Anatomy of a Gamer Girl, Part 2

This is second part of an article where I track down and interview one of the most elusive of all players -- the hardcore girl gamer. You can find part one of the article on Bell of Lost Souls.


If you haven't followed the jump, here's the skinny. About a month ago, a blog post entitled "Cloud Gets Beat By a Girl" on Paul's Basement League led me to "Zephri" -- who turned out to be the most elusive and magical of all creatures -- an honest-to-god-true-hardcore-gaming-girl.

It was this picture of a pretty girl playing Necrons that got my attention:


In the first part of the article, Cassie answered questions about the "how's" and "why's" of her passion for games.

Here's more of that interview:

Mkerr: "I noticed that you've entered (and won) some painting contests. Tell me about that."
Cassie: "I really love painting minis, especially when there's 30 inches of snow outside. I started painting the cheap Reaper models, mostly for D&D and got hooked. I've even convinced my roommate to help me paint them, although she's not interested in pen & paper or tabletop games.

I'm running a workshop on mini painting at a local gaming convention. It's a lot of fun."

Mkerr: "It's got to be tough being a girl in the boy's club of your local gaming store. How do the other 40K players react to you?"
Cassie: "Well, it's a small town, so most of the gamers at the local game shop already know me, but I do get funny looks from time-to-time -- those "she must be lost" or "she must be here with her boyfriend" looks. But sometimes I get stranger reactions. I have had people just walk up to me and hand me their number -- more than once!"
Mkerr: "No way! I've been around gamers all my life, so I can imagine some of the pick-up lines you've heard."
Cassie: "One guy said something about me being a 'unicorn' and handed me his phone number. Before he rushed off, he said "I'm sorry, but I have to do this because I feel like it's a once in a lifetime opportunity." It was cute. Strange, but cute."

Mkerr: "Did you date in your gaming group?"
Cassie: "Well, look at it this way. It's a lot easier for male nerds to find decent girlfriends because they can date outside of the nerd herd. The girls they date will just accept that he plays games as a 'guy's thing'. Female nerds can't really do that because a guy who doesn't play games will think she's weird. And guys that don't play games can't handle a girlfriend who  wants to sit in a basement, roll dice and eat Cheetos. So I've always dated gamers and they've always been into the things I like to do -- like D&D and 40K."

Mkerr: "So what is it like to date a gamer girl?"

Cassie: "Honestly, I don't think I'm any different from the average gamer. A hot date for me would be sitting in bed all day and playing games on our laptops."

Mkerr: "So I noticed the Zoey from Left 4 Dead on your blog. Was that a Halloween thing or do you just like dressing up?"
Cassie: "I absolutely LOVE any event that allows me to wear a costume, except LARPing -- because that's lame. So when I go to conventions and stuff, I always wear a costume. Oh, and Halloween. I love Halloween.

I made the Zoey from Left4Dead costume for Comic Con 2009 in San Diego. I won an award for the Silk Spectre (from Watchmen) costume. I'm planning a costume for Games Day 2010 in Baltimore, but it's a secret..."

Mkerr: "So why Zoey from Left4Dead?"

Cassie: "I love zombies! No really. L4D is one of my favorite games. I read zombie books and zombie comics. Zombieland is my favorite movie of 2009. I've seen it, well, a lot. I even picked up a trashy zombie romance novel. For a girl, I'm surprisingly well-prepared for a zombie apocalypse."


Mkerr: "I heard that Paul's Basement League blog got about 5,000 views from Bell of Lost Souls from that single comment in the Girls, Girls, Girls article. How did that make you feel?"

Cassie: "Honestly, it's been surprising and very flattering. I knew I was an oddity at my gaming store, but I never thought it was that big of a deal. I'm not the only girl that loves games -- there are lots of prettier gamer girls than me out there."


Mkerr: "If that's true, then I've wasted my youth playing in all the wrong stores. I suspect that you are going to get some traffic to your blog from this article (DOZENS of people read our blogs, you know). I apologize in advance for the flood of lecherous readers that come your way."

Cassie (laughing): "I'm a big girl; I can take care of myself. Besides, I started playing WoW when I was 17. I've learned the difference between a creeper and a genuine person. But my friends are going to hate me for having an article on Bell of Lost Souls all about me -- we're all big fans of the site!"

I'm sure she also meant to say that she and her friends are big fans of Chainfist.com too. :)

In all of our chats, Cassie always led every conversation with whatever game she was playing at the moment. She talked about 40K, D&D, Rogue Trader, Dark Heresy, Okami (PS2 love!), Torchlight, Trine, Dragon Age (she's finished it multiple times), Team Fortress 2 and many, many others -- even some Facebook games.

I've been working in the video game industry for 15 years and I don't know if I've met anyone with a passion for games as large as Cassie's (maybe Jwolf). There's nothing quite like having the geekiest nerd conversation (we talked about Murder Servitors and Teleportariums in Rogue Trader, for goodness sake) with a gorgeous 20-year old college student. It was surreal.

That's all for now, but I'm sure we'll be hearing from Cassie in the future!

Check out Cassie's blog  Tombworld
If you want to see the blogpost heard around the world, check out Paul's Basement League
If you want to read the article that inspired me, check out TastyTaste's Girls, Girls, Girl
If you want to read the first part of his article, follow this link to Deconstructing the Gamer Girl

>> Thanks for reading and your comments are always welcome. Cassie has been nice enough to agree to answer comments here and at Bell of Lost Souls. So leave a comment or a question!

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