I never even knew there WAS an N7 day until after I got my Mass Effect tattoo -- which of course features the N7 logo straight from my femShep's gear. When I had it done and people questioned the wisdom of getting a video game tattoo, I just sort of shrugged and went, "Oh, if someday I hate the game, then the tat will just be for my birthday!"
It never occurred to me that Bioware had already appropriated that day for its own purposes.
Then November 2014 rolled around, and the Internet (or, at least the pages I was frequenting), blew up with N7 ads for merch, Gaming Heads statues, and so on.
I felt so lucky. Now, I have yet another reason to love on Mass Effect. I had lots -- I follow both Bioware and Mass Effect (and Dragon Age, as if anyone's surprised) on social media, for goodness' sake -- but now I had another! The sales! The promotions! The outpouring of love for my favorite game series!
Of course, I get weird looks when I'm more excited for N7 Day than I am for November 7th, my birthday, but I don't care.
I'm not one of those people who loves their birthday. Sure, they were a blast when I was a kid, but once I started to grow up, I just didn't have that kind of life that fosters an obsession with the anniversary of the day I was born. I've never cared that much -- I've spent too many birthdays stressed out over schedules of how many hours I'm spending with each parent so my time is divided equally, per the divorce 'rules,' to get overly excited. Nor have I, as a blossoming adult, ever found good reason to get too excited when history says that I'm going to be tired, pressured into hanging out with people I don't want to see, and receiving domestic-style gifts (like the memorable instance when, on my 21st birthday, my mom gave me a brownie pan and a recipe book. Fun.).
Bishop knows all this, and thankfully he's a strong advocate for the "do whatever the fuck you want for your birthday" school of thought. If I'm stressing out, he cancels plans with my family. If I'm up for it, he tags along to every single event. I think that in part, he agreed to getting married in early November just to give me something more exciting to celebrate than my birthday.
If only we'd known that all he had to do was introduce me to Shepard and her story, and I'd have been all over November 7th.
Of course, now that I've discovered Mass Effect, Bishop has taken that love to heart on N7 day, and he spoils me rotten -- mostly by handing over his "Equinox's Birthday Present Budget" to me and letting me go nuts on the Bioware Store's enormous Mass Effect-themed sale.
Come N7 Day 2016, I'll be decked out in ME shit and fit to party with the most hardcore of fans.
I love this day -- there are times when I feel isolated as a ME fan because too many of my fellow nerd friends hate ME3 and have thus abandoned the series. I've been teased for my Spectre t-shirt in Kaiden Alenko blue and yellow, and despite how cool my to-scale Gaming Heads statue of Garrus is, non-nerds still give me funny looks and eye rolls over how much I was willing to spend to house a model of my favorite turian.
They'll laugh even harder when Tali arrives, I'm sure.
N7 Day gives me the chance to embrace my love of Mass Effect with fans all around the world, and I love it. I can't wait for the saga to continue next year -- to Andromeda and beyond.
No comments:
Post a Comment