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[Column] General: Gamer vs. Non-Gamer
BillMurphy
Former Managing EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 4,565
In this week's Fair Game, Lisa Jonte takes a look at the relationship between someone who games and loves the pasttime and someone who just doesn't get it. Read her tips for survival in that sort of scenario, and be sure to offer your own thoughts in the comments.
You’ve heard it all before, the complaints, the concerns, the dismissal of your preferred pastime as a pointless waste of time. Despite the rise on casual gaming, both online and via consoles, there are still plenty of people out there who are convinced that gaming is at best, childish, and at worst, a rabbit hole from which you might never escape. The fact that many of those detractors are friends and family just makes it that much harder.
Read the rest of Fair Game: Gamer vs. Non-Gamer.
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
Comments
I like the piece and the parallels, etc, except I do think there is a big difference, and a lot of gamers of all ages fall into the cycle. Do people sit and play chess for 8 hours a day? Read a book for 6 hours every day? Maybe, but that's pretty damn rare, and not healthy.
Tons of people do that with video games. Further, they enter the 'voice communication cycle.' I remember not long ago, nobody used Vent, Teamspeak, etc, it was all ingame chat. Today is also the microphone era. People associate with others on games who convince them that their behavior is OK, because those people also play and chat for 8+ hours a day. They think it is normal, they even think it is social interaction.
Also, as far as the football matches go, first thing those people need to be careful with their kids at a euro match because that stuff can get pretty wild, for example check out the recent poland russia match. Second, yes the price can be comparable, but the real events are much better. Not only do you get to go out and do something Real, not sitting at a computer, so it helps you develop as a person, but the memories last longer than the memory of the item, even if the item lasts longer. Sometimes the hours and hours we sink into games blend together, when you can have a lifelong memory of a shorter event of quality. Something to consider.
Ahnog
Hokey religions are no replacement for a good blaster at your side.
Yeah, it sort of hits home.
Most of my friends don't play video games and do believe that "any time you are playing a video game you could be using that time to do something productive".
Having said that, they are good friends who support my habit with a nod and a wink and will even listen to my PAX exploits.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I thought this would be about gamers and non-gamer on gaming sites.
To me I consider people who are able to "hate" certain gamecompanies to be non-gamers aka wanna-be gamers. Nothing wrong with disliking a game or it's company, but they way some people go about it makes me wonder if they actually are gamers or just folks who now and then like to play a game. People who want a game to fail, again in my book are non-gamers.
To be honost on topic I don't really care about the non-gamers spoken of in OP in the sence of gaming. I have a best friend that doesn't like games, he's a sportsman, he simply does not understand how I am able to spend so much time on games. Even if so much time is just a few hours a week. But between me gaming and his sports we have allot of other common grounds which is why we became friends. And regardless he himself can't understand it he does respect me having this hobby as I do respect his hobby. He just doesn't see himself sit more then 30/45 minutes behind a computer but he does see I am having fun doing so.
As for people who just don't understand gaming and look down on it, I don't really care....
Kinda the same with my wife (22years ongoing) she doesn't game, she doesn't like games but she respects my hobby, she has other hobby's you will not see me doing but love seeing her enjoying something I might not never enjoy.
Wannabe gamers? haha... i don't think the criteria to being a "gamer" is that complicated. if you play games then i guess that makes you a gamer. I know elitists like to try distance themselves from the average gamer but the fact remains both the elitest and the casual are both gamers.(even though i dislike this horrible tag)
Video games have helped to create an entire generation of unhealthy, socially awkward man-children who can't be relied on for anything, and it's not as if it's rare to run into them. Gaming is a pointless waste of time, and that's okay depending on how much time a person wastes, and what they could be doing with that time. I've known men in their mid-30s who play games for hours and prefer gaming to real social interaction. The stereotype exists because it is a reality.
Of course there's a lot of perfectly responsible, healthy adults who enjoy video games, but if someone, especially a family member, shows concern for the way you enjoy your hobby, it's time to do a bit of self-reflection instead of dismissing them as non-gamers who just don't get it.
the only people unwise enough to criticise the time I spend gaming spend more time watching TV.
I sometimes make spelling and grammar errors but I don't pretend it's because I'm using a phone
If this is actually a significant problem in a person's life, they'd probably want to visit the sixth piece of advice first. Seriously. If you lead a balanced life, people aren't going to be concerned for your well being.
That said, yeah, most of the people who would criticize gaming as a hobby spend as much time, if not more, watching TV.
There is NO miracle patch.
95% of what you see in beta won't change by launch.
Hope is not a stategy.
______________________________
"This kind of topic is like one of those little cartoon boxes held up by a stick on a string, with a piece of meat under it. In other words, bait."
4 days marathon of tv show compared to years of gaming constituting of 5 to 6 hours session almost every day? you still got nothing on your wife. lol
"The problem is that the hardcore folks always want the same thing: 'We want exactly what you gave us before, but it has to be completely different.'
-Jesse Schell
"Online gamers are the most ludicrously entitled beings since Caligula made his horse a senator, and at least the horse never said anything stupid."
-Luke McKinney
Yet again, a very well-written piece. Thank you.
I have stopped trying to convince my family, several years back, of all the things you have in this article, because they refuse to understand, and all of my current friends, as far as I know, play various games, even if they don't play the same games I do. In fact, among all of my friends, I am the only one still playing Lord of the Rings Online, and I've not played that for some time, now. Most other games either don't strike my fancy, or I can't afford the time and money for them, and/or I don't want to play them alone.
To say it with a citation from the cartoon series South Park - World of Warcraft Episode:
Husband: "The evil guy stole the Sword of Eternal Might!"
Wife: "So what?"
Husband (unbelieving): "SO WHAT???!!?!?!??!!!!"
That job helps you pay bills and buy food..you know something you eat to stay alive? i would rather have a job i hate rather than being un employed. Not everyone is lucky enough to play 40 to 60 hours a week and get paid for it.
"The problem is that the hardcore folks always want the same thing: 'We want exactly what you gave us before, but it has to be completely different.'
-Jesse Schell
"Online gamers are the most ludicrously entitled beings since Caligula made his horse a senator, and at least the horse never said anything stupid."
-Luke McKinney
I think he was implying that gamers have better lives doing things they enjoy like playing games while plenty of other people spend huge amounts of time doing things they don't like out of necessity. It's hard to say the gamer has a problem when he isn't the one desperate to work a job he doesn't like.
Make games you want to play.
http://www.youtube.com/user/RavikAztar
Well then he isn't desperate enough. Could be because he is already very rich or employed in a job he really enjoys. people who have bills to pay could care less if they enjoy their jobs or not.
"The problem is that the hardcore folks always want the same thing: 'We want exactly what you gave us before, but it has to be completely different.'
-Jesse Schell
"Online gamers are the most ludicrously entitled beings since Caligula made his horse a senator, and at least the horse never said anything stupid."
-Luke McKinney
Yet they still complain about the guy playing games. He spends the same time playing that the other guy is forced to work. The point is that one guy is happy for 40 hours and the other isn't.
There are a lot of real arguments for spending too much time playing games, but a lot of the criticisms you hear on the internet are false and based on the stories you see on the news.
Make games you want to play.
http://www.youtube.com/user/RavikAztar
Do people read for 6 hours a day or hunt for 8+ hours a day? Yes actuallyI know people like that some of them are true gamers like me who also enjoy the heck out of every nuance of games that include lots of casual not necessarily combative activities for hours on end.
Is it healthier to go outside? yes but that doesn't mean that everyone's going to enjoy the outside. I can't go outside because of my allergy activated Eosinophilia (and certainly not for long) every day I am outside for even 2 hours and come home I get the flu symptoms normally associated with my disability.
Also, I am honestly laughing that people think that just because you aren't at a restaurant or in a car or in a club somewhere and you are in fact talking on the computer via headsets, it's somehow not a social activity. It's very social because you're talking to live people, it doesn't matter the medium anymore. Is talking in person more social? Nope, because people have told me their problems their deep dark secrets etc after they've gotten to know me better and some of the best friends I've ever made were made over vent years in the making.
Definitely have to agree, the news on gaming and gamers are all false, they are filled with sensationalism about how the games are addictive instead of the people having an addictive personality prior to finding the joys of gaming. I've seen it all throughout the years in my time (yes I'm old) they hated ADnD because it had demons in it, the hated on Atari because they claimed kids had lower test scores, they hated on nintendo and sega for again the addictive personalities, they've hated on WoW especially when it launched claiming it teaches kids violence when the tv news does a way better job then any game ever could in that department. (especially the conservative movies, Passion of the Christ anyone? they are actually showing that to kids, yeah.)
The media would love to spread myths about anything so long as it's compelling and gives them ratings.