Get your minds out of the gutter, LOL (or maybe it’s just me). I read the title out loud and it does sound kinda naughty. But no, not talking about private stuff. I’m talking about my second favorite thing to do after a long week of work: hopping on the XBox with the love of my life and gaming the night away. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a sucker for a dinner out and chocolates and flowers as much as the next gal. But I’m a gamer girl so really, the best date you can take me on is to the European Dead Zone in Destiny 2 or the zombie apocalypse of State of Decay 2.
Charles and I spend hours and hours co-op gaming. It’s one of the activities that led to us falling in love. But apparently, it’s not that common a thing amongst our friends. At work, I’ve talked about gaming with my baby and most of my co-workers’ significant others either don’t game at all or they game separately. Charles brought up the topic when he went out to lunch with his guy friends who were amazed that we play together. I suppose my question is: why wouldn’t we?
The most obvious obstacle is finding co-op games to play that we’ll both enjoy. While I thoroughly enjoy telltale games, they aren’t my honeybun’s cup of tea. Charles loves strategy turn-based games, me…not so much.
While there are plenty of MMORPGs out there, we’ve burned through lots of them trying to find one to sustain our nightly gaming sessions. But as MMOs are wont to do, they get repetitive so we’re constantly switching up what we play.
In the past year, we’ve played RDO, Destiny 2, Outriders, Dauntless, Elder Scrolls Online, State of Decay 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, all four Borderlands games, Gears 5, and most recently, Anthem. The swath of cancellations and delays COVID cut through many of those games has made it even more challenging.
One of the other issues we had (perhaps still have, lol) is a difference in play styles. He’s the aggressive face-tank that runs in and at times gets himself overwhelmed, loving every second of the carnage. I tend toward ranging, thinning out the enemy before I run in. Fortunately, most co-op games give us a good choice of characters and the difference in our gameplay turns inyo a strength. I’m gonna take a ranger with magic or status abilities, preferably who can set folks on fire. Who knew I harbor an inner pyromaniac? He takes the battle-ready warrior or armor-laden tank characters and our abilities compliment each other.
There’s also the whole white-knighting thing, I’ve talked about before. Charles used to do it a lot when we first met. Not really his fault, he’d never played with a gamer girl like me. I’m not the kind who’ll stand back and let him take on the tough opponents for me. I don’t like someone else fighting my fights. There’s nothing wrong with women who play that way, I just ain’t one of them. We both contribute or what’s the point of co-op’ing?
What’s come of this past year plus of tackling games together is a true partnership. Just as we’ve crafted IRL. We approach every challenge as a team. I still don’t really get playing online with random people. It always feels like a fustercluck. Then again, I’ve gotten spoiled with a gaming partner who knows what I’m going to do before I do it and understands my strengths and limitations. Besides, why do I need to play with strangers when my baby is always there, controller in hand, ready to take on the next adventure?
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When a Gamer Girl Grows up 