Author Archives: likeOMGitsFEDAY

Perspectives and Retrospectives: Vol. 4

The following piece is likeOMGitsFEDAY’s thoughts on the first year of FUoS. Series introduction here.

November 9, 2004. I had been looking forward to this day since the summer. I was a young, innocent, naive girl who was in love. With a game. On that day, Halo 2 was released, and came with a trial subscription to Xbox Live. I usually LANed with my buddies, spending countless hours sniping each other with magnums on Hang Em High, so I didn’t really get the appeal of playing online, but a friend from work convinced me to play with him.

Sure, I had played counterstrike online with some guys I knew that went to another school, but we had our own private vent channel, so I was used to friendly chatter and one of the guys beatboxing. So I figured I’d try it out. My buddy was working, so I hopped online to set up my account and try out some of the maps. For my handle, I settled on Fedaykingirl, after much debate of using Chani, Irulan, or Alia instead.

I jumped into my first free for all match on Ascension. I won by a landslide. In the end screen I heard people talking, so I piped in “Good game, guys!” My virgin ears were not ready for the barrage of insult I would receive. “Shut the fuck up bitch!” “Is that a girl? Fuck you, girls don’t play video games”. This would only continue. It used to make me so mad, I couldn’t keep the tears from welling up in my eyes.