What do "normal" people around you think about games?

I'm from a more inner-city area, and in general I've found most people I know understand gaming, even if they don't get your choice in games.

Granted, I don't know too many people.

Most people I know either play games or have friends that do so it's not really considered strange. Curiously whenever a girl reveals she plays games the non-gamer guys always act shocked whereas the girls and gamer guys (the majority at least) don't see anything odd about that. So only non-gamer men view gaming as a male centric hobby or something?

I will admit though that I do get strange looks when I tell people I generally only buy Nintendo systems and have never owned a PS 3 or 360. It doesn't bother me too much though since I acknowledge that is a little out of the ordinary for a person of my age.

edited 13th Sep '15 9:18:28 PM by 1337snake

Almost everyone I know plays only "mainstream" games like COD or Skyrim, so when I bring up a game like Iji, all I get are blank stares. It gets frustrating sometimes.

On the plus side, that means I have an advantage whenever it comes to games. We did a Game Maker project once, and everyone made some variation of "move the character left and right and shoot and shoot at falling things.", while me and my partner were making a Metroidvania.

Is the Metroidvania you made available for download? On Topic: My school is full of Fruit-Ninja-Casual-Games, so whenever I bring up a good game someone usually says something like "Angry Birds is better." Also, I play a lot of Danmakus and a sometimes I'm playing them when a guy comes to my house and sees me playing, and he calls them "those Japanese Atari games."

edited 3rd Jul '12 9:39:33 PM by 1337snake

Most people I know are pretty cool about games. They understand it's a hobby and a form of entertainment, like sports or hiking, and usually are surprised and pleased at the stuff I talk about or show them.

My parents, though, see it as some sort of brain-destroying activity that caused my grades to drop (like... from an A average to an A average) and don't understand why I'm playing games if I'm not going to create some right afterward. I mean, I am working on some game projects, but that they don't understand that people can do things just to have fun is utterly baffling. It's like people who hound me for enjoying sports when I don't own any teams or anything like that. Quite annoying.

"You play too many video games!"

This sums it up well enough.

Nope! Still a work in progress.

Most people in my family are supportive of my hobby. As long as I remember to spend some of my money on more important stuff like food. Excpet for my Dad who hates them. Only because they shorten the life of his fucking $3000 HDTV. But he refuses to let me have a normal one.

My parents are sorta the "You play too many video games", "Why don't you read a book, or draw, or write, instead of that?", "FP Ses are murder simulators" kind and my gushing of games is too Greek for them.

That being said, my mum is a huge early 80's arcade junkie, and I have caught her playing PAC-MAN on the computer during her work hours (She works at home) and my dad has a high appreciation for the "Meet the Team" videos (His favorite being Meet the Engineer).

Contempt and incomprehension.

My high school had a bunch of nerds like me going there, so while they played stuff like Halo, they were also into more niche stuff like Blaz Blue, Skullgirls, Advance Wars, Dragon Quest and Arcana Heart, among others.

My mom, however, only plays games like Monopoly Party and Tetris Plus, and played the original Legend Of Zelda when she was a kid. Everything else gives her a headache.

edited 5th Jul '12 5:32:34 AM by PhysicalStamina

My mother doesn't like me playing "Ballerspiele" (=shooting games, baller meaning a more derogatory term for shooting) and generally is of the opinion I spend too much time on the computer (and might be right with that). My dad doesn't concern himself with that as much, he did play some games from time to time although I think he doesn't play as much anymore.

My current school (where I graduate at the time) is very technically oriented and therefore most play games as much as I do or more. And most of my friends are pretty nerdy anyway.

Most of my friends are gamers in one way or another. The ones that aren't don't seem to have any problem with them, and don't mind if I talk about games every now and then.

As for my parents, they occasionally play casual games. Anything else appears to be too overwhelming. They don't mind me playing games as long as it's not all I do. One of my friends has a dad who loves Pikmin, though, and another friend had his whole family playing Animal Crossing at some point.

I've never encountered anyone who had a negative attitude towards gaming. With the non-gamers I know, it's more a lack of interest than anything.