- Gamers, on average, rarely look this bad …
I don’t think I’m going to blow any minds by saying that there are certain long-standing stereotypes attached to those who play videogames.
Certainly, they aren’t as insidious or divisive as other stereotypes we’ve seen recently — I’ve never been asked to leave my local anarchist café for sporting Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan stickers on my DS, for instance — but I doubt I could find a gamer who hasn’t been tagged with some kind of societal label at one time or another, merely because his or her go-to source of stress reduction happens to sport a Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo label.
With that other stereotyping issue I bluntly alluded to only moments ago so fresh in Blogtown’s collective memory, I’d like to crack open an experiment here, if you’ll indulge me for a bit.
- … or this good.
Hit the jump for … um, something. I’m not entirely sure just yet what it’s going to be, but the possibility for bloody spectacle is pretty high.
Ok, here’s the deal boys n’ girls: In this space, I would like to see discussion. Knowing you all though, I expect snark and dick jokes. Strangely, that is also quite acceptable.
And just what is the topic du jour? Videogames!
Or if you’re not a gamer, you’re explaining why you snicker at anyone who owns a herd of Pokémon or whose Achievement score is in the five digit range.
If you’re a gamer though? The topic is up to you. You can defend yourself against the snickering, you can agree with them and revel in self-loathing, or you can accuse the Portland police force of intimidating activists via racist and homophobic epithets over Xbox Live.
Ideally, what I’m looking for here is some kind of illumination on the topic of why gamers are judged simply because they prefer to unwind with a few hours of criminal mayhem in Grand Theft Auto, as opposed to reading about the sociopolitical ramifications of rising South African crime rates in The Economist.
- 20th Century Fox
- Unable to reconcile shifting anthropological paradigms with traditional masculine roles following the defeat of Senator Alan Cranston in the 1984 election, Ogre lashes out at the most visible representation of Reagan-era androgyne decadence: Willy Wonka’s delicious candies!
Games, and the people who play them, are far from a new phenomenon. Most people reading this have never lived in a world where videogames did not exist in one form or another, and yet so many still cling desperately to the same antiquated “jocks versus nerds” concepts that made Anthony Edwards, Robert Carradine, Curtis Armstrong and Ted McGinley into the biggest film stars of July 20th, 1984!
To be fair though, no one directly mentions these stereotypes anymore.
They’re known — everyone knows that gamers are part of an untouchable caste — but since videogames snagged some level of anti-establishment cachet over the last decade, it’s simply uncouth to directly slam a person for knifing corrupt Italians in Assassin’s Creed 2, or being pumped for the impending release of Metroid: Other M.
Following the emerging cultural trend of directly countering the ideals of two decades back (read: the parents popular culture believes you had), possibly the only gamers who are currently mocked outright for their hobby are those whose libraries extend as far as EA’s Madden football titles — and they are often only targeted by those pressing for some degree of additional elitism amongst the self-christened gaming literati.
Loosely translated, it’s a slight twist on those audiophiles who jab at anyone unsophisticated enough to listen to an MP3 file when vinyl is so obviously superior.
Still, the cachet is far from universal, particularly when certain, more “geeky” segments of gaming run up against those cultural holdouts who still see anything smeared with pixels as the imminent domain of oily, eternally virginal Rush fans.
World of Warcraft (a massively multiplayer online realm that is less “game” than “alternate plane of existence”) is a taboo subject even for many of those who have spent years within the faux world’s ethereal bosom. This is just not the sort of thing you mention to a girl on a first date.
Yet publications as universally respected as Time Magazine and Newsweek have explored emerging real-world sociological and biological trends illustrated via the game’s nearly self-propagating virtual ecosystem, as well as the psychosocial effects of what many “business guru” types have dubbed the “new golf” for its sudden appearance in boardrooms across the world and the game’s inherent cultivation of long-prized elements of elite business acumen which the would-be CEOs of decades past spent years studying in the hallowed halls of Ivy League universities.
Confusing? Damn right. Especially for those of us who get paid to take on these sorts of anthropological dilemmas for no reason other than “if I don’t, who the hell will?” Seems like a cushy gig until you glance below the hood and realize that the best of us really are making this all up as we go along.
Do you guys get what I want from you here?
I want blunt fightin’ words! I want pixelated fatalities from non-gamers and metaphorical carotid spray from anyone holding a joystick! I want to see gnashing of (Chain Chomp) teeth and rending of (Lakitu) flesh with claws only barely recognizable as Yoshi’s. You have opinions, they are your weapons, now take up arms against one another to ensure that no one ever takes that other dumb asshole seriously again!
- Namco Bandai Games America Inc.
- If you don’t understand why this is the most important image you’ll see this month, there’s just no hope for you.
Why are you so much cooler than that gangly Japanese teenager playing Deathsmiles in some smoky Akihabara arcade?
How can this brain dead neanderthal totally miss the subtle genius of Ico?
How can any guy who describes his hobbies with the words “level 80 Tauren Shaman” ever think he could get into your skinny jeans?
Doesn’t that fat bitch have any self respect? It’s just so obvious that she will never meet a guy who could ever possibly love her if she spends all her time raising fucking goats in Farmville!
Non-gamers, lay into your geeky brothers. Explain your disdain. Stereotype them widely and get these feelings out there.
On the flip side, gamers, defend yourselves. Did Rock Band push you to learn to play guitar?
Did BioShock teach you to loathe and fear Randian hyper-conservatism (or at least wish we got a real System Shock sequel instead)?
Did John Romero ever manage to make you his bitch?
Hell, get childish with it if you want. Run down a list of every time you’ve spotted a bajingo in the wild, or managed to go an entire night of Halo without dropping a single “nigger” or “faggot” on some equally closeted homophobic, racist 12-year-old boy. That’s almost like something to aspire to, right?
- Voruzhonnije SÃly RossÃyskoj Federátsii
- Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.
Now, to be straight with you all, there’s the very real possibility that this space will immediately burst into flames, killing everyone nearby in a firestorm of commentary the likes of which we haven’t seen since, um … yesterday. If my grand experiment is a failure, well that’s unfortunate, but regardless of how it goes, this should entertain me at the very least.
As much as I love the academic and social possibilities behind this idea, you should know me well enough by now to spot the erection I’m sporting for the incendiary device I’ve constructed here.
So, you in?
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…
I don’t know if seeing this makes me more angry or sad, but if you don’t have a job (and want/need one), turn off the fucking videogames. Turn them off! Give the whole console to your grandpa, get off your ass, read some books, and go out and find a job. Hit the fucking streets. Volunteer. Show some initiative. Finding a job, any job, is hard for everyone right now, but spending 10 hours of sunlight playing Demon’s Souls or Modern Warfare will negate any sympathy I might be feeling for you.
Unfair? Maybe.
tl;dr: I want hundreds of comments but can’t bother trolling.
I come to the internet to read things, not to be asked to contribute when the author can’t think of a POV to defend. Oh well, here’s your answer: gamers are judged just like every other subgroup is judged: usually unfairly to some degree, by someone who’s not a member.
If you really want to discuss this in as much detail as it APPEARS you do, I suggest getting high with some buddies.
I think the anti-gamer stigma is no longer what it was, between the rise of the casual gamer (Bejeweled, FarmVille), comic book culture becoming firmly ingrained in mainstream media (summer blockbusters, “Kavalier & Clay”), and the retro chic of Atari and pinball (Ground Kontrol, half the bars near my house, the Atari logo wrist stamp I got at Holocene the other night).
“We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t.” So the dream lives on in our living room fantasies.
(That said, vinyl is obviously superior, Rock Band helped me get *better* at guitar but not as much as if I spent that much time just practicing, and I wear my N7 hoodie with pride.)
I actually like the cub in the upper-left of that first photo, thank you very much.
@AJ: The picture you’re taling about is of the author of the article. It seems he’s attempting to conlfate himself aesthetically with that Glyenhaal fellow. Any recent photos of Nex will show that he is no longer quite that attractive… It’s amazing what months of medical problems and pill popping will do to a guy.
@ Alexjon: (Graham & Nex used to date)
@ Nex: Your blog post was too long, and I am afraid I did not read all of it. Truth be told, my only gripe with hard-core gamers* is when they damage their in-person human relationships because of their devotion to their hobby. Compare it to drinking: a few beers now and then? No big deal. Constant drinking? Problem. That’s all, really. I won’t say your wasting your life, since we’re probably all wasting our lives in our own particular ways.
* or anyone hard-core into just about any hobby, really.
I can’t believe I have to point this out, but Alexjon was referring to the hirsute dude in the top picture. I don’t have nearly the body hair nor mass to qualify as a “cub” by any means.
As for the rest of it, I’m just going to shiver violently, puke a little into my mouth, and say it’s a good thing Ronald Reagan is already dead, otherwise E! would be hard at work on a True Hollywood Story entitled “John Hinckley Jr.: Pure Bush League.”
Take Bayonetta. This is a game about an impossibly proportioned sexy witch whose “clothes” fall off as she fights, and the game was marketed under the slogan “Infinite climax action”. It is bullshit like this that makes gamers not be taken seriously. That for every Heavy Rain or Shadow of the Colossus that tries to elevate the medium there are a hundred other games in a race to the bottom, eager to appeal to the basest appetites of brain dead 13 year old boys. As long as the loudest part of the industry, the part that most of the public sees, is juvenile and puerile, people are going to think badly about gamers.
A link to Erik’s Tom Bissell interview seems relevant here:
http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/to…
That piece at least makes me feel like I SHOULD care about videogames, even if I still don’t.
As a mid-core gamer, the only system I feel comfortable talking about is the Wii. It keeps me out of the “nerd” territory with the masses, and out of the epeen stroke-fest with the hardcore gamers.
Nex, I’m confused about what you want us to argue about here. CLARIFY PLEASE. I like arguing.
No you don’t.
I think that part of the issue is that games have not yet reached the status of art. At this point, video games are the same as big studio movies, too many hands and too much money at stake to do anything other than entertain. Its much easier to defend comics and movies as being culturally relevant since a single author can present his own viewpoint.
also, this is an interesting article.
Time Magazine: The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/…
I don’t really care what you do with your time or money. Just don’t be fat. Get outside and exercise once in a while. While you’re at it, please learn enough social skills to use your inside voices when in a large public space, i.e. a cafeteria.
What’s with the fat hate? How is the fat hurting you?
@kiala: I only hate fat if I have to look at it. As an abstract concept, I’m fine with it.
too long and too convoluted to genuinely discourse.
also, this is totally feeding into making fun of people because they don’t look like movie stars. lame.
Could you rephrase the question? Or, you know what? Just tell me what names you’d like me to call you. Is that what you’re going for?
I used to be awesome at Pitfall. Which side of the fence does that put me on?
#iusealligatorsforbridges