This time, a gamer has saved a life, not taken it.

This past Sunday twenty-four year old Adam Mapleson rushed to the aid of a female security guard outside a railway station in Essex England, who was being robbed at gunpoint by two mask-wearing thugs, taking a bullet to the chest in the process. Now in stable condition at a local hospital, police are calling the young man a hero.

From the interests listed on his MySpace page (black metal, CS, GTA etc) he certainly does not fit the mainstream MO of a hero. However, there may be many gamers doing saintly things on a daily basis that we don’t know about! Do you have any stories of your own personal gamer “heros”?

If you want to learn more about gaming as a career, maybe this Guide to Online Schools resource may be of service.

“We actively discourage gamers from being the kind of mysogynistic jackwagons seen in the Reddit post, and such behavior should not be tolerated. Frankly, we don’t like that kind of player either. So far as this event goes, it is an special event designed specifically for male gamers. Further, it is meant as a getaway designed to help said male contingent become better men both for themselves and for those who love us.”

At first, I didn’t think so much about it because it isn’t uncommon for a LAN to be male-only even without the explicit exclusion of females. I didn’t care that females were excluded for whatever reason. But when I read the comments they clearly highlight an issue which is far larger than a single sex LAN. One user commented with a video of ‘TheAmazingAthiest’ ranting about comments made by some women on TV who were laughing about a woman castrating her husband because he wanted a divorce:

It’s sad that Sharon Osborne was one of the ring leaders in making light of the situation as she has been viewed as an icon and role model for strong females. It is distasteful to laugh at the mutilation of any human being. This guy basically just points out the obvious that her remarks were disgusting, but it does remind us that sexism is still rife and comments like Sharon’s is like fighting fire with fire. Despite being from the same species, can males and females ever be truly equal? This hypersensitive topic is something which I’m confronted with more often than I’d like, mainly due to being part of a minority in normally boisterous FPS games.

Click here to see the original clip of the women talking about the castration.

Before I start, I would like to make it clear that it is impossible for me to withhold bias from this subject since I have experienced not only discrimination but also special treatment because of gender. Females have been seen as second-class citizens throughout human history, so feminist movements have gained momentum throughout the decades. Therefore it is understandable that many females feel very strongly about equal rights when encountering discrimination. I find myself in a constant conflict between my own ambitions and my view of the role of women in society. Sometimes I wonder “what’s the point” since it’s a constant uphill battle to gain impartial recognition for any achievement. [Most likely though, it's the drivel from internet trolls that has vastly contributed to my jaded view].

But it isn’t inaccurate to say that men and women are unequal even in the most liberal societies. It is difficult to often hear “you don’t need to be good at anything except sucking dick”, “it’s bullshit you’ve got what you have had in life, it’s just because you’re a girl” and so on. Many say just not to listen, but that is far easier said than done. After all, repetition is one of the most effective ways to learn. So instead of burrowing into the myriad of studies on the debate of gender inequality, it is better for me to speak about my personal experiences with misogynists since it’s impossible for me to check my bias at the door. Perhaps insight into such experiences can help contribute to understanding the plight that women face in male-dominated areas, such as gaming.

“Tits + Vag FTW”

I’ve been extremely lucky. With the gaming house, sponsorships and a spot on a CGS franchise; I’ve had a cushy career from gaming. While I may not agree with the segregation of gaming tournaments by gender, if the opportunity is presented of course I will take it. That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hurt when I hear people who I consider my friends tell me that all the sponsorships I have received have been just because of gender, nothing else. Not only is that inaccurate, but one would expect their friends to be happy for their success. Recently a friend of mine said “You only got all that shit because you’re a fucking girl, you know” and seemed genuinely surprised when I tried to tell him how much work I actually had to do to get such things. He spent the next few minutes getting aggressive due to not being born a girl. Why so bitter? The time and effort that I’ve devoted to my passion seems to be irrelevant.

Almost every time I accomplish something I’m proud of, people immediately write it off that the only reason I was able to achieve anything is because of my gender. Mentioning looks is also often correlated with sexist comments. With the recent announcement of the 2011 Alienware Challenge, people remembered last years and these are some things that were said:

“The eventual winner was terrible [...]”

“[...] community voting should not have been as influential in the outcome because obviously a bunch of nerds are going to pick a marginally cute girl over you [...]”

“She won because she has tits who cares [...]“

…And so on. Never mind that I actually came 3rd in the community voting and it was because I won the majority of the Alienware vote that I won overall. Never mind that I travelled the furthest, spanning two continents. Never mind that I spent painstaking hours editing all the videos for the challenges, trying to portray the trip and atmosphere as much as possible. Never mind that I barely have tits! Forget all of that – it is automatically negated by my gender. Something which I should feel proud of suddenly became bittersweet. I started to question myself: if people really thought I was so terrible, then maybe I am.

I could sit and write all night about all the crap I get, but I think you pretty much get the picture.

You don’t need to tell me to just ignore those folk, if I couldn’t do that I would have bowed out of the gaming scene long ago. I think the bigger issue is that this is being said in the first place. I don’t believe that forums should be censored, but the amount of people that freely and continually say things like this (and worse) shows that gender prejudices are still very much alive. Perhaps such comments only reinforce misogynistic attitudes. As online and offline worlds are no longer dichotomous, one has to wonder if these people behave the same way offline.

Many guys I’ve spoken to believe that sexism is non-existent in most liberal societies. “Come on, it’s not like we’re in the Arab world” is a pretty common response when the topic is approached. Most also just pass it off as a joke. Sometimes it is, sometimes there’s a sharp grain of truth behind it. Either way, this is the kind of community one needs to prepare herself for. Not all girls look like actresses and supermodels, and most guys on gaming forums do not want to accept this. I guess to the majority, girls are only present on the internet as decorations at the self-service station.

People who want to develop non-misogynistic games could look into getting an online bachelor degree in video game design.

Introducing the contestants

You can follow their weekly challenges and adventures on the Alienware Challenge website. This week they’ve got to make a tourism video about London! That’s pretty cool since there are soooooo many places that one could use in the video. At the end of the week, you’ll be able to vote for your favourite submission.

For those who may be interested in backpacking around Europe or are following this years Alienware challenge, here are some travel tips from last year:

1. Be wise with your money
This point had to be made on video.

2. Be with your friends
As the only female in this contest, I did not travel alone anywhere. These days it’s not safe and I really didn’t feel like being taken advantage of. So I have not really spent a single moment alone in the past 7 weeks as I have been surrounded by my friends.

The only time I was with someone kind of random, I got touched when I fell asleep in the car That was weird.

Not only is it a lot more fun to have someone to share your experiences (and expenses) with, but i’m very humbled by how nice they all were about the weekly challenges. Every single week I have had help from my friends to complete the challenges; wheather they were filming, calling up MMA gyms, helping me with ideas and just generally being supportive.

I felt sorry for the other guys, especially during the sports challenge week as 2 of them didn’t have anyone to film them really doing the sport! So while they had to get creative to show the challenge in other ways, i’m sure their submissions would have been much cooler had they had someone to film them

The best times from my trip (and there were so many, I can’t pick one) were all shared with someone and these people were the ones to help make my trip that much more amazing, special and incredible.

3. Double check EVERYTHING
Normally i’m pretty thorough with checking all the bookings but I think this lesson has been learned by both Ben and I. Earlier in the challenge (maybe around week 2) remember Ben was homeless? I’m sure it could have been avoided by double checking the train station his train was leaving from.

For me I learned this when leaving the Netherlands for Istanbul. Remember the first blog from there? Well it all started when I said to Ed at the airport “Please don’t be mad but… we’re going to another airport than I originally thought”. In my defense I only selected the main airport when booking the tickets but somehow we ended up booked to another airport anyway.

I had no idea where this airport was so when we landed I had to ask exactly where on the map we were. Turns out we were over an hour away from the city. Fantastic. This is where we got scammed into paying for a non-existant shuttle, followed by a “private cab ride”.

4. Research places before you go there
There are so many amazing places in Europe to see and depending on what you like; beaches, archaeological sites, museums, monuments, clubbing etc

Do a little bit of research beforehand to make a rough “plan of attack” about what you want to see and do. Don’t do what I did and think “Hmm this place looks cool from google image search, and it’s sunny… let’s go here!”.

This method CAN work out for you as it’s pretty adventurous to stumble upon places that you’d never expect to, but it’s also really nice to know the history behind everything.

A good website to use is wikitravel.

5. Bring an M11x!
Everyone who i’ve been around has loved this laptop, if only for the disco setting i’ve put the keyboard on. In all seriousness, it’s been my home away from home for the past 7 weeks. Right now I’m in Turkey and I’m enjoying QuakeCon as if I was at home!

You can view a quick preview of the upcomig games below:

To see who else ESL has recruited for commentating for the event:

For those of you who have been complaining about poor quality streams, ESL.tv will be broadcasting in HD, so make sure to get premium! Why didn’t they offer this when Joe went shirtless?! (haha )
If you can’t order premium, ESFI world are giving away 10 premium subscriptions! Click here for the details.

Hope to see you in Hannover! yey!!!

You know how parodies usually are kinda funny.. like, the smile gently tugs at the corner of your mouth but you don’t really laugh or anything? This one is actually good and had me smiling the whole way though.

This is a parody of Justin Bieber’s “Baby”… except better. I love it.

You can find info about video game design classes from this list of online colleges.

One day, he let his mother watch the 100th episode and from that, she decided to write an article about it.

As I listened to Sean, and as I watched my son game, it was always clear to me that the label of gamer was highly deficient. These kids are students of life. They are practicing life in a highly evolved and fast-paced world. Real life moves too slow mostly because of the ridiculous beliefs that the adults in their life call rules and reality. Sean described the skill set of a pro gamer as having the “mind of a chess master and the dexterity of a musician.” Now where can they learn that in school—maybe practicing their cursive writing, a completely obsolete skill, or learning the beginning and ending dates of some ridiculous war that people had no business fighting anyway. Most modern education is about memorizing and passing tests. It is about creating conformists that blindly obey authority figures. Sean jokes that it is a world of “all A’s for everyone.” But the gaming world is real and fair. You don’t win because your mother has connections. You don’t lose because a judge made some biased decision. You don’t get respect because you are older or have an advanced degree. You get respect because you won. And, you won because you deserved to win.

The whole article is totally awesome. Click here to read it now!

From the Daily Mail:

The survey of 1,500 gamers and their partners was undertaken by One-Poll.com. A spokesman said: ‘It seems like a games console often means there are three people in a relationship.

‘It’s a bit sad if the virtual world is taking precedence over the real world.’

The list for the top 20 “relationship-ending” games is as follows:
1. Call of Duty
2. Football Manager
3. Grand Theft Auto
4. FIFA
5. Medal of Honour
6. Halo
7. Super Mario Brothers
8. Gran Turismo
9. Mario Kart
10. Guitar Hero
11. Assassins Creed
12. Pro Evo Soccer
13. Resident Evil
14. World of Warcraft
15. F1
16. Red Dead Redemption
17. Need for Speed
18. Fallout
19. Gears of War
20. Angry Birds

First off, I am SO surprised to see Mario Kart so high on the list, and WoW so low. I can’t even understand how Mario can even be there on the first place.

And WTF is “Angry Birds”?

What do you think about this list? Leave a comment or tweet your thoughts @HelloLiefje

Source: The Daily Mail

I guess like the Backpacking Challenge, voting gets you in some kind of raffle to win some Alienware goodies…. and boy those laptops are sweeeeeeet! (I’m posting this from my M11x right now, hehe!)

Anyway, this is her diorama which was made in 2 days:

Unlike some other contestants, this was made for the contest and not prior to it. Sadly, i’ve seen some of the stuff before this on other forums so those of you who used old material – shame on you!!!!

Anyway, vote here. Soe’s is 2nd to last

Team Sweden at the ENC Finals in Cologne, 2010

Excerpt:

You have already played tournament favourite 4K in the EC and lost by only a few frags on both Maps. Did you expect the match to be so close? And did this result give you confidence or frustration?
purri: I was very frustrated afterwards. It felt like such a waste from our side. I claim that our inexperience (How can you call a team inexperienced when we have more than 40 years of TDM in our lineup!!) did cost us the game. What I mean is that this particular game felt like ours to win, and to take. In particular the 2nd map where it felt that we were controlling the tempo and items/quad from start until last 2 quads. I think we were worthy to play a 3rd map. However we did not, and 4K won fair and square! I have to say they are a good team, and their caliber will never be easy to beat no matter what lineup you have! There is some good news though. I don’t know from 4K’s side, but I know for sure we could have had a better lineup and we have practised a lot since then. So they will have to play better next game to win, since we will and I’m looking forward to it myself already! Bring it plz!

Damiah: To be honest before the game I didnt expect much, but after the game I thought that we should have won it. Even that we were underdogs before the match it was really annoying to lose it like that ?
I think we have really good potential if we are just able to use it.

To enjoy the rest of the interview, click here.

I’d like to point out that the APA has rejected to add “video game addiction” to the new DSM in 2012 (unless further research permits it). It looks like this guy is just escaping his situation through WoW… that or he’s gettin some serious loot in those raids.. (is that what it’s called? hah).

All these documentaries looking at gaming in a very bad light are becoming an increasing issue, because people are starting to believe them. With these “video game addiction clinics” opening up and stories like this one being aired, it’s really no wonder that people really believe gaming is a serious addiction, perhaps instead of looking at the underlying problems (if any) that may cause someone to want to play games for hours a day.

To couple video gaming with a word like “addiction” always puts a negative spin on it, because anything you can get “addicted” to can’t be good for you, right?

Despite this guy being a tool for ditching his wife in labour, it did sound like he made it back in time for the birth!

If you want to know more about the popularity of the game World of Warcraft, check out the infographic below:

Click to Zoom In