Dirty Girl
I had My Very Worst Roommate my first semester at college. We got along well enough for the first semester, until she got “sick.” This meant that she rarely went to class and eventually stopped going completely. She slept all day long and stayed up all night lying in her bed playing Dungeons and Dragons online, talking on a headset to her boyfriend in Norway, whom she had met through the game. I’m a pretty heavy sleeper so I didn’t mind the talking, really. What bothered me was the smell. She only showered once a week and it was directly before a martial arts practice, the only thing she got out of bed for. Our two suite mates, who shared our living room and bathroom, quickly became aware of the situation because the smell of urine began to take over the suite. I sprayed her bedding and clothes with Febreze when she was out because I was embarrassed for her but didn’t say anything because I was naïve enough to still believe that she was actually sick. The smell eventually even reached our suite mates’ bedroom, which she herself had never once set foot in.
She also gave her mother my cell phone number, so when her mom wanted to talk to her, she would call me at any time of the day or night if my roommate didn’t pick up her phone. Eventually I told her that her daughter never went to class because she was always sick. Her own mother told me she wasn’t sick and that she wouldn’t be coming back next year since she wasn’t going to pay for her daughter to fail everything. My roommates and I, and presumably her parents, tried talking to her politely about her problems, but she insisted there was nothing wrong. She got the hint that we didn’t like her, but had no idea why. In the end she managed to convince her mother to keep paying for college and she returned for at least one more year though I no longer lived with her. We had the same major so inevitably ran into each other afterwards, but she always turned around and walked away when she saw me. I almost feel bad for her, until I remember what it was like to live with her.
Ok. I understand that people really get into those games & they take a lot of time, but why does it seem that people who play RPG’s have the worst hygiene? I’m just waiting for someone to break the cycle.
@Andrew It probably seems that way because you’re basing that on a stereotype?
Of all the various gamers I’ve met one person had poor hygiene. People have poor hygiene, sometimes those people even play RPGs. Two factors presented at the same time without pattern does not even give correlation.
I’ve known multiple with terrible hygiene. I actually wasn’t aware of the stereotype until after I kept running in to these people at my college.
Andrew, that stereotype is throughout college, whether they are gamer or just social recluse. The issue here is that RPG’s allow people with social disorders to live a life outside reality. It’s nice to interact with people who judge you off your avatar and the weapons it has versus your classmates who “don’t really get you.”
I say this because that is exactly why I gamed throughout college. With excellent hygiene and health
I’ve known other gamers who weren’t like that. But I’ve known more that were. And it seemed that as time progressed that seemed to be the norm, at least as far as I knew from my own experiences, TV, & the internet.
I do know some gamers with terrible hygiene. But the vast majority have perfectly fine hygiene…and I know A LOT of gamers. I think the difference is that we’ll still hang out with you if you have bad hygiene, whereas others will shun you. Gamers love and accept everyone…we just won’t go over to your house or let you ride in our car.
I think it’s that people with poor social and hygiene skills are drawn to those games because in that universe, people can’t smell you. They see your avatar and think you’re a beautiful woman with big boobs who says things like “We must go far away and engage in a war with the clan” or some such crap. Poor thing though, she obviously has a screwed up family,any wonder she’s a smelly mess who escapes into goober-land and has a boyfriend she’s never met?
My gamer friends and I won’t hang out with somebody with bad hygiene. It’s fucking nasty and being outside the social norm isn’t an excuse for not doing to basics to maintain yourself as a person.
You can call it a stereotype, but I have never met a person heavy into online gaming who wasn’t smelly or socially awkward. For the most part, people with normal lives don’t need a second one online that allows them to “be themselves”.
I think it’s because people who are addicted to MMOs live in the alternate MMO world, not in the real world. Because of this they don’t worry so much about their real world look and smell although they may spend a lot of time on the apperance and stats of their character.
I do feel bad for the girl in this story though. I get the impression she might have been depressed if she was spending all day in bed.
While there are gamers who are also depressed or poorly trained, not all of us are. I and my two gamer brothers all have excellent hygiene, friends, involved in other extracurricular activities, and have happy and healthy marriages. Only one of us is married to a gamer. Of the two of us, my husband is more likely to be smelly. He does not game. He fishes. But he showers when he comes home smelling of river water and fish.
On the topic of roommate; perhaps depressed (change in sleep patterns, careless of self, disinvolving in real world, breaking of connections, etc.) Still a very poor roommate.