sup progamer?

i hadnt realized until recently as to how popular video games have become. everywhere im constantly hearing chit chat about video games. while studying in the library 3 guys next to me start discussing fantasy football. now theres a game thats been common to society for years. then out from a guys mouth, "so do you make money playing final fantasy football...erm i mean fantasy football?" laughter ensues across the table. while riding unitrans last month, i overheard one guy priding himself over his new ddr pad and game. around a year ago, during the pledging process every guy skeeted himself over the release of halo 2.

so im wondering- is it because of the lack of jack shat to do in davis that video games seem so popular? or have they simply penetrated the mainstream and flown under the radar.

growing up id always been under the impression that this form of entertainment was strictly reserved for losers and anti-socialites. except for dance dance revolution, where i observed, oddly the formation of a clique. when and how did video games become so widely accepted into society by so many? in high school the closest thing to "gamers" i can think of were those of us who participated in weekend hijinks, paying $3 an hour to shoot each other in an imaginary world, where money magically flew into your wallet after successfully killing someone, a world where you defy the laws of physics as you run faster with a knife in your hand, despite the fact your ak47 sits in your backpack along with the diffusal kit. and there were those of us who formed ridiculous coalitions with titles that would make any coporate marketing executive jealous- names like ASF (asian special forces), Rak (unknown, supposedly really angry koreans, despite the fact no member is korean), and 2g0d (a ridiculous leetspeak abbreviation for "too good"). one amusing moment that sort of humors me today was a random question michael chiang posed to mrs wong during chinese class.

"hey mrs wong, how do you say counter strike in chinese?"

while waiting for ST: TNG to come back on, i flipped to mtv only to drop my jaw. i saw a girl with some resemblence to michelle wie screaming into her headest (much similar to mine) "two go down cat b, dont let the guy with the deagle get past a!" (counterstrike talk for people who dont play pubs, or those who play at a super competitive team level) apparently mtv was doing a special on professional gamers, in this instance, a clan of professional female gamers WITH SPONSORS. a few of my friends always joked with each other about acting as progamers sponsored by AMD, but to see something of this magnitude on tv blew me away.

so maybe video games arent confined to just nerds. it does not matter. ah, i must return to my show. this episode is too juicy, worf finds out that his father did not die in battle, and struggles with the dishonor of finding news of his fathers capture on a remote romulan prison. forshame young klingon. foreshame.