It’s Christmas.
You have a gamer friend.
What do you get them?!
Surely not the latest game (they might have that already). Definitely not something off the bargain shelf at your nearest Challenger store (too predictable). But what do you get them, then?
Here are eight not-so-predictable Christmas gifts that might surprise a gamer friend or two the good way.
A Tricky Soap
No, not a bar of Lux or Dove from your local drugstore. Geeky Clean soap: handmade bars described as ‘epic hygiene for the common gamer’. Like cereal boxes that come with toys in them, bars of Geeky Clean soap come with cool bits and bobs like a d20 die, a plastic dinosaur or even a set of false vampire fangs embedded within them.
More reason to shower more often, since you cannot get to the toys until you finish the bar.
A bar starts from as low as US$2.99.
A Gamer Shirt
Not just any shirt, but a shirt from the brand beloved of geeks, gamers and nerds worldwide: a shirt from Jinx.com. Jinx is a clothing brand designed for gamers and geeks, and they carry the official collections from brands like Blizzard to MapleStory. The mainstay of Jinx is a t-shirt, but they do have keychains, stickers, and other assorted stocking stuffers.
Get something from Jinx for as little as US$2.99, if you want to be cheap. For the more generous, shirts from Jinx start at US$10.
Gamer-themed Cosmestics
Most gamer chicks don’t know sites like these exist, so be prepared for a big ol’ hug and kiss under the mistletoe as they express their undying gratitude at you getting them a) makeup and b) gamer-themed makeup. Someone’s gonna be very happy this Christmas!
The words makeup and games don’t usually go together, but Geek Chic Cosmetics does it really well, with collections for everything from World of Warcraft to A Game of Thrones.
Items in Geek Chic Cosmetics start from US$4.99
Caffeine Candy
Everyone knows it’s hard to keep going when it’s four in the morning and you have that dragon to slay in Skyrim. Help your buddy out with the gift of caffeine, in candy form! You’ll want to get something that’s easy to eat, and doesn’t require much in the way of preparation. We suggest the Caffeinated Nixie Tubes: they’re sour candy powder that you can toss back in one shot, for that much needed energy boost.
Or you could snort it, like a boss. We don’t care.
These Nixie Tubes cost US$5.99. Who said Christmas gifts had to be expensive?
A Keyboard That’s Actually Good
This might seem like a no-brainer, but there are some gamers who spend on their games and their machine, but not on their peripherals. There are folks with an S$1000 CPU but who use the free keyboard that came with their monster buy. In light of this, and to celebrate the entire world’s move towards mechanical keyboards, get your friend a nice one.
Try the Steelseries 6Gv2, or the Razer Black Widow, depending on the fanboy camp your friend belongs to. Prices vary at game stores all over Singapore.
A Custom Mug
Most gamers we know live in front of their computers. By live, we mean practically vegetate. And that’s why a cup is in order, because what else would they store their life-giving, caffeinated sustenance in? But not just any cup will do, and especially not the ones plastered with Korean superstars available for a pittance at nearly every Comics Connection store in Singapore.
Get your gamer friend a game themed mug. Prices start from US$17.95.
A Fun But Not Overly Predictable Poster
Nothing says I’m cool like a wall full of game posters, right? Actually, wrong, but a poster still makes a handy gift, and you can be sure of your friend looking at it for the rest of the year! That’s if you get the right game poster.
You can also get them fourteen-year-old-esque posters that say stuff like ‘keep out, gamer at work’. I’m sure they’d like that, because once a gamer, always proud of being a gamer, hey?
Prices start at US$6.99.
Eyedrops
The glare of the computer screen can be very unforgiving. Once upon there was a lady (me) who turned all three of her monitors from the stock markets to Farmville, and wore sunglasses when she played to filter the glare. Eyedrops are easy to apply, oh-so-soothing, and act as stamina/health potions for a gamer in real-life, fortifying him or her for another dungeon delve.
Eyedrops are available everywhere from your corner store to the big corporation-run drugstore at varying prices.
And that’s a comprehensive guide of relatively pocket-friendly, totally un-cliché and functional gifts to give a gamer this Christmas. If you’re a gamer yourself, the added bonus is that nearly everything here can be bought online, negating the need for you to actually stop gaming to leave the house.
Happy shopping!
