Gaming With The Girlfriend (Part 4)

Let’s be honest: men and women are not equal. They never have been, and they never will be. This is a fact that extends from the real world and is amplified when it comes to gaming. I'm not talking in terms of talent or skills, rather the treatment by members of the opposite sex.

MMO history is littered with anecdotes of female players (or those posing as females) having gifts lavished upon them by doting male gamers; either as an intentional result of shrewd scheming on the part of the female, or due to a misguided sense of chivalry from the male.

When the lady gamer in question is your significant other - especially one that isn't a hardcore gamer, the expectation to provide increases exponentially. Case in point (as always) comes in the form of our experiences in Dungeon Defenders, specifically when it comes to earning experience.

Early on in our time playing, we discovered the fact that experience points are bestowed upon the player that summons a defense, rather than the character. Whilst this tactic is very handy for leveling weaker characters, or those that lack traditional physical towers; when we began focusing on using my main character (the Squire) for all of our defensive structures, someone quickly noticed that they were getting significantly less experience.

Cue much complaining and stamping of feet (I wish I was joking!). We eventually settled into a routine where she would place all of the defenses as my character during the build phases, before switching back to hers for the combat phase.

Following many weeks of creative experience management, priority over item drops and significant investment of my stockpiled mana on item upgrades and skill re-specs, we finally reached a position where Miss Beanz was happy to allow me to summon my own structures. Her focus on character DPS meant that she was ideally suited to causing maximum carnage amongst the hoards of enemies; that, and a multiplier bonus for not summoning towers meant she was more than capable of keeping the points rolling in.

And so it is that I find myself resigned to the traditional role of provider; gender equality be damned! This extends even into our latest exploits playing Minecraft on 360 together - as much as I attempt to justify it that I'm able to craft items quicker, every time I have to recreate a fresh set of tools because someone found a particularly large hole to fall into, I know, deep down, that it's due to the female prerogative to make demands of their man. What can I say; I'm an enabler!