there but for the grace of god

On the way home from dropping my pastors off at the airport today I stopped by Safeway to pick up some groceries. Safeway is really close to my house, and today I noticed an EB Games next to it.

As you may know, I like to go to as many places regularly as I can. I've had the same woman cutting my hair for five or six years - except for one haircut when her shop was temporarily closed for repairs from a fire. I'm a regular at Bay St. Coffee. Whenever I buy hobby stuff I'm at Scenario. Anyway I appreciate making a place "my place" so to speak, where I can get to know the employees and all that. So with thoughts of perhaps making this EB Games my game stop I entered the doors.

The store itself was very small and was only occupied by three employees. Normally I might like to check out a place anonymously to see if it's worth returning to but that wasn't a choice here. The workers were warm and said hello. I made small chat with em for a minute and proceeded to browse around a bit. They had a big cutout for Planetside (which I may make a play for later on) so I asked them about pre-ordering the game. Five bucks down and I did so. As the guy put my name in the computer, the woman assembling xbox displays engaged in a bit of what I will heretofore refer to as "Geek Bragging," or "GBing." Those of you not in the geek culture may not know exactly what I'm talking about. Those of you unabashed geeks will immediately recognize what I'm talking about.

GBing is characterizing by lauding one's self for deeds that in just about any other arena would be considered reason for pity, or in extreme cases, fear. I'd imagine the geek culture is not unique in this, for example the hunter who brags he has an underground complex with 1457 types of firearms of varying legality, but that man is a geek himself. But I am specifically referring to gamer GBing. The Magic player that brags about his $20,000 collection of cards. The computer gamer mentioning his outrageous gaming rig with glowing parts and tweaking accomplished only through countless hours of tinkering. A roleplayer grandstanding on the sexual conquests of his 47th level Bard when he has yet to master even the most basic skills of personal hygeine. You get the idea.

So I place my pre-order, hand the man my five dollars, and express my doubt that the game will be ready for its planned release date of May 20th. Xbox woman says the game I really need to get involved with is "Galaxies," which she casually mentions she "saw at E3 last year." I immediately knew she was a big time gamer geek because (1) she shortened "Star Wars Galaxies" (SWG) to "Galaxies," and (2) dropped her attendance at last year's E3 at her earliest opportunity. Anyone with the inclination has been able to, for the past 6+ months, watch the development of Galaxies without having seen whatever primitive build they showed at last year's E3. E3 is not open to the general public; it is where game developers show off new things they have under development to people in the gaming press so their game will get buzz. Last year is old news though. So this woman mentioning her presence at last year's E3 would be like the guy in front of you at the baseball game repeatedly shouting to his friend about the one time he met Jose Canseco. Sure, it's cool, but you don't have to try so hard to let me know about it.

I tell this woman that I am probably not going to get involved with SWG because it will have a monthly fee of 12.95 or more to play. I'm already going to be paying to play Planetside and I simply could not justify even in my own mind paying to play two games, let alone find the time to play both of those games. This is where the GBing comes in. She says:

"It will be worth it! Let me put it to you this way." (Dramatic tone ensues.) "I have FOUR Everquest accounts. I have TWO Dark Age of Camelot accounts. And I keep them all up." Here comes the gamer coup. "AND that's not even counting my fiance's accounts, he has as many as I do."

I wasn't really sure what to say. This woman just engaged in the biggest bit of GBing I'd seen since the last 40k tournament I attended. She was trying to show me up by telling me she spent at least $84 monthly on two video games, and spent enough time playing them to where it felt worthwhile. So I said "well, your dedication is, uh..."

"Scary?"

Well, since you said it.