Boys will be Boys will be Boys

"MG squad, set up on this position!"

Meet Greg. He's your average university kid. Dresses in t-shirts and berms, complains about proffessors like most normal university kids, does quite well in school and is great to have in a project group cos he comes up with lots of wacky ideas.

Now Greg and I didn't have much in common, besides one ill-fated semester with him in my BeeGeeAss group. Then, I went out for a LAN session with some of my friends, and he tagged along. We had found common ground.

Many days, we'd hit the LAN shops after school, earning our "Special Ops Specialist" badges and getting ourselves promoted to sergeant. We'd discuss our in-game performance after the sessions, and he was always entertaining to discuss with, cos he gave silly sound effects for every single thing that he did in-game.

Our other friends will always wonder how these two buggers always seemed to have time for "another lan session" while they were busy studying in the library. Many of them never afforded the time to go with our struggles for honour and glory in the virtual battlefields. Greg and I would discuss new games, or coo over the latest previews of the perpetually delayed juicy new titles. When the games come out, we'd raise our spynets and find out which LAN shop offered such games. (Actually, it's more like which LAN shop could handle the intense graphics of such games.)

We'd then exclaim in unison when we drop V1 rockets on the enemy base. Or giggle when the enemy tanks get shredded by our AT guns while passing through a chokepoint. It's a strange giggle, part euphoria, part sadistic glee, part exclaimation. It's a giggle only gamers understand.

So what's the point of my post? Well, we started interning recently as part of our degree programme. We're now part of the army of corporate drones, filtering into the impassive office buildings in the central business district. I have to wear a silly monkey suit everyday. I look like the thousand other guys, long-sleeved shirts, tie, dark pants and dark leather shoes. Greg has to dress like a monkey too. Admittedly, he doesn't look like the laid-back Greg I know. However, one day, while eating lunch together, Greg started on the topic of computer games. I was explaining to him how glorious shield generators looked on "high" detailed graphics settings, what with the shimmery effect they produce. Then I got stumped trying to describe the "ripple" effect that the shields produce when dissipating the energy of incoming projectiles. As I fumbled through my vocabulary, Greg exclaimed, "Oh! You mean that 'pje-yonw' effect?" And immediately, I nodded.

Beneath the starched stiffness of our business shirts and the polished leather shoes, boys will be boys will be boys. -Jimmy