eye's hindsight vol 6
i lost a bit of respect for myself that day...
i used to work right across the street from a mall. that didnt mean a whole lot to me, except for the food court. you really cant go wrong with all those choices of food in such close proximity. a veritable lunch break smorgasbord.
and from time to time, i would take advantage of that. i could go get me some mcdonalds if i so desired, or maybe some panda express when i was feeling like some cheap chinese food. or every now and again, a burrito, or perhaps some pizza. nothing but winning in all possibilities. and follow it all up with a cinnabon.
sometimes, if i was feeling especially bored at work, or just wanted a change in things, i would hit up the arcade that was located within the food court at the time before id go back after lunch.
im not much of an arcade game kind of guy. its just too easy to pump way too much money into those games, and frankly, i suck at them. but it was something to do. id go in there with $2 or so, and would plan to spend only that and then get the hell out of there. back to work and such.
so this one time i went in there, and i spotted a fighting game that i hadnt played before. i suck at fighting games. never been good at them. no idea why i stepped up to play this one, really. i just did. honestly, i dont even remember what game it was. doesnt matter. i dont care.
all i knew was this - on the arcade games exterior, there was this badass evil looking knight type guy with a gargantuan broadsword. and thats who i wanted to play as. and so i did. as stated, im not much of an arcade guy. and especially a fighting game kind of guy. mostly, im just a button masher. you know, i just randomly push buttons until something cool happens (and mostly nothing does, and then i lose). and then try to remember how i did said cool thing. and add it to the repertoire.
for some reason, this game came easily to me (playing the computer, of course). i guess i just assumed that in general, it was an easy fighting game. and i was ok with that. i rejoiced in it. the first time i played the game, i beat it on my initial fifty cents.
a few days later, i was back in the food court (to get my burrito fix taken care of), and decided to head into the arcade again. i pumped in my change, picked the gigantic plate armored fiend with the huge blade, and proceeded to button mash. i was probably about halfway through the sequence of fights when the guy who was working behind the counter (you know, the guy who handles the transactions between young ticket holders and cheap $.005 toys) approached. mind you, up until that point, he had passed by a few times, apparently watching me play. apparently (so it seems) i was "good".
he popped his fifty cents into my machine, therby interrupting my game, and proceeded to pound me into a husk. i dropped in my other fifty cents, just because i had time to kill, and this time i managed to put up a decent fight before i was solidly schooled. not a word was spoken, except he said "good game" as i left. i said thanks and walked away.
now, one who might not have paid attention to what ive already written might think that this beating via arcade fighting game by the twenty-something-moms-basement-dweller (seriously, this was week day lunch time - this was no pimply high school student. this was a pimply older-than-that guy) that worked at the mall food courts arcade was what led to my loss of self respect, and thus the title of this post, but one might thus be wrong. no, no... it gets a bit worse than that.
i came back again the following week to blow off some steam through button mashing. played the same game. once again, i was approached mid game by this dude. once again, we played in silence. i put up a strong fight, and ultimately, i lost again. i popped in fifty more cents, and set to beating him wholesale. triumph!
no, i really am not proud of it. im not.
he beat me in the next fight.
a week passed before i returned again (gimme a break, i was bored). and this is when i noticed him jump up at the sight of me and proceed to find a coworker so that he could take his break
to fight me. i was his challenger. he was proud of his playing of this video game, and i was the best competitor he could find. he waited with his breaks until i got there so he could play me.
this was a level of nerdity that i was not yet prepared to descend into.
i played him to the best of my abilities, until my dollar was gone.
and never went back.
i used to work right across the street from a mall. that didnt mean a whole lot to me, except for the food court. you really cant go wrong with all those choices of food in such close proximity. a veritable lunch break smorgasbord.
and from time to time, i would take advantage of that. i could go get me some mcdonalds if i so desired, or maybe some panda express when i was feeling like some cheap chinese food. or every now and again, a burrito, or perhaps some pizza. nothing but winning in all possibilities. and follow it all up with a cinnabon.
sometimes, if i was feeling especially bored at work, or just wanted a change in things, i would hit up the arcade that was located within the food court at the time before id go back after lunch.
im not much of an arcade game kind of guy. its just too easy to pump way too much money into those games, and frankly, i suck at them. but it was something to do. id go in there with $2 or so, and would plan to spend only that and then get the hell out of there. back to work and such.
so this one time i went in there, and i spotted a fighting game that i hadnt played before. i suck at fighting games. never been good at them. no idea why i stepped up to play this one, really. i just did. honestly, i dont even remember what game it was. doesnt matter. i dont care.
all i knew was this - on the arcade games exterior, there was this badass evil looking knight type guy with a gargantuan broadsword. and thats who i wanted to play as. and so i did. as stated, im not much of an arcade guy. and especially a fighting game kind of guy. mostly, im just a button masher. you know, i just randomly push buttons until something cool happens (and mostly nothing does, and then i lose). and then try to remember how i did said cool thing. and add it to the repertoire.
for some reason, this game came easily to me (playing the computer, of course). i guess i just assumed that in general, it was an easy fighting game. and i was ok with that. i rejoiced in it. the first time i played the game, i beat it on my initial fifty cents.
a few days later, i was back in the food court (to get my burrito fix taken care of), and decided to head into the arcade again. i pumped in my change, picked the gigantic plate armored fiend with the huge blade, and proceeded to button mash. i was probably about halfway through the sequence of fights when the guy who was working behind the counter (you know, the guy who handles the transactions between young ticket holders and cheap $.005 toys) approached. mind you, up until that point, he had passed by a few times, apparently watching me play. apparently (so it seems) i was "good".
he popped his fifty cents into my machine, therby interrupting my game, and proceeded to pound me into a husk. i dropped in my other fifty cents, just because i had time to kill, and this time i managed to put up a decent fight before i was solidly schooled. not a word was spoken, except he said "good game" as i left. i said thanks and walked away.
now, one who might not have paid attention to what ive already written might think that this beating via arcade fighting game by the twenty-something-moms-basement-dweller (seriously, this was week day lunch time - this was no pimply high school student. this was a pimply older-than-that guy) that worked at the mall food courts arcade was what led to my loss of self respect, and thus the title of this post, but one might thus be wrong. no, no... it gets a bit worse than that.
i came back again the following week to blow off some steam through button mashing. played the same game. once again, i was approached mid game by this dude. once again, we played in silence. i put up a strong fight, and ultimately, i lost again. i popped in fifty more cents, and set to beating him wholesale. triumph!
no, i really am not proud of it. im not.
he beat me in the next fight.
a week passed before i returned again (gimme a break, i was bored). and this is when i noticed him jump up at the sight of me and proceed to find a coworker so that he could take his break
to fight me. i was his challenger. he was proud of his playing of this video game, and i was the best competitor he could find. he waited with his breaks until i got there so he could play me.
this was a level of nerdity that i was not yet prepared to descend into.
i played him to the best of my abilities, until my dollar was gone.
and never went back.
posted by The EYE at 7:32 PM
2 Comments:
Now that was a good story - sad but true
I was not saving up my breaks... it was a coincidence when you came in. Pwned.
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