Pickles, Ice Cream and … Gaming?

Maybe it’s not me.  Maybe it’s my biology.

I’m almost 37 weeks along in this pregnancy now; for the uninitiated that means I am *this* close to being full term. With pregnancy comes hormones. And with hormones sometimes comes pregnancy crazies… including cravings. And I have been having some pretty weird cravings.

Granted these craving are not the same as my first trimester grapefruit cravings (Husband: “You hate grapefruit.” Me: “I know! Grapefruit: NOM NOM NOM!”). These new cravings seem more odd, perhaps because they aren’t mentioned in the small library of pregnancy books and sites us knocked up women visit daily. No, these cravings revolve around… gaming.

Now, I’m a lucky girl, I have lots of game choice. I started another Mass Effect 2 and I’m just now starting to get the hang of my vanguard Shepard. Magic The Gathering on XBL is always a standard for me, and Puzzle Quest 2 is a game that I have been waiting forever to play. Bioshock has not yet been completed (Yes! I know, don’t nag) and I have a friend who will lend me about 5 games that are on my wish list if I but ask. I also make my own money and have no qualms about buying a game when it catches my fancy. Lots of games at my gaming fingertips. But there is only one I *literally* dream about playing.

So, when the Xbox finally got unpacked, (um… yeah, we decided to move too. No one accused us of being bright individuals) the first game I threw into the tray was… Too Human?

Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s a fantastic game. It’s mad fun to skate along slaughtering dozens and dozens of machines. Loot drops? Yes please! AND I can customize the colour of my dude? Alright I’m there! Co-op… well, if I had this thing called the “internet” hooked up to the house, then yes… I would be all over that (now, what in which box did we pack that series of tubes?). And you know, this game is #1 in my books for making you feel like an all-powerful god, including God of War. My lvl 36 Berzerker skates through baddies like butter, and that makes me giggle like a school girl.

Although Too Human is fun as all get out, for some reason, it is just not in my list of go to games.  definitely not one that I would dream about. And I do. It’s a mini-obsession; like a corn kernel stuck between your molars. I can’t not think of it after a while. Just like with the grapefruit.

Too Human? NOM, NOM, NOM!

Gamers often talk about biology when we talk about gaming. How many of us have uttered the words “I am so addicted to game X”. Yet, when we say “I’m addicted” we don’t really (usually?) mean a true addiction. Addiction is a biological drive, a condition that is only able to be identified by professionals.

Then are we obsessed? I don’t think so. Most of us are healthy gamers, with healthy relationships. Those gamers that have true problems, well… have problems, just like any other subset of a population. And like any other person with challenges, should be dealt with compassion.

Yet, I sometimes wonder if we gamers are built differently than our non-gamer counterparts. Oh, we could talk forever about nature or nurture of gamers. Am I a gamer because I was raised with a brother who loved videogames, or do my brother and I love videogames, because it’s in our genes?  I find it odd that once the kids were out of the house, both Mom and Dad became gamers. And in an odd switch its my mother that is the major gamer of that household.  My daughter is only three and had the most fun EVER at an arcade. Perhaps gaming in my line is carried on the “X” gene.

I don’t think I would really have thought about it, or cared about a biological component to gamers. Until… this craving. So, are gamers different? Do we have a higher play-ethic than the general population? So you feel as though you were born a gamer? That this is in your bones?

Either way, it’s time to scratch that itch… there are some goblin machines that need wasting.