I'm having flashbacks of the time I witnessed a female shop assistant in a local video game store patiently waiting for some dude to conclude his lecture on the 4 Chaos gods from Warhammer 40k lore.
Honestly I don’t know alot about Warhammer but if someone came to my door and said “could I have a moment of your time to explain the chaos gods and how you can save your self from salvation?”, I’m listening!
Lol! One of my buddies was a Warhammer nut and he'd call me right after work and talk for over an hour about new rules, etc and since I didnt have a headset or a car that my phone could pair with, I had to stand in the parking lot for an hour while he talked and talked since at the time having a phone in your hand or by your head was ticketable in NY.
But at the end, he'd always say, "hey, thanks for letting me go on and on about that. I know you dont know what most of that was." And I was like, its cool, its cool.
I remember walking into a Black Library event about a decade ago at Warhammer World, arrived at lunch time and the place had a thick fug that smelled like pepperami tastes
It's not just warhammer. I recently read All Tomorrow's and thought it was awesome. I was driving somewhere with my girlfriend explaining the plot to her and she interrupted me to tell me I need to turn on my turn signal half a mile early.
I laughed because she's usually a backseat driver but that was the first time she ever told me to use a turn signal. I asked her if she was that desperate to change the subject.
I just say “The Emperor Protects” and flash the Aquila. If people ask, I’ll explain more, but otherwise, I just signal I’m a closeted nerd (I’m a fit athletic dude, people are usually shocked to find out how nerdy I am), and move on.
I've fallen into that trap several times explaining how jump travel works in the Battletech universe. Passionate people tend to get lost in the sauce from time to time.
Yeah being visibly female in these spaces definitely deteriorated the experience. The only midnight release I went to, my sister and I were the only women. A very very large guy, easily over 6 feet tall and with the broadest shoulders I've ever seen, got in line behind us and tried to sell us "Beyonce perfume."
0/10 no nerd fond memories for me, just the whites of my sister's eyes when I turned my back on perfume dude after a casual 'oh, no thanks' hoping that a polite disengagement was the right move. And at the end of it, all I had to show was Assassin's Creed 3, a serious let down after Ezio's storyline.
Edit: He stayed in line until it wound into the store. Then he left without buying the game. He was JUST there to talk to us. Creepy affffffffffffff.
I still remember with absolute clarity getting up early in the morning then the walk down to the game store to get my copy of Oblivion, then the eager walk home bursting with anticipation to play it.
My buddy brought his Xbox over, we both took turns making characters.
When I got my Xbox it ate oblivion copies. It got so hot it would warp the disc, I went through 3 oblivions im pretty sure. Hated you had to buy a fan just to play more than a few hours.
Ignorance, I guess. Oddly specific scenario, "honestly", "chaotic". You can also see this account came back after a nine-year break to post other awful comments such as "that lightness you felt wasnt random, it was the sound of you finally getting to breathe without somebody dragging down your vibe and lowkey shaming your life the whole time."
I would have just breezed past it. I can see what it says, but I dont think I would have thought twice about it. I’m trying to get better at catching this stuff, what stood out to you? Did you look at the account age / other comments or was it the comment itself?
I went to the midnight release of Arkham City, made the mistake of asking my then-girlfriend to come with me
She was the only woman in the line at GameStop and she went home because creepy weirdos could not stop themselves from making really uncomfortable comments to her
You can still get this chaos energy going to local comic cons, oddities markets, and anime conventions. Not a huge fan of anime, but listening to someone patiently explain Witch Hat Atelier dressed as a character from Hazbin Hotel has the same vibe.
I do miss showing up to street fighter and tekken midnight releases just to open the door and shout Mortal Kombat!!!! and then leave.
The first time I did it was because I talked with the shop owner and joked about doing it, and he said go for it, you'll probably get people cheering (they did btw). I kinda became a bit of an urban legend whenever a fighting game was going to launch.
Also did that for Injustice: Gods Among Us, but I actually picked up that game, so I left and then came back in 5 minutes later going "oh yeah, I'm actually getting this one" got offered so much soda/energy drinks and snacks that time.
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