Gamers Are Not Couch-Zombies

   Gamers unite! That's my newest battle cry. Gamers can get a lot of flak because we are often represented as lazy, shiftless couch-zombies that do nothing but eat potato chips (cheddar & sour cream is my fave, by the way) and stare at a screen. If you have actually looked at the price of all that gaming equipment, you would know that there is no way for this to be true; even used, games and hardware are expensive. Gamers have got to get their fundage from somewhere, and sure, kids might get that from parents, but a vast portion of us are adults. Fundage usually means the big J-O-B. You, know, work.  As in, not a couch-zombie and the better the job, the more fundage for gaming stuff. The better job tends to mean a good work ethic, as well, so throw lazy and shiftless out the window.
   I've had my current job for going on six years, and while you may be thinking that cashier does not sound like one of those 'better' jobs, some of you job snobs don't make half of my pay, and most of you would kill for my insurance benefits. I got in with a good company, and that matters. I have a degree; this job is mine by choice. If you are a doctor or a nurse, then sure you make more then me, but look at how less stressful my job is compared to yours. You cure people; I scan shit. I also am pursuing my BA (full-time college, bitches) and am a single mom (and I actually volunteer at my daughter's school. Yikes!!!). I need a low stress job. But this has gone off topic. Back to gaming.

^^My precious (<---best Gollum voice ever---)

   I started gaming later, in my teens. I was not raised a gamer from child birth, but my sister got this Playstation as a teeny bopper, because she was dying to have one. I didn't think I would get into the game craze, but she started bringing home these intense JRPGs (Japanese role-playing games) and the story on these things... I have been an avid reader all of my life, and the story to a good RPG is as intricate as the story in any book that I have read. Final Fantasy VII was not the first role-playing game I played, but that was the one that made me a die-hard fan. The twists in that story, the character development, all that drama and suspense reeled me in like a fish on a hook. I was a goner. No hope of a non-gaming life for me. That type of story-telling is also what pulled my mother in. She became a gamer when her kids were teenagers. And when people ask her why she games, she has responded with, "I spend all day fighting something that I can't touch. Sometimes it's just good to be able to bash someone's head in." My mother is an oncology (cancer) nurse, and has been one for over ten years. Before she started working in oncology, she worked in hospice and with AIDS. Still think all gamers are couch-zombies?
   Being a gamer, I am currently raising a gamer child. She did not start with Playstation, or Gamecube, or X-box (Wii didn't come around until after her birth); she started with Leapfrog. First she had a Leappad, then a Leapster, and her gaming experience graduated from there. My daughter is crazy smart; I wish I had her brains. She is in the GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) program and she wants to be a scientist. We go into a bookstore, and while she likes books with good stories, mostly she wants a big-ass science encyclopedia. Her room tends to look like the reference section in the library. She wanted to be an astronomer, then she wanted to study global warming, and now she is thinking Cytology looks good. No couch-zombie there.
   I know an ass-load of people who game. Every last one of us are productive members of society. We all do our jobs, take care of our families, and live our lives. My life will always include being a gamer. No, I do not put gaming above family, above work and school and friends, but, in the words of my cancer-fighting Momma, when shit gets stressful, it's nice to be able to bash someone's head in. Plus, I would be missing some epic story-telling. But the point is: no couch-zombies here.