enjoying what we do. Granted, there are people in the gaming community who would rather choke than play a lesbian character.4 But, there are also people in the reading community who would rather froth in the mouth than read fanfiction. They’re entities that, sadly, exist in every fandom and there is nothing we can do about it.
1 Chloe Frazer, my beautiful and sassy treasure hunter, is the protagonist of “Uncharted: The Lost Legacy” along with her girlfriend Nadine Ross.
2 This is from “Life is Strange” aka the Bae over Bae Simulator.
3 It’s The Sims. Please calm down.
4 The Last of Us II or the story of how Naughty Dog weeded out the homophobes
Ia Cabarle
Has too many books. Has too many shows. Has too many games. Has virtually no time.
