Browsing Category: Gaming

On raising a girl strong enough to be called a dumb woman

It was a bit of a difficult weekend for me. I had fun and it wasn’t something on my mind the whole time, but there was some drama at work. The joy of my work being on the internet is that the whole world can see it. Over on lazygamer.net, I wrote a review of NBA 2K16. It’s a really great game when you get to experience the cool basketball action, but it’s also primarily locked behind online servers, so if the severs are down, the gameplay experience is seriously less than optimal. I wrote about the good and the bad in my review, the way I have for countless games, but the response I got was filled with quite a lot of vitriol. I’m used to this, and have come to expect it, but it affected me in a new way this time.

I often joke with the guys at work about being the only woman, about how my opinions are automatically seen as less valid because I have a vagina. The reality is that when people agree with me, they generally don’t even notice my gender. When they disagree, the easiest thing to do is blame the fact that I’m just an idiot woman who shouldn’t be writing game reviews. We laugh at the comments like that, and often joke about feeding off the hate. But now I’m bringing a little girl into the world, and even if she is the smartest person alive, she will be criticized for what she thinks because she’s a woman. Continue Reading

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Tearaway brings the joy of gaming to real life

Video games are a whole lot of fun in the moment. They can capture the imagination and make us see the world in new ways. They can also teach us new skills and can be an integral part of a kid’s development. That’s why I’m hoping to get my munchkin into gaming. But not all games are created equal. Continue Reading

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Why I hope my daughter is a gamer

I have been a gamer for basically my whole life. I started as the navigator, watching my brother play and giving him advice about how to beat a level or where to go next. As we got older, we’d occasionally play couch co-op games, but he moved on to other interests while I stayed invested in gaming. It has helped to shape my life and who I am; beyond the fact that I now get to write about video games for work, it helped to forge the very core of who I am as a person, and I hope that it’s something I can pass on to my kid.

Sure, it’s just a hobby, and a pretty common one at this point. However, the more I think about my unique skill set and where I acquired many of those skills, the more I think that gaming should be part of every kid’s upbringing. And yes, I know that people like to talk about playing outside and stuff too, but I do think that playing inside is also a valid pursuit and should be encouraged in kids. Continue Reading

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Forever foreign

I love South Africa. I love my South African husband, I love my home (although I definitely want to get a bigger house ASAP), I love my cats and I love my day to day life here. It was a choice we made to settle in Joburg, and despite the ridiculous Rand/Dollar exchange rate, I’m still feeling like it was a good decision to make.

Of course, it isn’t always easy. I’m not just talking about cultural differences or contexts that I’m still discovering after seven years here. Those are mostly entertaining or interesting for me, and a whole load of fun. No, I’m talking about how this country continues to make me feel like a stranger in a strange land.

Dean and I got married in Community of Property. I know, I know, that was probably some fatal mistake and all of you will now think I’m an idiot. But, from when we started dating, we always just took care of each other. If he had money, he’d stock my fridge and when I had cash I’d restock his. We’d take turns buying each other drinks or dinners and it was generally just a balanced exchange without really needing to talk about it. When I decided to move to South Africa to be with him, he wanted for everything to be shared, giving me full powers on his bank account and we always treated our money as just that – OUR money. Continue Reading

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