As a general rule, I wouldn’t consider myself competitive. Especially when it comes to gaming. Overall, I’m a barely average gamer. Let’s put it this way: ain’t no sponsors ever gonna knock on my door. I will never win a tournament. On any game. Everrrr. I know this about myself and I’ve accepted it.
PvP interests me not at all. Being trounced by a squeaker talking all sorts of sh!t about my dead mother really isn’t my idea of fun. And let’s face it, at my age, the reflexes aren’t what they used to be. Nor is my eyesight. And I’m constantly fighting carpal tunnel. And then there’s that whole introvert thing that makes playing with random people excruciating.
That being said, when I co-op with my honey boo, for some reason, the competitor in me rears her ugly head. I hate it when he gets more kills or points or better loot than I do. Okay, hate is a strong word. But when he’s trouncing my kill count (even through we’re a team fighting the same enemies), I do stupid shit like rush ahead and claim the NPCs he hasn’t had time to get to yet. Cuz…you know…he’s killing everything else. Or I’ll tweak my weapon build so that it’s a monster, mowing down everything in sight.
But why? Why in the world do you compete against your own teammate, you ask? There’s a few reasons I’ve figured out. And probably a whole mess of subconscious crap I don’t even know is happening. But let’s go with what I know.
First, I’ve got a chip on my shoulder. I’ll admit it. I mean, c’mon, let’s face it, we gamer girls get a bad rap. Oh and we do it to ourselves. I’m looking at you boobie streamers.
But it’s not just those female gamers who are also members of the anti-airconditioning association (OnlyFans…get it? 🤣👊). When Charles and I met, he expected that I’d need a certain level of white-knighting. A couple of his exes would “game” with him which amounted to asking him to take care of all the fighting. Granted, women my age were raised to buy into a certain amount of female helplessness. But I guess my mama missed me with that sh!t, cuz I ain’t no damsel in distress.
Also, I don’t like to feel as though I’m not pulling my weight. We play co-op games so we can play together. To-ge-therrrrr. So if I’m just sitting back doing nothing, what is the point of co-oping? Who wants to be the dead weight on a team? No one. Well, except apparently the aforementioned ladies. No judgment…okay, some judgment, a little judgment.
And last, but certainly not least, I’m a pretty smart cookie, if I do say so myself. So if a game gives you tools to make bada$$ builds, I want to figure out the baddest-a$$-est build possible. Hey, if I ain’t got reflexes or eyesight left, I gotta use what the good Lord gave me. And that killer build racking up a higher score than my teammate gives me joy. Fine! I’m a small petty woman. I admit it, all right? Yeesh.
In the end, does it really matter who gets the most kills if you both complete the mission alive? Hell yeah it does. I mean, no…no it doesn’t. Okay, okay, I confess: I’m a kill hog. I know I am. And I won’t apologize for maybe being a little more competitive than I realize. And really, I blame the devs who include individual scores in team-based titles. If we weren’t meant to try to hog all the glory then they wouldn’t include such a feature. So there 😛
I know I can’t be the only kill hog out there. I’d love to hear from my fellow gamers: do you get competitive with your teammates? If so, what’s your reason? No judgment! I promise.
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When a Gamer Girl Grows up 