Me and my Inner Geek

Teens in general have a way of categorizing their peers which has never worked for me. Back in high school, I joined a drama group in which somebody once told me I was a "mothippy", that is, a cross between a mosher, a goth and a hippy. Someone else tried to add townie into the mix. That was over seven years ago and I haven't been back to Manchester in years, so those categories are probably well out of date.

When I got to France, for a long while I was simply "the foreign student", and that was ok. But then I started mastering French, and people would occasionally forget my accent and treat me as they would any French girl, and from then on they needed another label under which to categorize me. Since my friends happened to be the type of people who were generally uncool and therefore shunned by cool people (we were in college, I couldn't believe the concept of "cool" still existed at that age and level of education), I became known as one of the outcasts, as I had so many times before. I didn't care though, because a) the in-crowd simply ignored us, whereas I was used to death threats and the occasional punch on the way home from school, and b) I had friends with whom to share our outcastness.

But that's not really what I wanted to talk about... my point is that I've never been able to fit into any of the labels people give me, instead taking the best from each as I please. I'm conform enough in my clothes and taste in music to be seen as slightly cool. I have an emo side when it comes to art, writing and the music I play. I'm hippyish because I'm into alternative medicine and the paranormal. My IQ is that of a rather lazy intellectual. And I like manga, anime and certain video games, especially RPGs, which makes me geekier than quite a lot of my friends (girls, that is).
I'm not a geek, though. If I was a geek, I'd actually play video games, and I don't. Well, not much. World of Warcraft now and then, and Dead Or Alive and Soul Calibur when he gets them out occasionally, but usually I just watch the scenes while he plays the game. That way I can leave all the levelling to him. ^^

Granted, I know what makes a good game. I'm educated enough to know that the Wii is not a good console, and that there were much better games on the Dreamcast. I know that video games are declining in quality, becoming easier and more censored and less original. I know that Final Fantasy XII was crap. I hardly dare retain a glimmer of hope for FFXIII.


And yet I know very little about gameplay. There are two aspects of video games that I like - the story (as usual, this is the most important part), and the graphics, if they're pretty. I also think that you can get to know someone better by paying attention to the games and manga they like. For the record, here's mine, in no particular order:

Games:
- Final Fantasy VII and VIII (+ variants and films)
- Kingdom Hearts series
- Metal Gear
- Farenheit
- Grandia
- Mirror's Edge
- Soul Calibur 2/3
- Dead or Alive
- Prince of Persia series
- Resident Evil 4
- Fable
- Morrowind/Oblivion
...

Manga/Anime
- Fruits Basket
- Fairy Cube
- Global Garden
- Nana
- Cat Street
- Death Note
- Evangelion
- (if I could be bothered getting the first I'd probably be into) Gunnm
- Ah! My Goddess (until it got repetitive, around n°26 or so)
- and yes, I admit it: Chibi Vampire (the manga, not the anime), Love Hina, Card Captor Sakura, and on really bad days, Urukyu. I know, I know.