Celebrating the players of the Edmonton Smash Bros Community
Emily "Vera" Devereux
"I'm Emily and the tag I go by is "Vera". I'm cool with people calling me either! I mostly play Project M, it feels the most natural to me plus Zelda is so much fun when she's a more balanced character. I play mainly Zelda and Sheik, mostly Zelda in PM and Sheik in Melee. I joined the scene a couple months ago when Jamie Welch introduced it to me. I was never super into Smash beforehand, but I find that playing 1vs1 matches is really intense and a lot of fun, where beforehand I had only played it as a party game and never found free for all too engaging."
"Do you think you'll be playing smash competitively after discovering the excitement and intensity of 1vs1s?"
"I'd really like to. The idea of playing a game competitively really appeals to me and the Smash community seems great so far. But I know it will take a lot more work than what I've been putting in. I think one of the great things about smash is that you get to play with people in person. The downside of that is it takes a bit more effort to get out there and practice. Of course I can practice tech skills on my own, but obviously playing with different people is important too. If my life gets less crazy I hope to invest some more time in improving and working towards standing a chance competitively."
"Most people end up being satisfied with playing competently at whatever skill level they happen to be. Do you plan on investing time into your gameplay to contend with the local top players?"
"I've caught the Smash bug to some extent and I would really like to get
better. I doubt I'll be contending with the top players anytime soon, but it would be a lot of fun and really rad if I could end up... pretty much anywhere that's not the bottom of the rankings really *laughs* But again, really depends on whether I can actually clear out some time to invest more seriously into the game."
"What were your initial impressions of the smash scene? Have you been a part of a gaming community prior to joining the smash community?
"The smash scene seems really cool so far. Everyone's been friendly and helpful. I get a bit shy being thrown in the midst of large groups so I'm still feeling it out a bit, but I definitely want to start joining different setups so I can meet new people and figure out how to play against a variety of styles and characters.I started out playing MMOs early on and have been a part of gaming communities online. For example I played the original Guild Wars pretty intensely for a few years, co-lead a guild, stuff like that. But this is the first local community I've joined, and it's really neat to meet up with people and play face to face. It's awesome to hang out with people in 'real life' and I think it also keeps raging in check. My big beef with online gaming is that people tend to be really toxic, and it's easy to dehumanize people and be a jerk from behind a screen. When you're buddies with the people you're playing with, and you're playing in person, it's a way different atmosphere and I think that's a big reason why the local smash community is so great to be a part of.
"Speaking of the general toxicity of gaming communities, as a girl gamer, what have your experiences been so far? Both during your time playing online in the past as well as your time playing within the smash community recently?"
"Man, I started playing games online when I was maybe... 10? Maybe younger? And generally have gotten crap for 1. being young, 2. being a girl, and 3. being Canadian of all things...Of course I'm a more 'average' age for gaming now and being Canadian is awesome. But yeah, I've had to deal with people online trying to hit on me, ask me to /dance for them, make jokes and so on just because I'm female. Sometimes jokes are harmless but it gets really tiring to have people constantly point out that I'm "different" from the regular crowd and rag on me endlessly. I'm happiest when people treat me like they do everyone else and don't point out that I'm a girl all the time... because seriously who cares? I just want to play and have fun and being female doesn't make me any better or worse than anyone else. I haven't been around the smash community for very long but I've only had good experiences and heard positive things, which is awesome! Hoorah!"