Initial Ruminations on my Cyber-Drag
Tuesday, December 18, 2012 at 7:45PM | Jerry Fieldsted 
I'm Player 2!I've been debating what I wanted to lead off with here in terms of my first article. I have so many ideas! It can be difficult to figure out a particular topic sometimes, but I think a good place to begin is to talk about me. ...Wow, that sounded egotistical. XD
Let me rephrase that. I want to talk about how I approach games, and how I identify with a great many of them. If you recall in Episode 10, I mentioned that I often create female avatars to play as. Well, that also carries over into games where I can pick a pre-made character, too. More often than not, I select women to represent me in games where that is an option. I've done this since I was a teenager, beginning (to the best of my recollection) with Goldeneye 007 for the N64. I almost always picked Natalya. Even though her AI was annoying as all hell in the single-player game, I for some reason bonded to her and wanted her to be me in the game. With Perfect Dark, my avatar to this very day is Joanna Dark herself. Some other choices that leap to mind are Edie in Elevator Action Returns, Blaze in Streets of Rage 2 (as terrible as her outfit is), Fio in the Metal Slug series, and Charlotte in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin.
Why do I do this? Well, I think I relate better to females than to males, both in the real world and in gaming. To be honest, I am quite offended by many of the fellow members of my sex. Just yesterday, as a matter of fact, I was at the bank when an older man walked in and actually complained about being assisted by a male clerk, preferring to have the "attractive lady" help him. He looked a little destitute and smelled a bit of alcohol, but I felt shivers pulse through my skin as the words poured out of his mouth. I cannot understand why so many men act like leches and perverts! When in high school when hormones are going insane, yes, I can understand it then. When you're in your 20's or older, though? I'm just baffled and disgusted. Unsurprisingly, the majority of my friends since I was a senior in high school have been women. My best friend in the world is my wife. And perhaps part of my cyber-drag is deep down, I would rather put myself into the role of a woman instead of a man because of this repulsion. That's not to say that I hate (for that is a strong word!) every single male who's ever lived. I have some wonderful male friends who do not fall under this banner. There are just so many guysI've heard or seen or met that overdo their machiso and their masculity. Men who think that they are hot sh*t (I can't think of a better term to use!) and that their awesomeness woos any woman who walks by them. Gah. It's...really unnecessary.
Anyway, to get back on topic, this further expansion of cyber-drag is something I've quite recently put together, and it'll be something I'll continue to explore here at Game on Girl. :)
