Gamer (This Game Is Real)
Words and music by Leslie Fish


Oh, I’m a computer gamer. There’s nothing a won’t play; 
Pac-Man, Mario, Star Trek Battles, I play ‘em every day.
I played with speed and style. I racked up a super score,
Until the secret Service came and knocked down my front door.
  They stole my whole computer and all my discs and games.
  They called me a hacker-cracker, and lots of weirder names.
  They busted me for “intention” to hack all kinds of junk,
  But all the evidence they could find was a game called “Cyberpunk”.

	You’ve gotta wonder ‘bout these people, and what they think and feel.
	They can’t tell a game from real life; they think this game is real.

I’m a fantasy-role-playing gamer. I play wherever I can.
I like Dungeons and Dragons, Runequest and ShadowLand.
I played as kings and Vikings, wizards, elves and more,
Until a bunch of fundies came and kicked down my front door.
  They stole my dice and game-book; they called it a Book of Spells. 
  They said I was Conjuring Demons, and things to weird to tell.
  They burned my books and papers. They almost burned me too!
  They really believed in magic; they thought that stuff was true!

	You’ve gotta wonder ‘bout these people, and what they think and feel.
	They can’t tell a game from real life; they think this game is real.


I’m a live role-playing gamer. I used to play out in the wood.
Twilight 2000, ShadowRun, I’d play whenever I could.
I’d put on my costume, shoot tin cans and make firecrackers fly.
Then my front door got kicked down again – this time by the FBI.
  They stole by guns, my videotapes, every book I’d ever read.
  And a couple bags of fertilizer out of the garden shed.
  They told the press I was a Terrorist who planned to blow up half the town.
  They called me a right-wing militia nut and a neo-Nazi clown.  Huhhh?

	You’ve gotta wonder ‘bout these people, and what they think and feel.
	They can’t tell a game from real life; they think this game is real.

	You’ve gotta wonder ‘bout these people, and just how they get by.
	If they can’t tell the truth from fantasy, do they even know when they lie?