Later Levels: one big oxymoron

In the middle of March, Matt from Normal Happenings kindly tagged Later Levels in one of his Daily Inkling posts. The regular series provides inspiration for all the bloggers out there to use as literary clay for moulding into whatever form they wish. This entry was titled ‘Personal Oxymoron’ and asked: “Based on your personality, what is something you would expect yourself to like, but just can’t seem to get into?”

I can respond to that question succinctly using only three words: Later Levels itself. But the answer is so much more than that and requires a little explanation. In certain respects this blog is a contradiction and therefore perhaps shouldn’t exist – maybe I’m putting the entire universe at risk simply by writing this – but I’m incredibly glad it does and that I’ve found my little space on the internet. What follows are some of the reasons why this site is one big, cuddly oxymoron.

Older females don’t play video games

An older female who plays video games? Well I never! I’m one of the more ‘mature’ bloggers on the block (let’s use that term loosely) and on top of that I’m a woman, so there are some out there who’d think I’m far too much of a grown-up to play video games or even be interested in them. That couldn’t be further from the truth. I’m more likely to pick up a game than any other form of media, and I couldn’t picture myself blogging about any other subject. In fact I don’t ever see myself not playing video games.

Adventure fans love Daedalic titles

It’s pretty obvious from most of the posts I write that I have a huge fondness for the adventure genre; and the titles by Daedalic Entertainment are some of the most loved. So it should therefore follow that I’m a fan of the developer, right? Wrong. I really don’t enjoy Daedalic’s games; I think I’ve only completed three and have abandoned all others halfway through. There’s just something about the characters they choose for their protagonists which doesn’t appeal to me and most end up grinding my gears.

Certain personality types enjoy My Little Pony

Years ago I undertook a blogging project to find out more about the My Little Pony community and publish a series about the people I’d met. I found out that a certain personality type was attracted to the show; and you can guess which type I turned out to be when I took my own Myers-Briggs test. I watched a few of the cartoons for research, to understand why its fans enjoyed it so much, but I just didn’t get it. The project was however an interesting experience and a lot of very kind people gave me an insight into their world.

Bloggers love being social

Blogging is a very social activity. To do it well, you need to open yourself up to interaction, meeting new people and instigating discussions with them. The truth its that I suck at all of those things and find it hard to be social: I’m ok in one-one situations but when the group grows to more than five, I have trouble following the conversation and feel anxious about saying the wrong thing. That doesn’t mean I’ll stop blogging however, because it’s the perfect way to push myself outside of my comfort zone.

Positive people promote positivity

I’ve always tried to use Later Levels as a platform to promote positivity, be that in ourselves as individuals or in the gaming community as a whole. But March was quite a difficult month and my mental health has taken knock so sometimes I feel the opposite of positive myself. But optimism breeds optimism and you’ve got to keep pushing forward. If you talk about what’s going on in your head with those you trust, and keep telling yourself and others that a brighter day is on its way, then it will arrive very soon.

There we go, five reasons why this blog is an oxymoron. Thank you once again to Matt for his Daily Inkling tag and giving me the opportunity to write this post! Now over you you: what makes you an oxymoron?