Psychotic Men Slayerz: A League of their Ownage

By Jim W. Gettys

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I jumped onto a Counter-Strike™ for Xbox server with the elite members of Psychotic Men Slayerz (PMS). When I was reading up about Counter-Strike clans, I heard stories of a rogue combat clan consisting only of women, but shrugged it off as one of the usual Internet fairy tales.Real fighting is done by men, I thought.

That assumption was quickly put to rest.

I accepted their invite to join a game and chat first-hand with the founder of clan PMS. The first leg on their "tour of duty” was a little downtown section of Miami, where some action was going down at the bank. Some scumbag terrorists had broken into the joint and held a number of the staff hostage. Athena—the clan PMS founder—shot me a quick hello before telling me to “get ready for some heavy fire.” I suited up with the standard issue pistol and Kevlar vest and followed her lead. Just after we breached the front entrance, all hell broke loose.

“Hang back, I’ll take care of this,” she shouted over the clamor of bullets and Communicator headset chatter. With that, she jumped into the fray and dropped the first terrorist with a single shot from her pistol. The unlucky meat bag crumpled onto the floor, twitching and convulsing like a headless cockroach. As if nothing had happened, she calmly continued our conversation. “So, what do you want to know about us?”

I wasn’t expecting such a casual attitude, especially during a life-or-death gun battle, but I decided to play along. After all, there were a few men around—terrorist men—and I didn’t want them to see me hiding behind Athena and her squad for protection. “Tell me about your clan's history,” I asked, just as we made visual contact with the opposition.

She started telling me about the first days of Xbox Live™. “Back in those early days, females were very scarce, and it made the gameplay a totally unique experience.” By “unique” she means frustrating. Most of the time, adolescent boys would trash talk her ear off, while older men spent the game spouting bad pick-up lines.

Getting a bunch of girls together on a server was a safe haven of sorts, but in those days, girl gamers were a minority. So, Athena formed her own clan, and it's been a success ever since. “We now have about 40 members, ranging in age from 13 to 34, with an average age of 24.” Those aren't bad numbers, and Athena noted that their membership is still expanding—a notable achievement for a clan that's been around since the beginning.

Frank isn’t enjoying the company of these women.

Just then, the familiar clink of a grenade bouncing on floor tiles interrupted our conversation. We high-tailed it out of the hallway and into a small ventilation shaft, with two of Athena's girls tailing behind us. As she rounded the corner, I could hear the loud percussion of an explosion to our rear, and the controller rumbled in my hands. The skirmish was capped off with some machinegun fire as another bad guy bit the dust.

“Thank God I’m on their side,” I thought out loud.

“What did you say?” Athena shot back.

Realizing my verbal slip, I quickly changed the subject. “So, uh, tell me why they call you Athena.”

With a slight twinge of sarcasm, she answered my question. “Well, of course, every girl or guy gives a lot of thought to their competitive names,” she said. “Athena was the goddess of wisdom, war, the arts, industry, justice, and skill in Greek mythology. What better name could a girl have in a competitive clan than Athena?" And, it is a good name—a name so nice you'd use it twice—so when Athena's twin sister later started gaming on XboxLive and joined PMS, she took the name Athena Twin.

“No wonder they look alike,” I thought, noticing her and her twin were similarly dressed in counter-terrorism garb. “Nice helmets.”

That was the last thought through my mind—and was quickly replaced by a bullet. I lost all control of my character and dropped to the ground faster than a mob hit at a spaghetti convention. “Guess I’ll have to continue this conversation on re-spawn.”

In the next round, Athena kicked her game into high gear and switched to the Fastline map. I found myself patrolling the corridors of a subway station alongside her and the rest of the PMS crew in attendance. By now, I had shaken the cobwebs off my controller. It had been a long time since I'd played a shooter, but my old-time skillz were coming back to me. Death, it seemed, was good for my game. Five minutes and several kills into the round, I was earning a few notches for my belt (and hopefully started earning the respect of the deadly women on my team).

“What do you think about the stereotype that women prefer puzzle and simulation games as opposed to shooters?” I asked Athena in a slightly less hectic moment.

“Our clan is living proof that this is a myth. Although I am sure many women enjoy such games, our girls are definitelyshooter girls. Yeah, the grenades might mess up our hair, but we look hotter that way!” she joked. It made me wonder: Did the standard-issue helmets give them hat-hair?

Twin takes a break from fighting to check her manicure.

Athena's voice was muffled under the heavy gunfire. In defiance, she dropped another punk to the floor in a hail of bullets. As she squeezed off one round after another, I wondered aloud if gaming was something that would keep her and her sister busy for the long term, or was it just a passing thing?

“Our first console was Atari, and we have been hooked on consoles ever since. Coming from a family of five girls, we were always gamers in every aspect. Cards, board games, gambling, etc.—we play them all. With all the gaming in our household you can see where our competitive spirit and aggressive nature comes from.”

Their background in gaming has given Athena and Twin a unique perspective on gaming. Not a mere button-masher, Athena has a few ideas for designers, who have often overlooked the female species when crafting the next big shooter. During one rather hellish stand-off at the main intersection, she offered this tidbit over the din of explosions and screams.

“Female Characters! How the heck could all the makers of the best games forget this? Aside from a couple games, all we get are sweaty male skins and a pink Master Chief. Give me a break.”

True. Who wouldn’t like to see more ladies running around with guns?

To read more about PMS, check out the Spotlight on Xbox Live Clans and TriXie’s interview with Trixie.

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