lolcat

I once was taught that anything can be addicting if it gives you some amount of pleasure.  Gaming is no exception.  Whether it’s MMORPGs, RPGs, console games, or LARPing, each of them exposes players to a new world than the one they’ve been living.  Suddenly, one more level doesn’t fulfill us, we count down the days to a new expansion, and it isn’t “just a game” anymore.  Even our language goes through a weird metamorphosis.

I wasn’t always a gamer.  Sure, I played some games here and there, but I wouldn’t have called myself a gamer until I met my husband.  I’ll never forget the first time I heard him talking with his friends in gamer language. “Your rogue is a twink so you were able to pwn some noobs?” I questioned with a raised eyebrow. “It’s gamer talk,” he replied.  “Oh…” I felt completely out of the loop.  As I listened to their conversation carry, I felt as if I had to learn this new language but was a little turned off at the lack of proper grammar this new vocabulary would include.  Yet, here I am today gladly telling you I’ve become one of your fellow gamers.  Only, I’m finding it hard to transition back to “real” life.

You see, I, like most of you, forget that most of the world doesn’t speak geeky gamer language.  Calling some idiot driver a level 1 noob won’t really offend them; rather, probably just confuse them.  I find myself not just using “LoL or lawl” but shouting, “Ding!” when I see my son learn a new “skill”, asking if something happened in game or “irl”, or almost saying “woot” instead of “amen” in church.  Just a few weeks ago, I was transcribing for a new doctor who obviously was struggling.  My first thought was, ‘What a noob.’  I’m pretty bad with this, but I probably wouldn’t even fit the definition of gamer to real gamers.

I acknowledge that I’m not the only one who brings the game with them to real life.  I now laugh when I hear people say, “It’s just a game.”  It does become a culture, but I do have to remind myself that I can’t always replace letters with numbers to spell words or tack on a trail of Z’s at the end of words.  However, it’s nice to know there is a community of geeks, just like me, who find gaming addicting and have formed our new little language that I’m still constantly learning.