(1) Gamers understand the importance of midnight releases and pre-orders. Have you seen the lines outside Gamestop, Best Buy, etc when a new game is coming out? INSANITY...and good times.
(2) Gamers, like cats, require little care. Batteries for their controller, the occasional sammich, and they're good to go for hours, leaving you free to read your books.
(3) They get world-building, they really GET world-building. Have you seen some of the video games out there lately? [I'm looking at you, Skyrim!] Storyline, characters, setting...THEY GET THESE TOO. I'm constantly finding myself inspired by games either I play or I find my significant other playing. Video games nail these things just as well as books. It's awe-inspiring really. Which brings to mind my next point, it's a craft. Designing a game, writing its plotline, inventing its characters and motivations...its just as heady as crafting a book. For those bibliophiles who are also writers, you can stand to learn a lot from a gaming partner. They know their stuff.
(4) For bookish lovers of sci-fi or fantasy or even dystopian, you can't go wrong with a gamer. They will GET you. [See Mass Effect, Skyrim, Fable, and Fallout]
(5) They get lost in their games just as easily as you get lost in your books. [Kind of just a continuation of three if you think about it.]
(6) Their hobby is just as [if not more] expensive than yours. Your budgets will be atrocious but there will be little to no complaining about those gigantic receipts from Barnes & Noble...unless you spent the money that was supposed to go to a game...in which case, stop reading this post now and immediately get yourself into the witness protection program.
(7) Video games are basically playable books. Think Choose Your Own Adventure with wicked graphics. In fact, its getting really common now for books to be based off video games or vice-versa. Common interest! [Again, see Mass Effect and Fable...so not playing favorites here. #lyingthroughmyteeth] Especially if you happen to be like me, and therefore a comic book nerd, because there is the epicness that is Arkham Asylum and other games...I'm just a Harley Quinn fangirl so it was first to come to mind.
(8) They'll have plenty of in-game romance [You can get married or at least carry on romantic relationships in most games and get special perks (or achievements!) for it] so you can have all the fictional boy/girl-friends that you want. ;]
(9) They fanboy/girl over the video game world just as much as you do over bookish happenings. Have you seen X Play? Attack of the Show? [Oh dearie me, my nerd is escaping.] The fanbase for video games is HUGE and the designers are rockstars. [Sound familar? Authors = Rockstars] And they have CONVENTIONS. [BEA and ALA to us are E3 to them. Please never ask me which I'd rather go to. My head will implode.]
(10) They understand your unrealistic expectations of men because they also spend their time kicking @SS, taking names, and slaying dragons. So yes, they understand, and yes, they have these expectations for themselves, too.
Gamer + Bibliophile = <3
Warning: I may be slightly bias being a gamer and a bibliophile myself, and dating the most epic gamer ever. Your results may vary.
This is an awesome post. You're so right about the similarities between gamers & bibliophiles but I never would have really thought about that because I'm not a big gamer & I don't know any personally really. Huh. I need to find a game that I can immerse in & enjoy as much as I do reading Rusty Fischer or Veronica Roth. :D
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jenny! :]
ReplyDeleteIt just seemed like a natural thing for me to post, combining two of my nerdy loves. And like I said, I was sitting with my own BF when a few of these hit and I thought it would make a fun little Tiara Talk. And of course turn a few more bibliophiles into gamers.
Happy game hunting! And if you need any help, feel free to ask, if I don't know of one I'm sure the BF will or one of our friends will. :D