John Noble (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jackofallgeeks) wrote2004-11-10 03:38 am
jackofallgeeks) wrote2004-11-10 03:38 am
So, if you're not doing anything, and I'm not doing anything, and you're not doing anything...
Awww, that was almost cute. Key word is almost.
Earlier this evening, I was playing City of Heroes with Leslie, but my connection kept dying. Yay for the school network. When I finally got back on, she was nowhere to be seen, so I went about my business. Then, one of my in-game friends comes on, and we get to chatting, and he starts telling me about this 'friend' of his.
A little background: One of my characters on City of Heroes is Jessica, a female superhero. Specifically, the character I was playing tonight was Jessica. At some point while talking with this in-game friend, against my better judgment, I let more of the Real World than usual bleed through, and he found that I was a 20-something Catholic, about ready to graduate from college.
So, he tells me how he has this friend over on the Eastcoast (3,000 miles away, he noted) who's a really nice guy, if a bit over-weight, and he'd be upset if my in-game friend didn't ask someone like me if they might consider him for a date. 'Someone like me' reasonably being assumed to be a 20-something Catholic girl, since I was playing Jessica, and I like to run in-character.
This puts me in an odd sort of spot, and so I tell him I'm actually in the middle of a budding relationship (not a lie), though I *was* flattered and would keep it in mind (also not a lie, though he was to assume a different sort of 'keep it in mind' than I meant -- I wasn't going to consider it, obviously, just remember it). I *should* have left it at that, but I didn't really feel comfortable leaving it sit like that (I don't like being deceitful), and so I confessed that while Jessica was a girl, the Player behind her wasn't. And so he began to trip all over himself, saying how it didn't matter if I was a guy, or a girl, or whatever, he liked me as a person, and still wanted to play together. He went on to slip further and actually admit (as we all might have guessed) that there was no 'friend', and that he himself was the 30-something guy looking for a girl. I *really* should have left it with Jessica being 'unavailable', because the more the Real World bled into the game, and our in-game relationship, the less I enjoyed it. I go in there to wear a mask and play a character, to forget about Me for a bit and really become the Hero. I don't play a game so much as enter an Other World, and the bleeding just soured it for me.
So, yes, I've now officially been hit on my an over-weight 30-something. I kind of feel greasy from the experience (I mean, really, who would try to Find Someone through a video game?), and at the same time, I hope my revelation didn't ruin his night or anything. I also hope it doesn't sour our in-game relationship, because when he Role-plays, he's the best I've found in there. But, we'll see...
I can't even imagine how an actual lady might feel if she'd been in my position...
Earlier this evening, I was playing City of Heroes with Leslie, but my connection kept dying. Yay for the school network. When I finally got back on, she was nowhere to be seen, so I went about my business. Then, one of my in-game friends comes on, and we get to chatting, and he starts telling me about this 'friend' of his.
A little background: One of my characters on City of Heroes is Jessica, a female superhero. Specifically, the character I was playing tonight was Jessica. At some point while talking with this in-game friend, against my better judgment, I let more of the Real World than usual bleed through, and he found that I was a 20-something Catholic, about ready to graduate from college.
So, he tells me how he has this friend over on the Eastcoast (3,000 miles away, he noted) who's a really nice guy, if a bit over-weight, and he'd be upset if my in-game friend didn't ask someone like me if they might consider him for a date. 'Someone like me' reasonably being assumed to be a 20-something Catholic girl, since I was playing Jessica, and I like to run in-character.
This puts me in an odd sort of spot, and so I tell him I'm actually in the middle of a budding relationship (not a lie), though I *was* flattered and would keep it in mind (also not a lie, though he was to assume a different sort of 'keep it in mind' than I meant -- I wasn't going to consider it, obviously, just remember it). I *should* have left it at that, but I didn't really feel comfortable leaving it sit like that (I don't like being deceitful), and so I confessed that while Jessica was a girl, the Player behind her wasn't. And so he began to trip all over himself, saying how it didn't matter if I was a guy, or a girl, or whatever, he liked me as a person, and still wanted to play together. He went on to slip further and actually admit (as we all might have guessed) that there was no 'friend', and that he himself was the 30-something guy looking for a girl. I *really* should have left it with Jessica being 'unavailable', because the more the Real World bled into the game, and our in-game relationship, the less I enjoyed it. I go in there to wear a mask and play a character, to forget about Me for a bit and really become the Hero. I don't play a game so much as enter an Other World, and the bleeding just soured it for me.
So, yes, I've now officially been hit on my an over-weight 30-something. I kind of feel greasy from the experience (I mean, really, who would try to Find Someone through a video game?), and at the same time, I hope my revelation didn't ruin his night or anything. I also hope it doesn't sour our in-game relationship, because when he Role-plays, he's the best I've found in there. But, we'll see...
I can't even imagine how an actual lady might feel if she'd been in my position...
no subject
However, online RP games pose a special problem. On the MUDs where I used to play a lot, no one played in character, so you could fairly confident that people were more or less who they said they were (of course, people could still lie - and *that's* what I find sketchy about your fella, not that he was cruising CoH in itself - but there wasn't the alter-ego factor to deal with). In a game like CoH where it sounds as if a significant portion of folks are playing IC, though, "so, are you really a woman?" seems like a wise and fair first question...
My fave story though, is from a friend of mine who used to play a lot of Diablo (I) online. He *kept* getting hit on and having to explain himself - and would have just chosen a different avatar, except that the *only* avatar for his class (rogue) was female... (which should have made people a lot more cautious about the inference, it seems, than they were).
no subject
As for the Role-playing on CoH... I'm really not sure. *I* try to play in character, but there have been plenty of number-crunchers I've ran across, s well as the sort of player who seems to have had most of their fore-brain removed. Sorry, I'm bitter; I just got out of a team with the fakiest player I've ever known -- he would just wander off while we were in the middle of a battle.
That's a great story -- I remember Diablo, and where as CoH's big selling point is creating your own Super Avatar, Diablo had set sprites... Ah, what foolish assumptions some make...