[lookin' good, hottie]
Sometimes I wish "people in the real world" were more interested in video games, so that I could talk about 'em with them. Other times, I wish they'd never talk about them ever-ever.
I've developed a case-in-point: It seems people are more impressed or excited to hear what I do for a living than they were two or three years ago. The checkout girl at the drugstore next door, for example, gleefully revealed she is a Sims fanatic, on seeing me wear the MySims hoodie I practically live in. This kind of thing makes me feel good.
A lot of times, though, for some reason people (mostly dudes) decide to react to learning about my work by threatening, good-naturedly if enviously, to beat me at video games, or by asserting they play more video games than I do ("you actually play them?" is the stupidest question you could probably ask someone who tells you "I write about video games," but I get it a lot).
And I'm all, pssh, Kid. Don't even.
And he'll be all, "okay, fine, what's your favorite video game, like, ever?" (yes, there is a script, because this happens fairly often)
So I'll go, like, "Symphony of the Night or Metal Gear Solid 3."
And the dude will never know what Symphony of the Night is, and so I'll be all, "c'mon, kiddo, you're trying to step up to me and you've never heard of one of the greatest games ever made?" Because, like, y'know, me and MGS 3, we could have a debate about that (or you could, and I'll plug my ears or ignore you, but it could be done, let's say) but SotN's pretty quintessential.
So who's more obnoxious: The random bartender who says he can P\X/n me at every video game because he (slow, polite applause) beat Halo 2? (P.S., is he being sexist, or does competitive testosterone crop up when "regular people" discuss video games, no matter who with?)
Or me, for my tch, puh-lease, you never heard of Katamari Damacy response?
What're your experiences with the weird line between "us" and "them?" Are you annoyed that I keep calling them "people in the real world?" What're we, then?
By the way, that bartender probably could kick my ass at Halo. I play a lot of video games, but am not, to be quite honest, notably good at too many of 'em. But let's not tell him that, huh?
52 comments:
I had someone confuse Mega-pixel and Megabyte. The 'us' and 'them' mentality is everywhere, we have overlapping spheres; Anime, Music, basic games but overall 'gaming' is foreign. 'Gaming' is awaiting the Borderlands release, reading previews, watching a trailer, that is not the guy who owns a Xbox 360 and called it 'The Xbox'. The 'us' people, have we ever referred to the Xbox 360 as "The Xbox"?
I long to discuss RTS strategies in a workplace environment, but this will never happen in my career path, and so the 'us' and 'them' will forever be there personally. It's not a bad thing, the great thing about video games is we can socialise online with like-minded people, or game single-player and feel satisfied with ourselves.
Maybe its like me and Shadow of the Colossus and most fighting games of the mid to late 90's, but I just don't get the MGS 3-thing Leigh [prepares for grenades].
However, working at a local mom & pop video rental store near one of the largest college campuses on planet Earth...you get your share of meat necks [much like 9/11...Halo changed everything]. There is the super-rare occasion where even women stoop to the 'Yeah, well...have you 100% this game? Cuz I have'.
I imagine its worse for you because you are [in the games industry sense] a public figure. I have the joy of playing dumb and being very convincing. I think its cool [more] people are interested in OPENLY discussing games, but a keen eye has to know when to pick their spots.
Isaiah -- you're right, my career makes it weirder. I am, to "us people," a public figure, but to "them people," I'm just a weird chick who somehow manages to make a living by sitting on a computer all day and who gets video games in the mail.
I rarely talk video games with anyone I don't play them with, so I guess this 'us' and 'them' mentality runs pretty deep. I'm even reluctant to talk video games with people I know who play video games because it often results in us having two different awkward conversations as their interest in video games is often very different than mine, both in matter of taste and perspective.
I try not to sound like an elitist douche when people just merely enjoy things I love.
Example I met a guy who's now a friend and we were talking about what we liked. Music, movies, games all that. I tell him I'm a metalhead and he's 'I love metal, green day's awesome'. I wanted to lose it but I bit my tongue cause not everyone's hardcore.
He listens to the radio and plays madden. I own 2500 cd's and a dozen consoles.
Us and them is fine as long as neither side is an ass.
Outside of those weird moments where I make a game-related reference and some random stranger gets it, doesn't happen to me much. I did once hum the Katamari theme on a crowded subway platform, and some dude looked at me and laughed.
I also discovered a larger antipathy when someone would try to engage me in talking about WoW in pretty specific terms, but that can happen with any game, I imagine.
I agree whit you!
What about the kind of guy that only has played new gen games? Show him the old Silent hill and he’ll complain about graphics. They ALWAYS criticize the graphics.
Halo, like Madden, seems to me like the lowest common denominator of the video game persuasion. It's amazing irony -- you hear all kinds of horror stories about the Halo fandom, or the "typical" Halo player, but I submit that it's because these games are so well written and designed that they have a wider audience than most titles out there. You get jerks because you get a larger cross-section of the general public.
That said, you really don't have much credit as a gamer in my book if those are the only games you play. Come talk to me when you've played Final Fantasy VI. Or Odin Sphere. Or Jumping Flash!. Or at the very least, be able to explain why Halo or Madden are so good without using circular logic (i.e. "because it's awesome!").
Us or them huh? You might be onto something, where a great divide is becoming more apparent since video games are such a part of main stream culture, but the underground culture is what drives innovation. Anyone who claims to be "hardcore", but neglected to play what may be the best 2D action platformer of all time (upside down castle anyone?) really needs to take a step back and recognize, The Halo series is not the holy trinity of gaming! Sure its great, but so was pong.
I wish I could talk about games with my non-gamer friends the way they seem to slavishly follow sport and talk about it amongst themselves.
Still, I guess this is how film critics feel in their field. Telling them that my three favourite films are The Blues Brothers, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Pineapple Express and it would make them feel very sad for culture and me.
At least in our younger chosen media format there isn't such a monopoly on intellectual properties, with each of the big games companies trying something different to one another. Interesting times, and ones which other people couldn't give a crap about.
On the plus side, even though it might make us sad to hear someone raise halo on a plinth it at least means games are becoming more accesible to "them". Which hopefully means less demonisation of our hobby as these generations of games influenced people move up in society.
I think it's sexism. Or atleast the guy doesn't know how to act when a woman is encroaching on what he sees as a traditionally male pass-time. So he reverts to some base instinct to prove he's bigger, better, stronger in the hopes of being a more impressive specimen and therefore favoured for reproduction. It's basic monkey logic.
I think most guys who aren't really into games consider video games an extension of competition. What reason is there to play games other than to dominate and show that you are better? That's why games about shooting people, aliens, insects, etc. do so well. It's just one more area within which to exhibit mastery, regardless of how meaningless to life that mastery is.
Then again I'm a guy so I feel completely under-qualified to judge how guys act when talking to women.
Maybe it's some misguided attempt at flirtation.
Maybe the person is just trying to make conversation by engaging in what they consider typical-gamer banter.
A taxi-driver, dropping me into work one day and hearing where I worked uttered the wonderful phrase:
"You do dem games then, yeah? On the Playbox?"
This is the equivalent of someone turning to a movie director and referencing "Citizen Kahn".
"Us" and "Them" mentality will always arise when ignorance of a culture exists. It's our job, as people on the inside, not to get annoyed by this but instead to educate and enlighten the ignorant.
On the other hand, I hate people who feel they have to prove they are better than you at a game. I recently started playing UT3 for the first time, for the fun of it, and I remembered the first time someone had said something very similar to what your barman said to you. It was about Goldeneye and how good he was, blah blah. The fact that I kicked his ass at the tournament that started soon after is besides the point. Boasting like that about ANYTHING is just sad, along the lines of "My dad could kick your dad's ass."
"Mostly" dudes? So you're saying that there have actually been cases when female people reacted by claiming to be better at the videogames than you?
If not, then please call them as you've seen them.
For me personally, I know that all humans play games - or at least would enjoy it if they did - and that talking about games is as normal as talking about art, or sport, or whatever else. There is no "gamer" and "normal person" any more than there is a "football fan" and normal person: there's only differing degrees of investment, where some people aren't familiar with the sport, and some get season tickets and paint themselves day-glo colors.
I can imagine that for a woman, this is slightly more fraught; boys are always trying to do impressive things they think ladies will notice. You say you like videogames? I have...uhh, a lot of Xbox! And webbed toes! Want to see them?
Nick -- yeah, there have been some women. One of them was a Playboy Bunny. Go figure.
I think when talking about any subject, most enthusiastic amateurs will talk themselves up, be it gaming, surfing, cooking, politics. People who know more about a subject tend to be more humble and let their actions speak.
I think anyone whose pretty good at something they've been doing for a while realizes how much further they have to go.
And I love SOTN! I recently realized that my disc copy was missing so I broke down and bought it off PSN. I learn something new every time I play, unfortunately, most recently I found out about using Alucard shield and Shield Rod, it became way too easy afterwards. Now I'm doing my third playthrough of Order of Eclesia.
As a youngish white male, I get the opposite reaction - people expect me to be a LOT better and more knowledgeable about video games than I am, because I talk about them often.
Also, games are segmented so trying to one-up people may not yield accurate results. Your favorites are all Playstation games; a Nintendo, Sega or PC gamer might not have played any of them and still have good taste.
I feel the pain of the "us" vs. "them" issue quite often. I'm a small time game designer for a little studio that makes kids games for the Nintendo DS, and my wife likes to brag about it. My wife is one of "them" and I cringe every time I hear her tell someone that I "make games" for a living. Suddenly not only does everyone want to compete with me on gaming proficiency, but they want to compete with me as a designer as well. Seems every one of "them" knows a way that they could have made a better Halo.
I do a lot of smiling and nodding and more than my share of thinking I could have just been a teacher.
yeah, this us/them-thing happens whereever there is a discrepancy in understanding, or depth of reflexiveness, and it falls apart in us, who got it, and them, who dabble on superficial levels.
sometimes, "them" is so far removed that there cant be much of a response towards the topic in question, see video games some years ago ("ah. hmm. isnt that for kids?") or stating adherence to a subculture most people never even knew existed, or making a point that flings so far off the common understanding of the topic that it leaves the radar (i have been accused of being "one of them intelligent design guys" after pointing out the finer details of science theory to an engineer) - and sometimes, us and them border each other so closely that you can have lively discussions without feeling grossly misunderstood (people being into the same genre of music with differences in their priorities being able to discuss influences by whom on whom etcetera).
whats enerving is when theres enough common ground that the layman (the default lv.1 them-footsoldier) can form a sort-of-opinion on the topic. virtually no common ground at all prevents discourse of the level that can grow obnoxious. abundance of common ground can leverage the ability to respect and discuss each others point of view on equal footing.
nowadays, people know videogames, they reserve a spot for them in their map of the-world-and-the-things-in-it. and oftentimes, they dont see that their level of orientation on the topic isnt the only level, or the ultimate level. after all, what they get as responses from us dont mean anything to them (symphony of night wtf? katamari who?). in obnoxious cases, were often navigating a mixture of these two situations and the ensuing misunderstanding becomes obnoxious.
from my experience, id say that its more likely to escalate to that state with guys because of that testosterone-heavy behaviour, indeed.
and as for what are we, if those are people of the real world? we are part-timers, regularly commuting to our hut in the realms of fantasy. (or, depending on the case, commuting to our hut in the real world)
that makes me think of whether gaming people made rather good or bad experiences with avid fiction readers, who happen to commute regularly, too.
While I've never really subscibed to an us v. them attitude, sometimes I encounter it when trying to talk about more obscure genres/niches/titles, like dating sims, tactical RPGs, almost anything with an anime-like art style.
More than anything else, it's that kind of niche knowledge and enthusiasm that makes an "us v. them" attitude feel nice. Not only for running in-jokes and common understanding, but the feeling of having an increased stake in what happens.
In fact, I often get that "us v. them" impression when talking to other hardcore gamers, like when they ones that sometimes comment on a blog with such "constructive" statements as "Yeah, but I've always hated JRPGs". Times like that, one really wishes for an over-the-internet "strangle" button.
Yeah, that happens to me a fair amount, too.
I usually get the obnoxious "I bet I can beat you at Game X" type. My response is usually "yeah, I bet you can, too."
It's not about me being bad at games. I play/review two or three games a week. They play one game a year. Obviously they're going to be pretty good at their one game.
It's the classic curse that happens when Your Favorite Band becomes popular. A lot of new folks come in who only know That Song On The Radio, but who insist that they're the biggest fan. And you roll your eyes and hope that Your Favorite Band enjoying the new fans' money, as long as they don't stop playing That Quirky Song That Would Never Get Radio Play.
Gaming is becoming more mainstream, and like it or not, that means even those gamers who would never have described themselves as "hardcore" are finding themselves frustrated by the newbies who just dabble in gaming, from Halo to Sims to Brain Age to Madden to WoW. They love their game of choice and insist they're the best at it, and to them, that's the whole of gaming.
They may have no interest in other games outside of their game of choice, and in fact often don't consider themselves gamers at all. To a certain degree, it's just something we'll have to accept and learn to love - it's a sign of our medium's acceptance, of course. We may worry that gaming will start disproportionately catering to the new fans, and stop making the quirky stuff we've always loved, but I don't see that as a real threat.
I see it as much more likely that the wider audience will lead to some people being introduced to games that never would have cared before. Some of them will become new game developers. And those new gamers will bring new perspectives and attitudes to the medium which will repay us all in large dividends in the future.
So I'll put up with them for now. As long as developers don't stop making the quirky games I love, as well.
I've learned the hard way that I cannot and should not talk about video games with the "normals." My girlfriend, for example, tries to be enthusiastic; but I can tell that to her, I seem WAY too enveloped in this hobby(and too unapologetic about it).
I try to keep my mouth shut realizing that this is a geekdom less mainstream than we think, or at least less mainstream than chugging beer and talking about college football with a bunch of knuckle-dragging frat boys.
Ms. Alexander, you have a bit of a luxury, in that you are not only a respected VG journalist, but you get paid to be such. You can just selectively ignore the competitive/belittling douche bags because you will have another avenue where you will not face that.
Someone like myself, who are a-dime-a-dozen nerds, will never garner that kind of respect. It's hard for me to find anyone with whom I can lament about game delays and such. A lot of my friends are blue-collar goons who still look at video games today the same way that you or I would look at playing tee-ball as a kid.
I actually had this conversation with my students the other day in my comics class (granted, it was about comics, but as KindGalaxy pointed out, we have over-lapping spheres--something I refer to in class as "nerd culture"). We were discussing what it's typically like for women in the comics industry, and the author we were reading was suggesting a strong "boys club" mentality prevails.
All we can do is try to continue to educate society about our chosen mediums of affection so that they'll eventually come around. It's already happened to the degree where perhaps the average person doesn't know who Leigh is, but the average gamer might as women are becoming more commonplace in the industry--Playboy Bunny, you say?. Where as ten years ago, this probably would have been unheard of even in "our" circles.
Really, this is what my comics class is all about--I don't generally get a class full of comic book fans registering (0-1 is more par for the course). I'm not necessarily trying to convert "them" to "us," but I am trying to educate them so they can understand and appreciate "us."
That's all any of us can do, really-- "Halo's nice, now why don't we give Portal a try?"
Yap. The great divide comes across alot - both in terms of negligence of games as a culture and games as important in any sense.
Regarding 'us' and 'them', I'm fairly certain I identify 'us' here as a group of people who are not afraid of being into games and still feel grown up. The chasm between, I experience, is the fear of "games-for-a-living" reducing the individual's self image as grown up and responsible. 'Us', then, have realized we're capable of both. I know more than a couple of people who almost went into serious careers related to games but backed out to become something "real".
I really agree very strongly on the whole "Us" vs. "Them" concept. I'm lucky enough to have a few people to discuss games with in person from a review/preview perspective ("this art style is gorgeous", "that play mechanic is going to be revolutionary", etc.)
But even amongst them I have difficulty preventing their eyes from glazing over when I feel like discussing the artistic and philosophical merit video games have, or even the importance of yesterday's games to the development of the medium today.
Unfortunately, video games aren't the only area of my life I feel this near ostracization in.
I work in Information Technology for a moderately sized (~25,000 students) university, and am stationed by myself in the building I maintain, instead of in the Division of IT's primary facilities like everyone else. As such, when people in my building attempt to discuss computers with me I feel very much the same as you describe people talking games with you.
I also feel this separation in my fondness for anime, though much less so compared to games and computers. I enjoy anime from the perspective of a student with a Japanese Culture minor, who has spent time in Japan as an exchange student and who has translated anime and manga for fansubbing/fanscanning groups in the past.
I enjoy the subtle intricacies in the speech of anime characters using a language that can be rife with puns and metaphors, and the occasional nods to aspects of Japanese heritage that can date back to before the common era. When I try to explain these things to my fellow anime-watching friends, however, they look at me like I'm a weirdo, so I try to just keep quiet.
I'm glad that I'm able to find others out there who feel as I do, and I feel bad for those of you who feel even more excluded than I am in my environment.
I can't say that sort of thing happens to me too much. Most of the people who I know play videogames, and I don't usually draw too much of a line between those who play them religiously like myself and those who only dip their toes into the medium every once in a while. Then again, I don't write about games for a living yet; I'm just blogging for free e-hugs and compliments, ha ha.
Though I have run into the occasional person who thinks they know more about videogames than just about every other living human. I try to avoid these people, mostly, as getting into an argument with them isn't half as fun as silently making fun of them when their "gaming knowledge" turns out to be either false, or something even the most apprehensive gamer would know.
Also, MySims hoodie? Me want!
It's even worse when you play obscure titles like "Tetris: The Grand Master". When I say "I spend a lot of my time playing Tetris", you immediately get an impression in your head, and 90% of the time, that impression is WRONG.
(compare this to this).
'us' can feel very, very small sometimes.
I think you encounter this in anything you have strong enthusiasm for, eventually you reach the point where you and those who merely dabble in it aren't even having the same conversation.
For instance, I'm a major film buff, as in the 'ranks Citizen Kane and Casablanca amongst his favourites' kind, and when someone else proclaims themselves 'into films' because they watched the latest transformers movie I honestly have no idea how to respond. Then there's the sports fan who knows a few teams and maybe some past great players, and the sports fan who can list near every player in the league along with positions, strengths, weaknesses and former clubs.
It works the other way too, I barely dabble in music, so my eyes tend to glaze over when people enthuse about the subject, and doubtless any ham fisted attempt to join the conversation provokes as much pain for others as I endure over films or games.
But the real question is, what do you do in this situation (either one really)? Do you stick to your guns and give a long winded explanation, or do you just fold and go along with them in order to avoid awkwardness?
Sometimes I wish I had more friends to talk games with. I try to talk games with one or two co-workers I'm friendly with and just get a lot of good-natured humoring.
And I've been lucky so far in that the guys I do talk games with don't feel the need to remind me that they can beat my @$$ in whatever FPS they happen to be into at the time.
@ Zero
"That said, you really don't have much credit as a gamer in my book if those are the only games you play. Come talk to me when you've played Final Fantasy VI. Or Odin Sphere. Or Jumping Flash!. Or at the very least, be able to explain why Halo or Madden are so good without using circular logic (i.e. "because it's awesome!")."
Thank you for inadvertently proving an interesting point, that there are as many divisions within 'us' as there are between 'us' and 'them'.
You see, I've not played any of those games, I've heard of one and have a vague memory hearing of another somewhere, to you I am apparently not one of 'us'.
Or maybe I am merely another kind of us, one whose gaming experience, while shallow in the areas of console imports, is strong in western PC games. Who instead of FFVI, Odin Sphere and Jumping Flash would cite something like Deus Ex, Planescape Torment and X-Com.
We aren't all the same us, I fear if Leigh attempted to start a conversation with me on the subject of MGS3 or Symphony of the Night I would fare only marginally better than most casual gamers (my reactions being that the former is overrated and the latter I am largely unfamiliar with). Yet I am certain 'they' and maybe even Leigh, would struggle to engage with me on the subject of Relic and Creative Assembly's diverging takes on the RTS genre.
Still both game lovers, yet sadly, still two different conversations.
I kind of had the same deal with a Halo kiddie on a temp job once, actually, except he was also claiming that Bioshock was a terrible game. And he didn't know what Call of Duty 4 was. From all I could tell he hadn't played a game since 2004, but damned if he didn't have strong opinions about them anyway.
There are plenty of unbelievably stupid people out there and as games get bigger and bigger we're going to start catching more and more of them in our cultural dragnet. And the dumber the person the more apt they are to thump their chest when a subject they have any sort of opinion about comes up. Just look at talk radio (POLITICAL HUMOR!).
I would say there's two separate things here.
The first is the guy trying to be playful saying he could totally beat you at [insert_game_here]. These are the (rather obnoxious) competitive gamers. They don't care whether they're playing real american football or madden, they're in it to win. Such a thing as a "friendly" match is not for them and they're always competitive. Perhaps this is a good thing to make it out in the real world, but I've always found it a very obnoxious attitude. Even when I was playing clearly competitive games, like counter-strike. So I wouldn't say he's sexist as such.
The other is the thing that gets mentioned in a lot of the comments. Somehow, getting home after work, making dinner and watching TV till you go to bed is culturally accepted (unless if you do it every night, then you're too boring). Doing the same things and then starting up your favourite game apparently is not. I guess part of it is that people don't really understand what exactly gaming is about, not gaming themselves or not being exposed much to the culture, and they feel left out of the look.
I don't let it bother me, though. I've spent too much time trying to appear interesting and delightful to other people. I eventually realised I should just do stuff that I find interesting. Screw what everyone else thinks.
@Dante:
I apologize if my comment came across wrong. I don't pretend to believe that only RPG gamers are legit. I was just pulling a random group of titles from memory that were great or at least memorable.
The games you list are all classics, and I regret I've not had the opportunity to play Torment -- it seems like a wonderful title. Your point is, of course, still perfectly valid. I guess the real question is, is there one "us", many "us" groups, or are we all one "us" and simply refuse to acknowledge it?
At the risk of sounding hypocritical, I wish the artificial divide between swaths of gamers didn't exist at all, and we could engage in intelligent discourse about games and what is good without some sort of false social dichotomy.
@dante: ...an interesting point, that there are as many divisions within 'us' as there are between 'us' and 'them'.
thats a given. :) its even more interesting when people are focussed on different us/thems - most people who see me would identify me as "goth", whereas i dont really spend much time thinking about the goths vs non-goths us/them but an us/them thats nested inside the "goth"-part, namely what clubs and events i can visit where they still play a diverse array of music and is not overrun by masturbatory jerks.
in that regard, those us/thems can be nested, much like xml elements. :D i wonder, is there something like well-formedness to us/them?
The biggest common pet peeve I have is when I show someone a trailer/clip of a game and they say, "Wow. This looks really cool. Someone should make a movie of it." Ugh. I know they mean well, but ugh, nonetheless.
Sounds to me like humanity's just being a jerk.
And it's not the sexism element (mostly). People just love competing excessively.
I liked Symphony of the Night a whole lot; it's artwork is beautiful, the control is perfect, the castle has so much to explore, and so on. On the other hand, apart from That One Boss, Galamoth, it just felt too easy for me.
As someone who has recently retreated into the world of retro arcade games, I find I don't really get involved in many discussions involving current games or steroid FPS kill-count chest thumping. I'm completely content with the fact that a good majority of my friends and casual acquaintances are wholly ignorant of my gaming hobby. It's not for everyone, and my tastes have lately skewed fairly obscure.
I don't really look at it as "Us vs Them." That is just a mentality I grew out of a long time ago. As the market for games increases, it will also continue to fragment. We've seen this with all forms of media: as market penetration grows, so does specialization in the marketplace. New niches will continue to be carved out. There will always be the "mainstream" Halo and Madden players, but there is room for everyone. I personally take issue with the elitist attitude some gamers take. Sorry, but the "casual" market isn't threatening anyone...if anything, it is fostering the re-emergence of truly "hardcore" gaming.
Ah, my apologies for that bloated, semi-coherent rant. SOTN FTW!
I rarely ever talk about videogames, only with some friends, and there's always funny looks from people all around.
Perhaps it's something related to the way people who don't play videogames look at "gamers" as obssesed people?. I guess that in a certain way, we "gamers" beacome "cults" in videogames; most of us could probably recognize a bunch of characters or themes, and keep a track at videogames developers for what games they have done and in which they are working etc... to the point where a barrier of knwoledge makes a distintion. And the only way an obsession is acceptable, is if it contributes something "good" to society, which I'm not sure if videogames are there yet. So it does bugs me the "people from another world" thing, because it makes me feel as if videogames haven't reach "that" level. We (or atleast I) hope for it to happen.
But um.. people who claim that X console is for kids, while Y console is for "REAL MAN" (huh?), make me go all tropical depression.
@ Zero
Sorry if I came across a little harsh there, I was just trying to illustrate the point. SVGL always seemed a little Japanese/Console focussed. Not that that's a bad thing, it's just worth mentioning there's another kind of gamer out there.
"Us and them" is just a fancy way of saying we are all different. It is in no way a bad thing. Even among gamers there is "Us and them" as well evidenced by this discussion.
I'm very into games, I like my RPGs but even so I found Valkyrie Profile dauntingly complex to begin with, and have little idea about MMOs and I am pretty bad at FPSes. So "gamer" is far from a black and white term.
Interestingly I know quite a few young gamers. Most haven't played that many old classics many of us would consider essential, yet have startlingly good taste about today's games. Yet they differ from us. They like both COD4 and COD5, having never really played any WW2 FPSes, whereas many FPS fans were "WW2 groan". One thought Brutal Legend's demo was meh because he didn't get any of the thematic stuff and the gameplay is admittedly only average. They can tell good and bad games apart, they just have a different background than us born in the 80s gamers.
As for game talk, its about finding people who share your passions. I'll never find anyone who shares all my interests so I just befriend many people instead.
Of my friends I have someone who'll tell me about all the latest RTS games, what I should be grabbing on my PS3, a bit of a retro games nut, all the new PC games I can't run, I even know a devout Nippon Ichi fan, some people into competitive Pokemon and some more well rounded gamers. Then I have outlets like the internet, so as far as game-talk is concerned I'm well satiated, except I wish my father cared more.
Similar things happen in my other areas of interest also. Honestly I'm never bothered by this except in hilarious cases where people pretend to know what they are talking about. "Metroid Prime looks like Halo ripoff".
Also, brutal poll there.
NintendoTheory: I got the hoodie at EA's spring or summer preview event last year. I also got Skate socks.
This thread just made me realize how massively out of touch I am with the mindset of the current generation of gamers.
That's most likely due to the fact that most of my friends aren't into the high-profile joints. We can spend hours playing King of Fighter '98: Ultimate Match, debating which Cave shmup was the most difficult, or debating the merits of the new Super Dodgeball title from Miracle Kids.
When we proclaim a game as a "best ever" its usually within a genre, or time period, and packed with solid arguments. Sounds like that's becoming rare.
I'm not a game journalist or an expert in games, but I love video games. Sadly the last couple years I've been reading (web) and listening (podcasts) about games more than playing them.
I have almost no gaming friends either (aside from the ones who only play sports games). So I tend to keep my mouth shut when it comes to video game talk. Maybe that's a reason why I've never run into people who claim they're this and that about games. I usually run into people who used to love games but have grown out of them. We'll spend a short amount of time reminiscing about A Link to the Past or Super Metroid.
If people give me the kind of talk the bartender was giving you, I usually respond with a "good for you" type comment.
Leigh, for your case, could it also be that you being a female game journalist attracts this type of riff raff (who try to impress you by claiming they can beat you in Halo)? If that were the case I wouldn't be surprised. Meatheads try to impress women in this fashion all the time (and fail miserably).
The "us versus them" mentality is mostly unnecessary and when unavoidable, I'd defer to what Miche said, "Us and them is fine as long as neither side is an ass."
I say it is mostly unnecessary because it is a mentality that often times originates from our unwillingness to treat videogames as an interest similar to someone's interest in film, music, sports, hunting or aquariums.
If we were willing to be more forthcoming with the "normals" about our interest in gaming, we might be surprised to find that people's openness to the subject mirrors our own openness.
Unfortunately, it's a common occurrence not to want to mention video games to people, for it is human nature to make an "us vs. them" feeling. We do it all the time. And while it has brought about terrible things, it can be a wonderful discerning device as well. But that's another topic many have covered before me.
In this case you've mentioned, it's sexism in a sense. I believe I found your blog originally from stumbling upon a video about why there aren't more female video gamers. As a whole, unfortunately, we are a competitive group, and it's apparently threatening to have women entering as well. Probably the same for any 'game' including sports. But that's an issue I think you've already addressed really well, too.
The more concerning term for me then, is a 'gamer'. If you've read VGcats' recent comic on gamer rage, the industry has opened (and is still trying to open) video games to the masses. While I applaud this effort, we really don't need EVERYONE to play games. And naturally, people who are most vocal about joining in our hobby are the annoying 'frat guy' style of men, who have never played MGS, let alone heard of SotN, but are now playing Halo and Madden. And these guys are taking the term Gamer and making it their own.
And yes, Leigh, we have these experiences with them too, though probably less confrontational.
If when you mention Symphony of the Night you mention that it is a Castlevania sequel, you should at least triple the number of people who kind of know what you're talking about.
I have a slightly different although similar script.
Regular Person: "Oh you work at a video game company? Which one?"
Me: "THQ"
Regular Person: "uh...do they make Mario?"
Me: "No. were mostly known for licensed kids games."
Regular Person: "..."
Me: "Like, SpongeBob or Pixar games?"
Regular Person: "Pikachu?"
Me: "We just had a couple big hits with Saints Row 2 and Red Faction Guerrilla"
Regular Person: "Haven't played those...what about Halo can you get me a copy of that?"
Me: No.
Regular Person: "So you just play games all day?"
Me: Not really, I'm a Database Admin so I mostly...
Regular Person: (butting in) I have a great idea for a video game...it involves dog pit fighting...
I write for a small site (yet big enough to get pre-release games) and I'm quite young compared to most people who do this. I get the same kind of treatment but more about a inexperience-due-to-age kind of thing.
Yet I find it funny cause I'm the one experiencing all these different games, while he's the one who still plays CoD4 every night =)
Check out Charlie Brooker's Gameswipe - a recent production by the BBC here in Blighty. A great example of how grown-ups CAN talk about video games without either sounding sad and pathetic, or (needlessly) making fun of the subject matter at hand.
Agh... I hate it. I've done my stint in retail and most people who even play the games, don't really THINK about the games. Even at the LAN parties I attend, people talk about games, they play games.. but they don't do anything more. It's a sad thing, they just consume games like taco bell and Michael Bay movies. They avoid the deeper analysis and discussion of games or themes at all.
I also sometimes admit to playing games when talking with girls.. they go "oh! I play games too!" so I am thinking "cool, maybe on the next date we can swing by the Gaming Cafe and play some shit and talk about it as well. Slightly better than seeing a movie as it's not passive," then they all tend to say "I like playing Mario on my Nintendo." and then I realize it's just another hipster who plays old games because old games are cool, not because some old games are brilliant works of art.
It's the same thing comic book-oh, sorry Graphic Novel fans deal with. When the art medium you focus on becomes just a trend.. it makes you angry. I am sure the fans of theater are even angrier now.
Imagine it, you mention that you enjoy plays, and someone goes "Wow! Me too! I loved Rent/whatever the big play that everyone sees this decade!" You just know the guy never went to see a play by any of the smaller troupes in the area doing a play by a new playwright. But they saw the Halo of plays.
SotN is officially a video game must, right along with the American final fantasy 3. Video games aren't just about FPS's. and some of these people who think they are really into video games and have never heard of Goonies 2 on the original NES needs to brush up on there history before self proclaiming a title.
And I'm sorry but someone who plays nothing but sports games can not call themselves a gamer.
Post a Comment