I’m not usually one to outwardly express that I’m a gamer, at least not in a way that screams “Look at me, I play games”. I love playing games but just don’t publicise it on my body.

I don’t  tend to wear game-related t-shirts in public (although I do have a Mario Old Skool tee and various t-shirts given to me by game publishers I tend to wear them around the house) and don’t have a lot of gaming memorability on display around the house. No Master Chief figures, no Zelda posters, no Portal soundtracks playing on iTunes. Any way, most t-shirts from game publishers are pretty terrible in terms of subtlety and design.

That’s all changed over the past week. A work colleague – who is much a movie geek as I am a gaming geek – send me a simple email titled: “Have you seen this?” – and it had a link to a company called Insert Coin Clothing. I hadn’t heard about it so clicked the link. Now I’m $80 poorer – but I’m not complaining.

For those that don’t know what Insert Coin Clothing is – and I was one of those people up up until this week – it’s a British-based t-shirt maker who makes cool video game-inspired shirts and hoodies.  What really impressed me with the shirt designs is that they’re subtle enough for  gamers to know what they’re saying while cool enough for non-gamers to probably ask what the logo means.

There are t-shirts referencing Portal, Mass  Effect 2, Resident Evil, Limbo, Bioshock, Halo Reach, Goldeneye, Pikmin, Killzone 2 and Dead Space. In the end, I plumbed for a Dead Space one, featuring the name USG Ishimura, and one called Gamer’s Voice which has an image of four gaming controllers and the words “Contrary to popular opinion, these do not make me a killer”. It ended up costing me 40 pounds (NZ$80.20) for two good quality t-shirts – heck, one decent t-shirt in New Zealand will cost upwards of $60. The free postage also swayed the deal.

I’m now waiting patiently for my package to arrive – it’s left Insert Coin Clothing’s depot already apparently – so I can get my geek on and wear these puppies out in public.

Oh, I also had another gaming-related purchase this week that I’m not so sure about but will probably keep, anyway. I was out getting Edge magazine on the weekend from the gaming store I go to and for some reason – perhaps it was because my son persuaded me – I bought a Altair, from Assassin’s Creed,  collectible figure. It’s still sitting in its packaging.

My  son keeps asking me if I’m going to open it and I say no. Part of me wants to take it back because I don’t need it but secretly part of me wants to rip it open, prop it up on my desk and dream about climbing renaissance Italy cathedrals. Perhaps seeing Altair on my desk will prompt me to start saving so we can actually get to visit Italy sometime before I die.