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[Column] General: Your Everyday Gamer
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Most of us visiting here are avid gamers but not everyone in the world understands us. We know. It's difficult to believe. In today's Pokket Says, we take a look at the everyday gamer and what that is and why we are sometimes misunderstood. Keep reading and then leave your thoughts in the comments.
A lot of this will seem obvious to a great chunk of people, but not so obvious to an even larger majority who may or may not game, but are familiar with this sect of entertainment. While you can sum up the latter as trolls, jerks, uneducated morons, or immature 12 year olds, I think the problem goes beyond name calling. What am I talking about? The perception of the average gamer.
Read more of Hillary Nicole's Pokket Says: Your Everyday Gamer.
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Comments
This unattractive unwanted gamer says way to tell it girl !
Peace gamers everywhere
Thank you Pokket!
Its good to see an article of this type come up. I lurk these pages every day but rarely post, however this time the article was so close to home I just had to post. I'm an internationally touring dj / producer and I game. In fact any time im not eating, sleeping, performing, or standing in airport security lines I am gaming. Many of my peers question my "lifestyle" choice and its actually pretty simple, albeit difficult for many to grasp. I dont like to get messed up every night (something that is always readily available in this industry), I dont want to go home with strange females, and being in a different city every 3 days means any type of normal friendship is basically out of the question. So, gaming is both something I enjoy and actually allows me a somewhat stable social life. Granted I cant sit down and have coffee with my friends, but they are basically always there and ready to have some pixel fun. Anyway... again, thank you. It made my morning.
you have to make a difference between gamers and gamers. i think it also depends what kind of game you playing.
imo its never right to spend all your freetime gaming and that is probably what a lot of mmorpg gamers do. the so called nerds.
i guess one big part of that whole problem is, that gamers themselves have problems committing to non-gamers, that their hobby is gaming.
me for example i am a casual gamer, and i played quite a lot when i was younger. started with atari and c64. i had always problems telling girls that i like to game.... :-). but now i guess its better to just say "hey, i have a blast gaming, its great fun for me" than to hide it...
in 20 years it will be the most normal thing, perhaps already in 10y
I know people who like whips and chains but doesn't understand me gaming. I don't worry about others opinions and just enjoy myself. I never think about what others think. Nice read still.
"If you're one of the judgmental majority you probably wouldn't be reading this site, let alone this column. However, I am willing to bet you do know some people that are guilty of this. The point is short and simple: It is not only in your best interest to correct them, but it is in everyone else's best interest as well. Down with stereotypes and people making others feel not welcome for superficial and shallow reasons! I say the more the merrier."
Unfortunately, people seem to need stereotypes both to assert themselves ("I am different from group X, and therefore I am better") and to make dealing with judgement calls easier.
I know that in my country (Germany), gaming is still seen by the general public as one of the shadiest ways to spend your free time. We even have a censorship bureau that gets to decide if any game is available in Germany at all or maybe only severely 'de-brutalized'.
And almost any time you get to hear about games in the media, they're called "Killerspiele", "Killer Games". it's just as unclear in German if they're meant to be "games for killers", "games about killing" or "games killing something", which is very much intentional, and helps in keeping games and gamers demonized.
Even our politicians will refer to any video game this way. There's surprisingly little "research" done. Media will happily refer to World of WarCraft as "KIllerspiel-FPS", will illustrate articles about Mass Effect with Counter-Strike screens and captions like "In Mass Effect 3, the player character can have sex with any alien he meets".
Heck, even an article about a popular actor doing a dub for CoD had the lead-in as "A chat about Killer Games, his time in the military, and where real life takes place".
And I'm not writing this to garner sympathy points, this is just the situation here. You will find it very hard to meet other gamers, because people are very reluctant to mention this past time preference in fear of being labelled a murderous sociopath or hopeless loser.
Sadly, the VG industry does little to alleviate the situation. Almost every bigger ad campaign for a VG draws on the lowest common denominators: Sex and/or violence.
That said: It's just that much harder for many girls to admit they're gaming (if they're not part of the "lookit, gamers with boobs! We have gender diversity!" efforts of the industry). That said: Personally, I don't care if the person gaming with me is male or female. If I enjoy gaming with you, it's all good. If you're an ass about it, I'll be disinclined to play further gaming sessions with you - regardless of you having boobs or balls. Or both. Or neither.
Hi
Hello, I´m the comic book guy from the Simpsons.
And I always have hot female avatars in games.
Secrets of Dragon?s Spine Trailer.. !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwT9cFVQCMw
Best MMOs ever played: Ultima, EvE, SW Galaxies, Age of Conan, The Secret World
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2X_SbZCHpc&t=21s
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The Return of ELITE !
I wish, I wish, I wish, Sigh
MAGA
I can tell you right now I dont share my passion for gaming with any one of my co-workers. They absolutly look down on it and even though it would be discriminatory I know if they knew I "played games" Im sure if a posotion came up it may end up going to the "more serious" person who doesnt play kids games, (although most of them still play with model trains, hypocrites).
And in truth I dont see myself as a gamer but more of a hobbiest. I dont rush out and buy the newest games or even rush home and game-up. Hell I spend about 1-2 hours every night reading forums like this. For the most part I dont even game during the week, or even on the weekends if I end up having other plans.
For me gaming and MMO's in particular a just one part of my life. One Im passionate about, yes. But in the end I am just an average guy, who just happens to have liked video games (and PnP RPG's) for a long time.
Oh and Pokket, dont you worry. You'll get your big break in this industry one of these days. You give steller top-notch interviews. You know what your talking about you avoid all the stupid questions the "hacks" ask as filler. Your passion for gaming and knowledge cant be faked.
There is a reason why MMORPG.com lets you conduct, sends you out for these interviews, its because you damn good at them. I know you dont need my affermation, but hey, well-deserved praise is still nice to give.
"I understand that if I hear any more words come pouring out of your **** mouth, Ill have to eat every fucking chicken in this room."
There are a lot of comments regarding just ignoring this, but I don't think ignoring is the right answer.
It may be easier, but it doesn't cause change. I'm not talking about getting out your torches and pitchforks, but I am talking about being more vocal towards a gaming lifestyle. It's a personal choice and many can maintain gaming for freetime and still have friends and a decent social life and/or relationships.
It's an unkind and bitter stereotype and isn't the only one that societies across the world embrace. I guess I am just one of the few that think action is better than no action.
How can you expect change if you don't put in your two cents?
I don't know if I've stereotyped gamers? I guess maybe I'm guilty of stereotyping...... the female gamer. I'm really not sure, I haven't given it much thought.. I've honestly never looked at what I consider to be a beautiful, charismatic woman and thought to myself "I bet she's a gamer" Or "I wonder if she is a gamer". But I don't know that I've ever looked at a woman that might have a 'techy' look or one that I personally didn't find attractive and think "Look at her, I bet she's a gamer"... I don't know!
Sadly I'm probably a hypocrite because do I stereotype male gamers?, no. I know from my circle of friends and family that are gamers that the stereotype on gamers is incorrect as those close to me are, most often, your normal every day person, not overweight/hideous basement dwellers, relatively good looking, often times charismatic, and athletic to boot.... So I guess it shouldn't be too hard for me to apply this same thinking to the female gamer.
While I wholeheatedly agree with everything written in Pokket's post I will also add, just like anyone who has posted similar "what I do, what everyone else thinks I do" pics, if a gamer girl was to give a gamer guy what is presented in the "What guy thinks I do" pic there is probably no better gift in the world! Just sayin ladies, think about your fellow gamer guys. We are primal species at heart in the end. Games just let us exercise our inner beast that society insists we don't let out.
Are you Deadmau5? @ComputerJuice
Ever been to a SF convention? This sort of "omg I've been typecast" nerdery lament has actually been going on since (officially) 1939.
But I'm sure if you research nerd pre-history even further back, you'll find the same complaint in the last century, too.
Just embrace it and have fun.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
Might wanna research where it's been, before you touch that. Heh.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
+1
It's sports dudes that's going to make people understand you a bit more, you get Kurt Schilling on espn radio talking with Collins Cowherd, you get SVP and Rusillo talking about skyrim, you get numerous pro athletes, Gronkowski talking about call of duty or madden .... It's those baby steps that will get people to see that hey I like that pro athlete and he likes games and well I guess its not that weird after all.
Also most people we work with are more than likely baby boomers, games came after.
The fact is a lot of places that you apply for will ask you if you game, and what you game. If you say you do, then the next question is do you raid? If you answer yes to the raid question, then you are not getting the job, as they view gamers and raiders the type of folks who will not show up for work, or will be late or even sleepy. There has been a few articles the past couple of years about that. So never ever talk about gaming at work, unless you really know who you are talking too. That is unless you work for a game company.
It has been noted, already for years now, that a simplified view of "a gamer" is erronuous and only purposes the viewers point. Even "gamers" tend to make differences, as Pokket noted, within their own "group": hardcore/casual, mature/kid etc. . Reason why so many forums are bulking with reoccuring similar "same old" threads or "issues/ideas".
Because there are differences in everything a human does or think. Why would "gaming" be any differend ?
Using these differences to instantiate him/herself as being "the better" smells of "discrimination", and only shows how we humans are unable to comprehend other human behavior. Non-gamers do the same in regard to the gamers in some or the same respect.
Being female AND a gamer does not add something extra to this, it is simply the fact that there are fewer female gamers. The gender of the viewer points will not have anything to do with the inabbility to comprehend, only the fact that they don't have the experience and are, by this fact, differend.
Rated M for Mature - May contain content inappropriate for children