ShuffStuff

I can’t play first person video games. Yes, even Portal. (I had to stop because I felt to guilty about killing the adorable robots.) But I am absolutely obsessed with reading about them, thinking about them, and talking about them to the point that my friends—the ones who are also doing theses by choice and are a cross-section of the geekiest people alive in their own special ways—are making fun of me. I need more gamer friends, I really do. 

BUT. This article about masculine forces in CoD3 is awesome and you should read it.

Well, for one thing, games are inherently wussy. The stereotype of the bespectacled dweeby gamer is an inaccurate cliche, but there’s no denying games are far from a beefy pursuit. Which is why shooty-fighty games go out of their way to disguise that. Every pixel of Modern Warfare 3 oozes machismo. It’s all chunky gunmetal, booming explosions and stubbly men blasting each other’s legs off. Yet consider what genteel skills the game itself requires. To succeed, you need to be adept at aiming a notional cursor and timing a series of button-pushes. It’s about precision and nimble fingers. Just like darning a sock in a hurry. Or creating tapestry against the clock.