It's Not Cool to Admit Being Gamer

According to David Wong, apparently.

I was reading some Cracked articles and came across this article and I want to know what you gaming tropers think about the points mentioned.

Before you check it out, though, relax because he's a big time gaming fan himself.

edited 10th Jun '11 4:50:57 AM by dRoy

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.

Me before edit: "blah blah blah soapbox hypocrisy soapbox hypocrisy soapbox"

In short: I think this whole ordeal with having a separate term for a fan of a certain entertainment medium is stupid. Worst part is, it's infectious no matter how stupid you think it is and you end up setting yourself apart from "the muggles" anyway.

It wasn't about you man, it's coo'

edited 10th Jun '11 4:53:42 AM by Litis

Well, I don't know what you are talking about it, but whatever it is, it wasn't intentional, apologies if whatever I said sounded offensive or made me sound like a douche (wow, been a long time since I heard that word.).

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.

That article seemed more akin to "Why a lot of gamers are assholes" then "Why gamers have a bad rep". Not that the two don't have overlap.

Personally i'm Proud to Be a Geek. I won't just admit to being a gamer, i'll trumpet it out as loud as i can to anyone that will hear.

That makes me think though. A lot of the people that start to get into games tend to start with popular titles like Call Of Duty. They proceed to get bitched at and called ass faggots if male and fat whores if female by the LIVE set. Is it possible that non-gamers essentially see "Hardcore" gamers as those "Mainstream" gamers X2? I mean, i play Etrian Odyssey in my spare time and obsess over plotlines in Drakengard like it's a pretentious arthouse flick. I'm incredibly polite online to the point that i'm accused of White Knighting. So the mainstream gamers are giving the hardcore gamers the bad rap. And a lot of bad games, too.

The solution is of course to kill all Mainstream gamers. This is logical.

edited 10th Jun '11 5:56:01 AM by ShirowShirow

Bleye knows Sabers.

...Here's hoping that that line was supposed to be a Hypocritical Humor.

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.

Of course not. It's logical. Murder Is the Best Solution!

... Why does everyone have so much trouble detecting sarcasm on the internet?

Bleye knows Sabers.

I don't know. If you ask me, I just can't be bothered.

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.

You see, here on TV Tropes we have a page called Sarcasm Mode. If you are being sarcastic, you are expected to always pothole to this page. If you do not, then people will assume you were never sarcastic to begin with.

A lot of the views in the article do seem to be based off mainstream titles in certain game genres. Makes me wonder how games in other genres (like strategy games or RPGs) compare in terms of players.

Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)

It may just be because I work in a shop that is literally half-populated with gamers of varying degrees of intensity, but I've been known to sit at one of the desks, give the most eloquent "You're retarded" looks that I've ever mustered in my life, and openly flaunt being an unrepentant gamer.

Of course, I work in AMMO. Half of AMMO is gamers anyway, so I'm at least in moderately-good company, the random X Box vs. PS wars notwithstanding.

EDIT: Never mind, found out myself.

Generally, nobody minds gamers at my school since the majority of people are gamers in some way, and in varying levels.

edited 10th Jun '11 6:54:44 AM by Alfric

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/lb_i.php?lb_id=13239183440B34964700 Alfric's Fire Emblem Liveblog Encyclopedia!

Close. AMMO is the munitions systems career field in the US Air Force. At any given time, we're sitting on enough explosives to make our entire base and a good chunk of surrounding countryside suddenly cease to exist.

Ok I know that the article has a few hypocritical issues but why is it that I feel like I'm almost in total agreement with everything he said? That story about the Humble Indie Bundle (along with the story about how Demigod got massively pirated upon release) pretty much sinks the goddamn boat on "DRM IS TEH EVILZ!!!11" arguement by proving that a company actually would lose cash by not using DRM.

The only part that I felt he was way off on was the storytelling part. It's true that a lot of games focus on action more than the story, usually in the form of massive killing sprees, but isn't that the whole point of gaming in the first place? That it's meant to be played, not watched?

"proving that a company actually would lose cash by not using DRM. "

No. Just no.

The number of people that pirate it (which may be an inaccurate number anyways, it gives no indication of how many bought the stuff afterward, or who lack a credit card to make online purchase anyways.) has no meaning. All that matters is how many people do buy it, which was a lot.

edited 10th Jun '11 10:08:42 AM by deuxhero

Implying people should care about that.

Requiem ~ September 2010 - October 2011 [Banned 4 Life]

And yet Spore somehow managed to take the gold medal as the most-pirated game of all time despite its DRM.

edited 10th Jun '11 10:12:39 AM by INUH

Infinite Tree: an experimental story

Possibly out of spite.

i. hear. a. sound.

I think David Wong is wrong.

(Haha, that's fun to say out loud.)

Mostly because most young people, male or female, are gamers to some degree. Even if a lot of young women in their teens and twenties aren't into the same kind of games as males, most are sympathetic to their draw and value. Remember that Wong occupies a different age group to the majority of us and has to deal with more archaic attitudes.

Currently, gaming is approaching a saturation point in terms of its audience. If AAA mainstream titles were as popular amongst females as they are for males, it'd already be there.

edited 10th Jun '11 10:17:51 AM by MadassAlex

Swordsman Troper — Reclaiming The Blade — Watch

@ deuxhero Demigod was an abysmal failure because of the pirates, there's no question. I'm not sure what the actual percentages where, but there where so many pirates that the servers got clogged and getting a match together became next to impossible and the battles themselves where filled with lag. This led review scores to plummet, and the game just didn't end up selling well.

DRM would have curtailed this.

Don't get me wrong, i freaking hate DRM. But there is absolutely no justification for pirating if the game is legally available in your area. And yes, you ARE hurting the company by pirating. I'm not saying every single person who pirated the game would end up buying it if they couldn't steal it, but to say the number of people who pirated it has "No meaning" is ridiculous.

ANYWAYS i wonder how much that Extra Credits bit on the word "Gamer" applies to this. "Casual" "Mainstream" and "Harcore" terms will probably have to be properly defined soon, because soon just about everyone could call themselves a gamer. It will be like "TV watcher" and have no meaning.

edited 10th Jun '11 10:21:17 AM by ShirowShirow

Bleye knows Sabers.

That really seemed like a more general "Here's what's wrong with gaming" article than "Here's why people don't think you're cool when you mention that you're a gamer." And to be fair, the author's pretty much accurate on that front; gamers are still stereotyped as antisocial 17-year-olds by the industry we support. And we do have a nasty sense of entitlement, and a tech obsession. That does mean our industry has problems, but that's not necessarily connected to why some people think gaming is uncool.

One thing I do have a problem with is the part where Mr. Wong singles out the most popular games as being adolescent sex fantasies and brainless shooters. Don't get me wrong, I'm not disputing the fact that it's true. What I'm disputing is the idea that this is somehow unique to games. I mean, the most popular movies aren't the thinky, talky ones, they're the ones with the biggest explosions and the sexiest people. Complaining about God of War's lesbian sex and Halo's pew-pew shooty sections seems like the gaming equivalent of hating on Michael Bay movies for not being more cerebral.

But somehow,◊

The worst part about that article is that Wong obviously wants videogames to be like movies.

Aka he is taking the Ebert stance on that.

Frankly complaining about videogames containing too much gameplay to be like movies is like complaining about movies containing too much images to be like books.

> the most popular movies aren't the thinky, talky ones,

Those get Oscars though. And I also raise you Inception, which gave us excellent heist-style action combined with an interesting setting and storytelling. Why can't videogames be more like Inception, really?

However the article is mostly right. It's also still not cool to admit you're generally a nerd. I mean seriously people, in our society those with more brains earn more and are generally more successful in life, provided they use their smarts, than those with muscles. However, if you have a math degree, or if you play videogames daily, or if you read science fiction, you by default "have no life".

edited 10th Jun '11 1:13:40 PM by Aminatep

   I will consume not only your flesh, but your very soul.   

I like that analogy. Permission to use it repeatedly in the future without crediting you in any way?

Also, you're right about the Oscars. Extra Credits raised that important question lately: Where the HELL are our Oscars? We need Oscars.

edited 10th Jun '11 1:13:34 PM by ShirowShirow

Bleye knows Sabers.

Oh there are videogame awards issued by movie industry bigwigs lawl.

I recall seeing one, by Britain movie academy or something like that, late 2000s. You know what got the main award?

Neverwinter Nights. Yes that's apparently supposed to be a huge milestone for us all*

.

> Permission to use it repeatedly in the future without crediting you in any way?
Just don't get caught. I mean, that analogy's obvious.

And in case you didn't get the message Movie Academy gives for us all, it's that "Foreign movies and cartoons are not real art".

edited 10th Jun '11 1:19:00 PM by Aminatep

   I will consume not only your flesh, but your very soul.   

Well, the first the problem there is that the people who give out Oscars aren't necessarily the same people who drive movie ticket sales. The movie industry may give out awards to the cerebral movies, but they aren't the ones driving the company. That said, an intelligent action-driven game in the same spirit as Inception would indeed be awesome.

The other issue is that there isn't really an Oscars-equivalent in gaming. I mean, games like Alan Wake and ICO are probably the closest we get to a thinky talky-style video game, but there isn't a yearly awards ceremony that anybody takes nearly as seriously as the Oscars. The closest we come is probably something like the Spike VG Awards, and just about everybody thinks those are a joke.

But somehow,◊

I'm pretty sure walking around with shirts depicting Blasto, the Prince, and Konohana Sakuya means I'm well out of the realm of this trope.

edited 10th Jun '11 1:21:22 PM by Rebochan

It's not cool to admit being me?

"USE YOUR WORDS NOT THE FABRIC OF THE UNIVERSE" ''memyselfand I 2"