The Gamer's Quarter

ApM · Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2005 3:28 pm Post subject: Gaming: Was it ever that nerdy?

So, I'm reading the latest issue of The Escapist. The first article is a fairly interesting piece about Korean gaming. At the end, though, is this:

Mr. Mechanical · Friendly Stranger Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 1276

What it is, I think, is that all the supposed "nerds" writing these articles have finally come out of their respective shells and have finally realized that everyone enjoys videogames in some way, and because of them not having ever been the "cool" kids they're just now picking up on this like it's something new.

Or maybe not, I'm just a nerd so I wouldn't know too much about that sort of thing.

SuperWes · Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2005 3:48 pm Post subject:

I thought the exact same thing when reading the articles. I really don't know what it is. Maybe there really is a stigma and us nerds were just too wrapped up in Video Games to notice. Two things lead me to believe that this may be the case:

1. About a year ago this really hot girl came over because she was carpooling with my girlfriend to some ESL confrerence thing. She saw all of the video games strewn around my living room and later on commented to my girlfriend that she was surprised that my girlfriend put up with it. "It" in this case being having a boyfriend who spends so much time playing games that he has little left over for his girlfriend. I can't remember how she replied, but it wasn't as mean as I would have hoped.

2. The second event happened a few days ago. A co-worker of mine just finished Kingdom Hearts and was on the lookout for another game to play. We talked about it for a bit and I suggested God of War. His girlfriend (who also works with me) came over and said, "so you're a gamer now, huh?" and he was like, "Well, what else am I going to do with all of my free time." And that was that.

Maybe we are locked in some sort of Otaku dungeon somewhere where we don't realize what the rest of the world thinks of our hobby. But then again, maybe some people are just dicks.

-Wes
_________________

player 2 · . Joined: 10 Jul 2005 Posts: 585 Location: Madison, WI USA

My last girlfriend was fascinated that I was so damn into videogames (at least as far as they represent art) until I actually tried showing her one.

Um...

Girls like that I draw.

LETS TOTALLY MAKE THIS INTO A, "HOW DO VIDEOGMAES AAFFECT YOUR SEX LIFE" thread.
_________________
Wii #: 8749 9109 9732 3653

"It is a peaceful way of understanding life, to play"
_Marcel Duchamp

simplicio · . Joined: 03 May 2005 Posts: 1091

I think it might be an extension of a generational issue. There's certainly a stigma attached to "gaming", because games were originally seen by most parties involved as a toy, to be grown out of. When us gamers (who didn't grow out of it) grew up, our parents' generation thought we were essentially wasting our time with kids' stuff. Those of our own generation who stopped gaming past childhood for more social pursuits (sports, then parties, then bars and careers) were rewarded by that older generation for inhabiting a familiar lifestyle. So my dad, kind and liberal and anti-macho to the core, still eyes me suspiciously when I unpack my DS on a trip home (but last time I went I had the 'video-games as possible artistic medium' talk with him! It was great!)

Meanwhile though, games have done a lot to appear less toy-like. With the NES, you were a pixelated boy with a sword looking for a kidnapped princess, or a bad dude rescuing the kidnapped president, and it all looked to our parents like an uglier version of the cartoons we were watching on the side. Now there's spoken dialog and cinematic cutscenes and really brutal tackles with slo-mo instant replay, and it's getting harder to say it's all for kids. I'd say the reason sports and FPS and Sims games all sell so well is that they're socially more acceptable than Mario and shmups. They occupy some of the same space as Monday Night Football and bad action movies and Sex in the City/Romance Novels. They're slowly bringing back embarrassed ex-gamers and even drawing in a few of our parents, because they LOOK acceptable.

Where I think it leads is really to the next generation. I think absolute acceptance starts with kids gaming with their parents. Hopefully soon there will even be a sphere of gaming one can grow into, like you can appreciate an art museum at age 23 when at 13 you just wanted to get the hell out of there. But we've certainly got some left in the Otaku dungeon.

PS. I guess the next generation is really starting now and in the next few years? Maybe Nintendo's thinking about this with the 'simplicity' of the revolution? The timing would probably be about right. I hope they aren't too far ahead of the curve.

Mister Toups · Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2005 6:43 pm Post subject:

The thesis of that article is that Korea proves that gaming isn't inherently nerdy. After reading it, however, I've become convinced that Koreans are inherently nerdy.
_________________
where were you when nana komatsu got a wii?

dessgeega · Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2005 9:27 pm Post subject:

Mister Toups · Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2005 7:01 am Post subject:

Only if you go into more detail.
_________________
where were you when nana komatsu got a wii?

SuperWes · Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2005 7:46 am Post subject:

dhex · Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2005 7:48 am Post subject:

the whole nerdy martyr thing is tired.
_________________

croft · . Joined: 22 Jul 2005 Posts: 3

I think, I think,we achieve a few extra gamer points if we adhere to the nerdy stereotype. That's how things roll nowerdays.

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

In a work situation I get looked at funny when I say that I spent $90 on a copy of a game that is on a system that no one has heard of. Yet, the same people can talk about their $150 pair of sunglasses and totally talk about how cool they are, or the $90 pair of tennis shoes. Then I get questions on things like "Hey I heard Warcraft World is the best game out right now, should I get it." Sometime I am a bastard and say things like: "The graphics look horrible for that game on the Gamecube." Most of the time I just explain that I don't like MMORPGs and that the level treadmill that you can get stuck in is no fun for me. Then I get the ultimate comment that I love to hear: "I thought you liked games. Why don't you have Splinter Cell 3 or [insert newest game that gets advertised on TV here] yet. Man, you don't like games."

Luckily I do work with someone who appreciates games. He is one of the artists behind Happy the Clown in his spare time, as well as an avid player of RPGs. He has vowed not to get any new game system until he finishes everything pre-dreamcast. He claims to have around 320 left to finish. He loves them and I can actually have an intelegent conversation with him about them. Unfortunatly I only run into him once a week or so. He claims to have the title of King of the Nerds. I doubt it, but he does hold way to much info in his head.

So far, being just a gamer as your hobby is not quite a socially accepted thing. At least not in a wide spread manner. But being a gamer and a nerd never means that you have to hide away from people.

Mister Toups · Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2005 4:09 pm Post subject:

Mister Toups · Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2005 4:12 pm Post subject:

dhex · Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2005 9:20 pm Post subject:

what's to be proud of? endlessly consuming someone else's digital table scraps, and calling it an identity?
_________________

Mister Toups · Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2005 9:22 pm Post subject:

I didn't say "Gamer Pride" did I?

I totally saw someone at E3 who had a tight pink shirt on with the word "Gaymer" printed across it. I should've gotten a picture.
_________________
where were you when nana komatsu got a wii?

dhex · Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2005 9:58 pm Post subject:

yeah but most "nerds" aren't revenge of the nerds style scientists or something. they're very patient, obsessive and vengeful consumers of fantasy.
_________________

dessgeega · Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2005 12:35 am Post subject:

Szczepaniak · . Joined: 19 Feb 2005 Posts: 770

What I always ask, and something that fascinates me, is what would these people do if videogames/computers/anime/manga/(insert nerdy thing here) did not exist?

What would the cos-players be doing?
The anime junkies?
The hardcore import collectors who spend thousands on rare games?
The MMORPG addicts? (I've read about these people literally living online, WTF would they be doing otherwise?!)
The computer nerds who hack, crack and phrack?

What if this were 100 years ago, or the 1950s, or simply an alternative reality where such things didn't exist?

I think I would have probably ended up as some boring, and seriously unshaven, quantum physicist, or astronomer, though Acheologist is also a possibility, had I not become hooked on gaming and all that comes with it. As result, I now drink beer, make homemade wine, and live off freelancing, while residing in a small village. God... how things change. I always thought I'd live and work in a city. Like Charly Sheen or Michael Dougless in Wall Street.

I can actually remember the exact moment when I suddenly realised that gaming was not just something to kill time with, but was something I wanted to be involved with on ground level.

Anyway, that's the question I pose to you in this topic. What would (insert specific type of nerd here) be doing if his area of expertise did not exist?

croft · . Joined: 22 Jul 2005 Posts: 3

I'm guessing they'd all just sit around and eat potato chips.

dark steve · . Joined: 17 Jun 2005 Posts: 1110

It doesn't matter what they're obsessing with, some of them. Just so long as it's anything.

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

I am almost a total film nerd as it is, so I would just have replaced films for games.

friedchicken · . Joined: 16 Mar 2005 Posts: 496 Location: Port Land, OR

dhex · Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2005 2:14 pm Post subject:

and for the sake of sanity. i mean, fuck, without stereotypes we'd all be dead.

specialization is hard for others to grasp. there are people out there who have perfectly ordered cookie recipie books or understand vast differences between chroming types for car exhaust systems or XYZ that i can't think of right now. they're all nerds - the key is the use of the modifier "car nerd" or "cookie geek" etc.
_________________

disneyland · . Joined: 16 Jun 2005 Posts: 131 Location: Shinsei

Sushi d · Moderator Joined: 15 Oct 2004 Posts: 239

dhex · Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2005 6:55 pm Post subject:

put bluntly, yes.

then again, this means nerd = obsessive, skilled or well-versed in something, somewhere.
_________________

Mister Toups · Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2005 9:03 pm Post subject:

simplicio · . Joined: 03 May 2005 Posts: 1091

dessgeega · Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2005 12:31 am Post subject:

dhex · Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2005 5:44 am Post subject:

i would imagine.

on the other hand, your dating pool is an infinitely large pile of dorks. there are ups and downs to everything.
_________________

Mister Toups · Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2005 11:03 am Post subject:

Except they're mostly men. Last I checked neither of us are into dudes.
_________________
where were you when nana komatsu got a wii?

disneyland · . Joined: 16 Jun 2005 Posts: 131 Location: Shinsei

dark steve · . Joined: 17 Jun 2005 Posts: 1110

You're really making me feel bad about my weight and my black t-shirts.

simplicio · . Joined: 03 May 2005 Posts: 1091

mudokononastick · Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 11:41 pm Post subject:

I remember years ago, when Nintendo was still ascending the ladder of commercial superstardom, they had this ad with two teenage guys playing Legend Of Zelda, and one looked like Anthony Edwards from Revenge Of The Nerds, and I remember thinking to myself "Wow! Even nerds like video games just like cool people!" Rolling Eyes

But of course it was a truer portrait of the diehard gamer, as I discovered firsthand.

But who cares if it's cool or not to be seen twiddling our opposable thumbs on a home console, portable, or clicking away on a PC? It's fun regardless of social caste! Very Happy

_________________
Dinah Moe Humm, Dinah Moe Humm, Where's this Dinah Moe comin' from?

dessgeega · Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2005 12:56 am Post subject:

ninjaboyjohn · . Joined: 17 Mar 2005 Posts: 9 Location: Georgia Tech

Everyone I knew gamed until Middle School.

*that's* when it seemed to separate the jocks from the geeks.

And it isn't about playing games, its about being "into" games, and it still seems to be a stigma in many circles.

In my highschool, video games were not to be talked about outside of the "nerd table" during lunch. It was very much a private hobby for those involved, although maybe some of that was because it was during the rise of the Great Interweb Gaming Community.

My girlfriend can't stand it when I want to play a video game. I finally figured out that she sees games in a completely different category than other entertainment. Games are something more threatening.

"But I can't talk with you while you are playing a game" she said the other day, as she checked her email and I checked my Nintendogs.

"Then what are we doing now?"

She doesn't want to feel like she is competing with something less-than-worthy... and that's annoying.

I guess many people go through that - whether its sports or poker or hot-rodding a car.

But damn... what valuable time some good people will spend on WoW or FF11 amazes me. Very few individual things in this world are worth more than an hour's investment in a day.