Buying My New Gaming Mouse
July 2007 Issue
![Cerise Issue 3 [July 2007]](http://cerise.theirisnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/cerisejul07_tn.jpg)
Features
- From the Editors
- Craft Check: Sunpaint T-shirts
- Gaming in the Media: To Wii, or Not to Wii?
Interviews
- Jess Hartley [Tabletop RPG writer]
- Robyn Bremner [Game tester, Capcom Interactive Canada]
Articles
- Inviting More People to the Game
Author: Cherie Thomason
- Racial Inclusiveness in Gaming
Author: Latoya Peterson
- Does Inclusive Game Design Make Sense?
Author: Andrea Rubenstein
- The Women of Twilight Princess
Author: Ariel Wetzel
Cherie proposes some simple ways to make games more inclusive.
Latoya explores the problems that the industry has with race and proposes some solutions.
Andrea takes on some of the common stumbling blocks that hinder inclusive game design.
Ariel breaks down the major women of Twilight Princess and examines how the game uses female characters in general.
Gamer Stories
Reviews
- Nintendo Wii and Wii Sports
- Shadowrun
- Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side First Love
- Retro Review: The Dreadnaught Factor
Recently, I went into a well-known electrical retailer here in Australia to get myself the Logitech G5 gaming mouse. I am a shopper that usually does all her research before entering the store. Actually, I prefer ordering things online, but I live in Australia. And here in Oz, internet shopping is not quite what someone who has lived in the US has come to expect. There, internet shopping has almost reached the stage of instant gratification. Order something, and you just about know that you can receive it the next day. Last time I ordered something electrical Down Under it took several weeks to get the right item to me. Well, when I finally decided on my new mouse, I wanted instant gratification. So I decided to brave the non-virtual environment.
Since I know what I want, I normally head straight for it and then on to the checkout counter. Salespeople are not who I would call my favorite people, especially if I feel that I probably know more about the product than the salesperson does. And I usually don’t trust their motives.
So, on the day in question, I entered the store and headed straight for the mouse and keyboard section. On the way, a salesperson snagged me. Was there something he could help me with? Despite my best judgment (normally I would have just said “no thanks” and gone about picking up the item), I told him I wanted the G5.
Before I tell you what his response was, I’d better tell you a little about myself. I’m a thirty-something mother of two and I think I look pretty respectable. I don’t look like I sit in a light-deprived dungeon in front of a computer screen 18 hours a day, and I dress pretty much like any other semi-conservative mother of two boys on her way to pick them up from school. In other words, I don’t wear Chanel, but I wasn’t wearing my “For the Horde!” black World of Warcraft t-shirt with dirty jeans either. Anyway, back to my story:
“Have you considered getting him the G7?”
No, I didn’t insert an extra pronoun there, he actually asked me if I had considered getting him the cordless version of the mouse I had decided on. I don’t know if he imagined that I had a son, boyfriend, or husband that I was shopping for, but it certainly hadn’t crossed his mind that it could possibly be for me.
I said, “Actually, it’s for me.”
“Really, are you sure you need a gaming mouse?”
“Um, yes.”
“What game do you use it for?” He seemed to be getting more incredulous by the moment. I think he was actually expecting me to respond that I used it for Solitaire or Virtual Knitting or maybe Soccer-Mom Rally Driving.
“World of Warcraft.”
“Really?!?” I am not sure there are enough exclamation marks and question marks allowed in this piece to accurately convey his surprise. His eyes now drifted towards my ring finger. “And you’re married!”
”Yes…”
“Wow! And do you always win in World of Warcraft?”
Obviously, he didn’t play WoW himself, but by now I was simply beyond explaining myself to this guy. I quickly finished the transaction, getting more and more annoyed with the pimply sales clerk who seemed to find it absolutely unbelievable that anyone over the age of 21, and female to boot, would be a gamer. Let alone a married female. What? Did he think any woman who would spend countless hours a week in Azeroth was obviously only in there to snag a poor unsuspecting mate? I couldn’t possibly actually enjoy the game. Surely this was just some passing phase.
What astonished me even more was that he kept trying to find out if I really needed all the features of the G5 and selling me an inferior mouse. Like he couldn’t really believe that I was actually serious about which mouse I wanted. Apparently, he thought that any female gamer couldn’t possibly know enough about the game to need something as technical as the G5. Now, I could have explained to him that I play a rogue, which means that in order to play my class well, I really shouldn’t be a clicker, but use key-bindings. And the lovely programmable buttons on my chosen mouse frees up keys and just makes my life a lot easier, not to mention making me a better player. But somehow, I think he was too flabbergasted to hear a word of that.
No doubt he’s been passing the story around to his buddies much in the same way that I have. But I get the feeling that he is shaking his head and causing his friends to do the same. I’m sure he views the situation as one of those too-weird-for-words ones. Something that will happen to him once in a lifetime. The stereotypical gamer is so completely different from what he encountered that he might never see me as an example of one of many gamers who are just like me, but as an aberration. Or maybe, just maybe, it helped break down the stereotype just a teeny-tiny bit.
Pretty amazing stuff really.
