Blog Banter: I do have a life, thanks.

Welcome, welcome faithful readers to the 4th installment of Blog Banter, the monthly blogging extravaganza headed by the one and only bs_angel! Blog Banter involves our cozy community of enthusiastic gaming bloggers, a common topic, and a week to post articles pertaining to said topic. The results are quite entertaining and can range from deep insight to ROFLMAO. Any questions about Blog Banter should go to here. Check out other Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post! This month's topic: "What, in your opinion, is the biggest stereotype about gamers? Do you fit it or not?":

I don't know about you but something that really bothers me is when people can't appreciate hard work. I'm not saying you should go out of your way to complement people on their hard work (it really puts a smile on their face if you do :D), but at the same time, why go out of your way to insult something you just can't appreciate?

As I mentioned in my previous Blog Banter post, I've been playing rhythm games for about 7 years now. I've been playing DDR since 2001 and just started ITG last year and progress has been going smoothly. I first heard of and experienced DDR from a friend of a cousin in California. We played DDR on the PlayStation for one night. While on vacation, we also road tripped to Vegas where my sister and I got our first taste of arcade play in the Circus Circus midway. Fun times were had. Once we returned home, we bought as many mixes of DDR as we could on the PlayStation with two home pads. I admit, there were days where I'd just play the entire day. I once played so much that I got sick. We had our PlayStation in our basement and it was cold down there during the summer and I'd sweat bullets and yeah... I got sick. But anyway, I can't remember how well I progressed but all I remember is that by the time 7th Mix (MAX 2) came out in my local arcade, I was able to sightread 9foot heavy songs. Right now, the only song I still have trouble with in DDR is Paranoia Survivor Max - Oni Chart. (I'm not counting SuperNOVA and SuperNOVA 2 songs since I don't have access to machines. That and I don't count home play as real scores since the quality of home pad is variable, unless metal, but I don't have a metal pad.) That and all throughout this time period of 7 years, I've had a life. I graduated high school, attended some university and I'm currently enjoying my college career. I still go out with friends, watch movies, check out shows, etc.

Now that the back story is over, I absolutely hate it when people insult me just because I can do 10 foot DDR songs and 11 block ITG songs (the maximum rating for official ITG songs is 13 Block). Relating to the topic of the month (in case I lost you in my back story), the stereotype that I find most gamers have to prove to others they don't fall under is the basement dwelling, pimple-faced, junk food consuming, anti-social gamer geek that only speaks in 1337c0d3. The lines I hear the most from these people insulting me goes something like, "Omg, you have no life. You have way too much time on your hands. This game is a joke. You seriously think this is dancing?" Believe it or not, it was once uncool to be good at video games.

I don't think I have to prove anything to anyone about what kind of life I lead so I just tend to ignore those kinds of ridiculous questions and the people who get in my way while playing. But, to answer your questions...

1) I have a life.

2) I used to have a lot of time on my hands in high school. (Oh the number RPGs I played through as a kid.) Right now, I spend most of my time doing other things such as school, web surfing, random music related stuffs and so forth.

3) ITG and DDR are games. That's all they are to me and that's all they'll ever be. It just so happens I'm passionate about games. You might be passionate about something but who am I to judge what drives you. And finally,

4) GOOD HEAVENS, DDR and ITG on heavy/expert is the furthest thing in the world from dancing. Some of the truly talented steppers make routines based on light/easy stepcharts since they have a lot of free time to work with but in the end, DDR and ITG are just games. You're given a simple task to hit arrow buttons at specific times. That is all.

plz forgive me if this entry is short/disjointed/very quickly done. i totally forgot about it and i totally have a huge assignment due tomorrow. i might edit this as i see fit during the weekend. i just couldn't miss out on blog banter! lol

Participants : The Average Gamer, Silvercublogger, shinybento, Unfettered Blather, Boom Stick Brigade, Gamer Unit, Zath!, Man Bytes Blog, Game Couch, Video Game Sandwich, Hawty McBloggy