One Massive Effect.

Let’s talk about Mass Effect. Spoilers (Obvs.) 

It flew under my radar a little bit. Which meant that I hadn’t played it, or even watch someone play it until about a month ago.

Everyone on the internet was freaking out over a little thing called Mass effect Andromeda, and the trailer looked so freaking cool.

But I’m not one to start halfway through a series, I didn’t think I could play Mass effect Andromeda unless I knew a little about the other three games. It wasn’t a planned thing, I just decided that a bit of backstory would be nice.

With a month until Andromeda came out, that was my challenge, play all three Mass Effect games. In a month.

I started with Mass Effect 2, mostly because that game was highly recommended, mainly because it was free on Origin. I know it’s not chronological, and I regret it.

Remember, I was a Mass Effect newbie. I didn’t know what N7 meant, or what a spectre was or the difference between a Salarian and a salmon.

Do you remember the beginning of Mass Effect 2? I know it’s been a while so let me refresh your memory. It opens with a simple spaceship; the Normandy, one thing leads to another and then you’re dead.  I thought I broke the game, the main character doesn’t die in the first hour of a video game.

But in Mass Effect, there are no rules. 

So I played 200 hours in just over 14 days. I lived and breathed this game. I fell in love (Garrus, obviously) and killed my friends (Miranda, obviously). I failed, and I succeeded. I gathered my crew, gained their trust and saved (most) of their lives.

I couldn’t go back. So I played Mass Effect 3, and the choices got harder, I felt personally involved. The nostalgia, even from characters I was playing with a week ago, was intense.

There was that choice. Where I left my computer running for a couple of hours as I went for a walk to try and make my decision. This game made me think about the meaning of life, it made me question my views on morality.

Then it ended, only 40 hours later. I felt cheated, I looked up 5-year-old YouTube rants so I knew I wasn’t alone in my frustration.

Just in time for Mass Effect: Andromeda.

I get why some people didn’t like it. But I loved it, not as much as the previous games, but still, I sat and thought about my life at the end.

And isn’t that what a good game should do? What good art should do?

The Mass Effect trilogy makes you question your beliefs, it challenges you and engages you. I cried and threw my controller across the room. The Mass Effect trilogy becomes a part of your life.

Mass Effect: Andromeda didn’t do that. But it tried to. As a game, Andromeda is fun, the laser lance is fun, the jetpack is fun, exploring in the nomad is fun. The characters are interesting, and the storyline is okay if a little predictable. 

Exploring space is always going to be fun, but this Mass Effect didn’t have any big choices, and that I think, was its biggest mistake. 

Poké-stop and smell the roses.

The last time I went to London, I went to the theatre for my sister’s birthday. We saw ‘The End of Longing’.

 I’m not going to lie to you; we went because it was written by Matthew Perry.

There was a gut-wrenching moment when I didn’t think he was going to come through, but he did. It was great, and we left feeling slightly more sophisticated for going to The Theatre Darling.

And that has always been my experience with London. You go see the sights, see the art or the theatre or the poetry reading, or even a rock concert and you come back feeling like you had fun, you are a bit more cultured now, but you didn’t see London. You weren’t part of London.

 

Who could be part of such a landmark city? Who could not stand on the periphery of tourist attractions and postcard streets?

On Saturday 23^rd of July 2016, that all changed.

The meeting point was outside big ben, the time was 13 hundred hours.

It was Pokémon go time.

My boyfriend and I went with battery packs full and mobile data pumping, our hats turned backwards. There was so many people, 5000 trainers all crammed in the same place at the same time, brought together by their love of something, innocent and fun.

The sun shone and to be honest we didn’t manage the 10 km routes, instead, we sat outside the houses of parliament and gazed at the multitudes of people milling past.

Some confused at the mass of Pokémon players, some bathing in the atmosphere of acceptance, and one distraught looking bride who thought a wedding photo shot outside Westminster would look great. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe she planned for the horde of Pokémon trainers in her wedding photos.

When we tried setting off we were completely blindsided by a thousand random bikes sailing past. What caught me by surprise wasn't the sheer number of cyclists, but the fact that the all appeared to be boys and I still have no idea what they were doing. Or why.

I guess I’ll never know.

We wondered through Buckingham Palace gardens, and up to Piccadilly Circus. We had a spot of lunch at Chiquitos.

And although we didn’t really do anything, I have never felt more a part of a city. I have never felt more welcome and involved.

I guess this shows that your opinion, your perspective, your own internal stereotypes can change at any time. You are constantly evolving.

Breaking the student stereotypes has never been so fun.

Hello Internet.

Well, I did say it would be stereotypical. (It's in the title)

But the thing about stereotypes is that they are there to be broken, confirmed and then demolished again. What do you think the stereotypical student is? A loud mouthed party-goer? A nose in the book type? A technology obsessed geek? A coffee drinking poet? An activist? A traveller?

Check. Check. Check.

Because the thing about stereotypes is that they are not mutually exclusive. I am all that and more. You can’t define me by my Star Buck frappes and Snapchat stories, any more than you can by my gaming obsession and fan-girl ways.

Because I am the stereotypical student.

And more. 

I've finally realised that stereotypes don’t have to be negative. Humans like to put things into boxes, tick off lists and confirm stereotypes because the idea that every single person on this planet is as individual and complex as you is a difficult perspective to swallow.

So this blog is designed to explore each of these stereotypes. I have a label for the traveller, for the writer, for the geek and for the studious. Sometimes things don't fit neatly into boxes. Sometimes posts will have more than one label.

What stereotypes do you conform to? What ones do you break?  Talk about it in the comments below.