Level Up to Domination - why do some feel the need to dominate?

I made it to level 20 in the last Witcher Wednesday stream and for the first time I feel like a high-level character. The difference in emotional reaction from now compared with previous levels is that I engaged in fights in which I dominated my opponent. I don't mean I easily won - I had that before when I returned to the swamps outside Vizima and took on Drowners. No, to dominate an opponent is different, it is not to kill them and be done - it is to kill them in a manner that leaves no doubt I was going to do anything other than win this battle. My opponent never had a chance. This is the type of kill that leaves a message (if anyone in the game world were coming around to clean up my carnage that is).

I am Geralt and you should not fuck with me.

I had very mixed reactions to the game that night, both positive and negative. Something about the session stuck with me, but I wasn't sure what it was in that moment. As is often the case I was exhausted after stream - my brain was done for the day. The next day I awoke with a single question in my head - why do men people some feel the need to dominate?

When Immersion Goes Bad

This week's post is going to be shorter than usual. Before the end of the post, you will understand why.

Immersion is wonderful. I find it so easy to become immersed in media that sometimes I wonder if it is perhaps easier for me than the average person. I am the type of person who will get so into a book that if someone tries to talk to me it takes a moment for me to register where I am. I cry at movies and lose myself in stories and games. My imagination often runs wild. In response to a debate about the "magic circle" at the Meaningful Play conference one year, I told a room full of people I have my own private magic circle around me most of the time.

I love this about myself and more often than not, it's great. Occasionally though, it causes problems.

I am Geralt: Pronoun Usage (Part 1)

I am Geralt. I am not always Geralt, but sometimes I am. I have hinted at this in previous Witcher Wednesday posts:

This is not the way I see myself-as-Geralt

I slept with the witch Abigail. I did it in a moment of empowerment. I did it to spite the villagers and the game. I did it because I liked her.

I am Geralt and I see myself as Geralt in a certain way. I am Geralt and I had a very real emotional reaction to Abigail and the villagers outside of Vizima - a reaction that was born of being both Geralt and a woman raised in America.