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 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Favorite Foods: Italian Food / Pickles / Chocolate Current Games Played: Quake 3, Unreal Tournament 2003, Battlefield 1942.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ [Jube]: Tell us how you first got involved in gaming, and how long you've been fighting the good fight. [DamnedAnnie]: Well, it started when I met my husband about 4 ½ years ago, he was playing Quake 2 at the time and talked me into playing it. I tried the game but didn't really got hooked. Then one day he brought home Quake 3. It used to get on my nerves when he played it . listening to "THE ENEMY HAS YOUR FLAG" all the time. After watching him play for a few weeks I thought I'd give it a shot. I've been hooked ever since! [Jube]: What does your husband think of your often time consuming hobby? Do arguments ever result (ie. time spent on computer, late night matches/practices, clanmates or male gamers in general flirting with you, etc.)? [DamnedAnnie]: I have been married two years July, and he's also an avid gamer. He doesn't mind me playing, not at all, never complains about it, doesn't worry about guys flirting. We're pretty solid, me and him. My husband often checks to see what I am doing because he knows my clan, The Damned, is new and he's curious and supportive. But he mostly plays Unreal Tournament 2003 and Battlefield1942. [Jube]: I read on The Damned that you have two children. Assuming they are old enough to understand what's going on, have you ever had to explain why people call mommy "DamnedAnnie"? What are their favorite games? [DamnedAnnie]: Yes, I do have 2 girls: one is 8, and one is 7. I do all my gaming late at night, so my children don't see me online a whole lot playing, but they do know that I play. We often play other games together, like Luigi's Mansion, Mario Sunshine, ect. These games are more appropriate for their ages, although I have let them play Quake 3 before. But, for the most they still stick to Barbie dolls and young girl type of stuff. We had 2 PC's networked together once so that we could play games together. I let the girls play each other once, Quake 3. I recall the youngest saying to the other, "Nooooo, Krista, don't kill me yet! Mommy, she wont play right!" LOL. [Jube]: What do you think is an acceptable age to introduce children to a game like Q3A? What about a game like Doom 3 (given what we know about it, ie. life-like models and spooky atmosphere)? [DamnedAnnie]: Each parent should be the judge of that if they know their children well. Mine are too sweet to be ruined by such games, :D As I said, I did introduced mine to Quake 3. But Doom on the other hand, from what I have learned from a beta I just happened to see, is a bit too scary I think for my children at their ages. Maybe it could give them nightmares. [Jube]: What do friends and family think about your gaming hobby? [DamnedAnnie]: I don't discuss my gaming hobby a whole lot with family because I know most of them have no clue about the online gaming communities, or the fun and companionship you can find there. Same with my friends who don't play games. It just doesn't come up. If it ever does, wow, I'm gonna shock them with all I have to say. [Jube]: Have you ever ditched "Real Life" functions in order to play a game? [DamnedAnnie]: No. I play late at night so my gaming doesn'tt interfere with my real life activities. Except for loss sleep occasionally, it's all fairly balanced. [Jube]: On a scale of 0-10 how into gaming would you say you are? (0 being not into it at all and 10 being completely hooked.) [DamnedAnnie]: I'm a 10. No, I'm an 11. I have loved games since I played my first Atari game. And when online gaming came along things just got better. [Jube]: Do you think female gamers have the ability to develop the same level of gaming skill as male gamers? We don't typically see women playing in the big leagues with the boys and taking home the big prize winnings, why do you think this is? [DamnedAnnie]: A woman does have the ability to develop the
same level of game skills as a man. She doesn't have the same opportunities as a man to be a top player in
Quake 3, that is the game and community I know best. Society is still very affected by male chauvinism,
despite recent progress. Male chauvinism is part of the general gaming community, too. There are many guys
I know who treat me as an equal in gaming, and this is really positive. Then, there are others who treat me
like dirt just because I'm a woman. Some of their comments are laughable. Some are not, some can really hurt.
Here's a particularly horrible example of how some men think: One of my clan mates announced on a gaming
forum that The Damned published an interview with Caligirl of LadyGamers.com.
Check it out (from SoGamed Forum): ep1taph: EXCITING! tbh i prefer the deagle. Sorry I read the interview. Training from many people. She sounds like a programmed android. Tried playing MP Red Alert before she knew how? ROFL. I really care about everything she does. Having a Vagina makes her story alot more relevant and interesting. No really.The name of this guy's Quake clan is ***T. Oh my, he is a particularly shocking example. ep1taph's extreme attitude is not something I experience every day in gaming but it is not uncommon either. It is a real turn off. Gaming is supposed to be fun. I am saying that woman have to deal with additional barriers to the top slots. Also, I want to balance what I'm saying to you by repeating that many guys I meet treat me with respect, my vagina is not an issue, my fraggin skillz and a good gaming attitude are what count. But I wish I could tell you there was a trend among men in general going in this positive direction. I don't know if there is or if it's going back to the stone age. Hard to tell some days. LOL. If women in gaming could just play like men do, and not be penalized for being a woman, I think more of them would be winning events and bringing home prize money. [Jube]: Have you ever considered joining an all-female clan? How would you respond to the people who say "All girl clans is discrimination, women would be outraged if there were all-male clans!"? Over the years I've also run into a few "All-Gay" clans, consisting of only gay males. Any thoughts on all-gay clans? [DamnedAnnie]: Yes in the past I had thought about it. At the time I didn't see many all girl clans. So I just joined in with friends. I don't know many all girl clans. I think they feel safer from abuse in such a clan. I understand that. As far as "discrimination" goes, well, there are about a thousand other clans you could join that are co-ed or all male. Maybe if there were only two clans in the world and one was all girls only, then you could have a real complaint. I think what I just said about all girl clans is about the same for an all gay clan. They band together for the same reasons as an all girl clan, and I don't think it's negative. What I find negative are the things that compel them to feel like they have no other choice if they really want to enjoy the fun of organized gaming and clans. That sucks. I don't hate gays. I hate stupidity, though. Isn't "ghey" the third most used word on IRC these days? That's pretty bad. "Bitch" is probably around fifth place. [Jube]: In my experience women gamers tend to have trouble just playing the games without picking up added tasks within the community. From volunteering with gaming leagues, to running clans, to working on game community websites. Why do you think we're not satisfied to just PLAY? Why do we need greater involvement? [DamnedAnnie]: I am not sure that we do need more involvement. Maybe coz we're smaller in numbers than men it seems like more of us are doing additional tasks. But, related to that, I'd just like to say that women I know in gaming have done a lot of great things for gaming in general. I don't know if they do it more than men, though. The Damned [Jube]: The Damned roster is pretty slim, do you really only have six members? A roster that small requires some pretty heavy dedication from all members. Are you currently recruiting new members? [DamnedAnnie]: Well, to be honest with you, we have 10 secret members in China, and they are all gay. Get used to it! Our six members are pretty dedicated, yes indeed. We're new, just started about three months ago and we building the clan. Yes, we are recruiting. If you read the Join section of http://www.thedamned.org you will get an idea of what kind of player we're looking for. [Jube]: We know that you're primarily a Q3 CTF clan, do you play any other games as a team? [DamnedAnnie]: Just Trivia when someone turns on the IRC b0t in our channel. We're strictly Q3CTF. We have talked about playing some Unreal Tournament. Some of us are into that. We'll see down the road. I love Unreal. [Jube]: Is The Damned currently a member of any gaming leagues? What's your record like currently (league and scrimmages)? [DamnedAnnie]: Not much of a record yet, we've only just started. We are part of the Online Gaming Leagues Quake 3 CTF roster. We scrim about once a week, it's the best kind of practice. When we get to the top of the OGL I'll send you a telegram. [Jube]: Tell us about your best and worst clan experiences. [DamnedAnnie]: My worst clan experiences.. You tend to run in to really ignorant people sometimes who try to belittle you, knock you down or make you into something your not. The worst experiences I encountered are from people like this. I'm not talking about men vs. women here. Or, they are just so small minded that they can't think of anything else to say except mean things. This is how they get attention. But it has never stopped me from playing the game and enjoying it. For the most part, the game and being in clans has brought me into contact with many awesome Quake players, and other members of the gaming community. That is the best experience I can think of. [Jube]: What are your goals for The Damned? [DamnedAnnie]: Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll. Noo! Wait. That was a previous clan. Let me quote from the Join section of http://www.thedamned.org, I think it sums it up pretty good:
The Damned is an antiracist, antisexist, democratic and international gaming organization dedicated to the pursuit of good times playing Quake 3 and other PC games. Membership in the Clan is by invitation. We enter into professional competition leagues and tournaments to win them, bottom line, but we never forget that Quake is a game and we play it to have fun. Teams selected from the Clan to participate in these events will be the best players as determined by the Clan Leaders. Team participation is optional. If you want to be considered for membership in The Damned you must agree with our philosophy as stated above and be willing to abide by the Membership Rules that follow.That's very formal but this tells you what our goals are. We'd like to grow in numbers, and we will, but we're going to do it right. That means we're going to consolidate who we have now and learn to be a finely-tuned fragging machine. Me and few of my current clan mates we're in a clan together before. We had disputes with the leaders (over boring clan stuff, you don't want to know). We decided to form our own clan and try our best make it the kind of organization where every one has fun, feels like an equal, feels loyalty and plays her best because she's proud to wear the clan tag, |D|. We're achieving that so far. And the reason why is that every member we have now is a real gamer and a good friend. We support one another in game and on the outside. [LadyGamer's Forum FeedBack Thread]
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Nick Name: DamnedAnnie / |D|Annie