26
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Are you open about your gaming?
The title question is more of an umbrella one, and I want to state from the get go that I am asking these questions non-judgmentally. I want this to be a space where people can feel safe to respond honestly.
I’ll also qualify that I’m not asking these impartially, as part of my reason for making this thread stems from some identified frictions in my own life that I’ve been mulling over. I don’t want to prime anyone’s answers, however, so instead I’ll just lay out what I’m interested in hearing about:
- Do you feel that you need to hide your gaming from others?
- Are you honest with others about the amount of time you spend playing games, the types of games you play, or the importance you ascribe to them?
- Do you feel that people judge your gaming habits or status as a gamer negatively?
- Do you identify yourself as being a part of a broader gaming culture?
In general, yes. I feel like to the general population of people under the age of 40 or so, playing video games is hardly some scarlet letter. It's about as surprising as someone telling you that they like to watch movies. This makes sense; the video gaming industry today is 4x larger than the movie industry, and that money isn't coming out of nowhere.
Definitely not; it's not like I profess my love for video games with every word, but it's in my generic icebreaker list of interests certainly
Yes, albeit from my HS days I am pretty casual now
Nope. Even for something like DnD, the other kind of gaming, it feels in hipster vogue like rock climbing now.
Not particularly. Just generally being someone who plays video games isn't much of an identity at this point. It's like identifying as a movie watcher. Of course, there are "cinema snobs" (with snobs being endearing here), and the same in video games, but I do not identify that hard with that group. And of course there are the weirdos on /r/tlou2 (which is somehow /r/thedonald2) - certainly am not part of that.
Not as an adult. (For reference: I was alive when Pong was released.) When I was a kid, I played video games avidly at the arcade as well as at home on consoles and our home computers. It drove my family nuts. To me, it was just a cool way to spend time. I was interested in graphics, and sound, etc. But it ended up becoming a thing for my parents and grandparents. I don't recall any actual bad outcomes related to my playing video games, but it just really irritated my parents for some reason. I remember one year my grandmother sent me $5.00 in a birthday card. I spent it all at the arcade. I never heard the end of it. For years after that, if my grandmother gave me money, she'd always do so with the caveat that I "don't spend it on video games." When she died I inherited a small amount of money. I put it all into my computer-graphics-related business because of how much she harassed me about my video game playing. (And I should say, I don't really think I played video games that much. Compared to today's youth, I hardly played them at all.)
I believe so.
People in my peer group and younger don't, but I still wonder what my parents would think if I were still speaking to them.
No, for a few reasons.
Edit: cleaned up now-irrelevant aside.
No I've never really felt that I've needed to hide it. In high school in the 90s I once needed to bring my PC in to do a presentation for class. My wallpaper at the time was Kerrigan, Queen of Blades and I didn't think twice about putting it up onto a projector.
As an adult, gaming is a prominent part of my life. I will usually work a mention of it into any conversation, though I'll only keep talking about it if the other person seems interested. Same as talking about movies or sports. People who are actively antagonistic I will usually quit talking to.
Certainly. I spent years running several LAN centers in Arizona, I have no qualms about sharing how much time I play games and then giving an in-depth explanation about the benefits and risks of different games as well as the influences games have had on popular culture, the economic impact, and the ethics of different games that include microtransactions.
I'm sure there have been people. However given my general path through life, those people are likely to have been either random idiots, or the minority in the group they happen to be standing in.
I think that "gamers" (meaning, "people who enjoy playing video games") is such a broad and diverse category now that it would be as descriptive or useful as saying I'm a part of "American culture". There are parts of the culture the apply to me and other parts that do not. There are aspects I like and dislike. There are games I like and dislike.
Echoing others here, not particularly. I feel like gaming is more mainstream than most other hobbies at this point.
I'm not really forthcoming about anything, but I won't hide it from anyone either. I generally don't bring up gaming unless someone else does -- mostly because there's such a huge range of games and such that discussing them isn't really productive unless you have similar tastes.
No.
No. Mostly because I find a lot of nerd culture extremely grating and because I don't want to be associated with "capital G" gamers.
Oh yeah. If anyone think less of me because of that, I don't give a shit. That's not the kind of people I wanna be around anyway. I guess I did not get this adulthood memo.
Yes and no. I don't know how to explain my dislike of AAA titles, my interest in retro games, and preference towards modern indie titles in a way that doesn't make me come off as a ragey hipster, when it's really just a preference. I don't like how major studios operate, pricing mechanics, or the gameplay, and these are simply issues of my preferences, but explaining them makes it feel like I'm asserting these as some sort of universal truth. There's also a larger context of me missing games that came out when I couldn't afford them as a kid, which is the major reason I play retro games. I also generally try to avoid talking about the games I like to play because for me it's usually a difficult way to connect with others. I didn't get attached to a lot of major series that still run today because of an inability to buy into them back in the day.
Yes, as well as just the amount of time I spend in front of screens generally. I think it's great, except for the only drawbacks that are really personal, like a lack of exercise and whatnot.
I'm wary of being a "casual" gamer, but that's more of my own insecurities clashing with a former reach for an identity a lifetime ago.
I think of myself as peripheral. I watch people play games, I play games, I enjoy games. I don't identify as a "gamer." A lot of it is to do with a larger issue I have with identity in this context, but I also don't identify as anything else I enjoy: a cyclist, yoyoer, guitarist, musician, whatever.
When I was still attached to the title, it was uncomfortable. Every "gamer" I knew either all played the same games the same way (which ruined online gaming for me) or were hard for me to relate to, due to our different exposures. I also simply take issue with the "gamer" identity. "Gaming culture" much like what we refer to as "nerd culture" has gone mainstream to the point it is simply "culture," and doesn't really exist as an in-group anymore, except by people who self-describe as it in an effort to retain their previous identity. This is usually done via some form of gatekeeping, and only serves to reinforce stereotypes surrounding these hobbies.
Are you me?
I suspect a lot of the reason for this effect is that we don't have enough perspective or vocabulary to describe why we have our tastes. Right now, for instance, if you were to ask me what I thought about AAA games, I would probably say that I don't like most of them because they have a lack of genuine personality to them. And when the developers try to inject some personality into them it tends to come off as disingenuous (like the "hackers" in Watchdogs 2). But the reality is that games are extremely complex works of art and therefore so are my reasons for liking or disliking any given game, so the explanation I have just given is only a small fragment of what I actually think.
I honestly wish that retro gaming was bigger than it is today, because quite frankly there is a wealth of amazing, interesting games that everyone missed. Not only was it impossible to play all of the bigger releases, but there were smaller releases you'd not have heard much about, if at all, as well as foreign games that were simply never released in your country. I have found so many interesting, unique, and fun games from exploring things that have never come out where I live.
I distinguish between videogames as a medium/interest/activity and "gamer culture" which has become some different beast entirely. I am deeply embarrassed for "gamers" in the /v/ sense of things and their bizarre anti-social culture of edginess (which, oddly enough, has been successfully absorbed by weird alt-righty political movements). I do worry of ever being associated with the latter.
That being said, I'm incredibly lucky to have found people to share my interest in gaming with on an entirely non-edgy level. I just played through Overcooked 2 with my girlfriend on valentine's day, for example, and it was pretty great. I like talking about more obscure indie-ish games as well as big event type games with friends, it's no different than talking about some movie or book. I'm also playing more games than ever before, mostly thanks to the Switch. It's a great time for videogames.
I think the negative stereotypes of gamers come from socially awkward people avoiding confronting their issues while distracting themselves playing videogames. I don't think videogames existing has much of an impact on the underlying problem, with is mostly a personality trait, but there's some truth to the stereotype. It used to be that it worried me when this was not reported correctly in the news and videogames were presented as a cause of social awkwardness. Nowadays, however, the opposite is happening, which is kinda baffling: Gamers still don't acknowledge the underlying problem (social withdrawal) but almost see gaming as... the cure? Like some kind of "gamer pride" situation where gamers unite to counter-attack any criticism of gaming and form this giant community of assholes. It's the worst of both worlds. It's this hyper-anonymized, text-driven movement that's basically loner anarchism and – like all anarchism – immediately gets co-opted by bad actors. The result is gamers-rise-up type cringe, Gamergate and unhinged hate-campaigns towards individuals who might have said or done something vaguely "anti-gaming". It's social withdrawal with an attitude. Nothing good can come out of that and it deserves all the scorn it gets.
No, but I wouldn't usually go out of my way to bring it up, so maybe that qualifies (i.e. listing other hobbies first to seem more "normal"?) - but I'm definitely not shy about it to folks who already know I play games or I already know play games as well.
Yes, yes, and yes! I've spend a pretty significant amount of time talking up the games I've played to family/friends over the years, and gotten a few people interested and playing them that I think otherwise would have written them off - for example, my mom originally thought most games were like call of duty/gta/arcade games because that's what she saw people playing, but gave portal a shot after hearing me rave about how much I enjoyed & realized there's whole genres she didn't know about before, which tipped me off that there's probably a lot of people who'd enjoy stuff like puzzles or graphical adventure games that may not know they exist given a lot of mainstream games are more action-oriented/violent which may turn people off. So, I suppose I'll be honest about how important & interesting I find games I play in the hopes that other people will find them interesting as well.
Probably, but I find that the more people find out about the different kinds of games out there the less this happens - my family used to say stuff like "you've been playing too many games, read a book!" but then a bit after Doom Eternal came out I heard "You've been played too much Doom, change it up every once in a while!" which I thought was a nice change :)
Eh, I identify with my friends/family who play games, but I'm not sure if that's a representation of broader gaming culture, but I don't really have a sense of what the broader gaming culture is like beyond "this game was/is/isn't popular" or "this developer is/was/isn't popular" which is a mixed bag - I'm not hugely into multiplayer/competitive games which I think(?) are a huge part of gaming culture, but I'd definitely identify with folks who are more into single player stuff - whether its narrative driven, linear, more open ended or some combination thereof.
No, because almost all of my friends and most people at school are gamers. And those who aren't gamers don't really care.
Yes.
No, they either like it or don't care.
I'm part of and quite active in some gaming communities but not all of them. I don't like AAA games so that cuts out a decent bit, I discuss retro and indie games a lot however.
Not particularly? For example, I've mentioned it in work meetings when we're briefly chatting about our week or plans. I consider it like any other hobby.
Nah. While my parents don't "get" it, they don't judge it as a bad thing. And most of my friends play at least one video game somewhat regularly.
Nope! It's one of my main hobbies but: 1) I'm not very "good" at them, 2) I didn't play them as a kid, 3) I'm a "casual" player, 4) I'm not a guy. I just don't feel like dealing with the grief I'd get from random people on the internet if I said I was "a gamer."