So I was playing the StarJeweled beta last night (it’s a mash-up of Bejeweled and Starcraft II, where you play bejeweled to get energy to create units, which auto-attack the other team’s base). On one match, my partner was just doing insanely good, and had like 3 times the energy as anyone else. But I was baffled because he kept chatting, suggesting strategies and cheering when we broke through and stuff.
“You’re really good at this!” I said, amazed at how he could be typing and clicking on the bejeweled board and getting such a high score all at once.
“It’s my girlfriend,” he said, “she plays and I can type, lol.”
“Well, she’s really good at this!” I replied
“Girls tend to be good at this game, lol”
I hesitated, as I always do when about to reveal my gender to strangers in an online game, but went ahead.
“I’m a girl, but I’m only so-so at bejeweled.”
“…u a girl?”
“Yes”
“Not many girls play Starcraft II”
“Yeah, I always hope to see some girls in the big tournaments someday”
“Yeah”
By then the match had ended and we went our separate ways. Anyway, it just made me thoughtful.
Meanwhile, I like Starjeweled a lot, and I noticed that there’s not a lot of chatter if you’re not doing so well and your partner is, as can happen in some other games. Part of this is because you would sacrifice so much energy to stop playing and type a message that it’s often not worth the effort to say “why are you sucking!” But I think part of it is that there’s just something weird about berating someone for not being good enough at bejeweled.
Anyway, StarJeweled – it’s fun!