Gamer misconceptions

[Dog Pants]

I'm writing a blog article about misconceptions over gamers, such as that we're socially inept, bums, or that the media is for children. Unlike the Daily Mail opinions I'm challenging I'd like to have some facts to back up my case, so I thought the easiest way was to take a straw poll here. Admittedly this site is aimed at well adjusted adults, and I expect you'd get a different result from the CoD forums, but hopefully it still proves a point. Don't feel as though whichever category you fit into may be touted as inferior by the way, the point is to prove there's a diverse demographic.

Aside from the survey, please feel free to discuss your experiences and opinions on prejudice against gamers, as well as the article once it's published.

[tandino]

Is it to be published doggers? By whom? I get super rage from the amount of people who look down on gaming as a waste of time. It feels like every day I have to defend my hobby to somebody. Better than the X factor, no?

[Dog Pants]

Is it to be published doggers? By whom? I get super rage from the amount of people who look down on gaming as a waste of time. It feels like every day I have to defend my hobby to somebody. Better than the X factor, no?

Only published by me on my (well, Anery's) blog. But I've had the same thing and it pisses me off too, so I figured I'd put my arguments into words as a reference. I've got some nice links to sites like the Entertainment Software Association and the BBFC. It's also a counterpoint to all the tripe that the Mail publishes. The X-Factor will probably get a mention.

[Mr. Johnson]

I too, like pants and Tandino, have to defend my hobby way too often. To make it worse nobody ever listens when you say they're not murder simulators and they actually prefer to believe the media. I am still unemployed though, partly because (admittedly) I'm not looking for work at the moment because I feel at a bit of a low point right now and can't be arsed, though I'm convinced once I get my act together it should only be a matter of time before I get a good job so I can settle down with Mrs. Johnson and make babbies and stuff.

[Dog Pants]

Just because you don't fit into the married with 2.4 children category doesn't make you any less of a human being, although the poll is geared towards that because regular people identify with it. The point is that people are different regardless of whether they watch Eastenders, play games, go to the football, or engage in Ultimate Fighting. You'd probably find a pretty similar cross section across any of those demographics.

EDIT: The article is finished, I'm just waiting for the poll to back up my claims before I release it.

[Roman Totale]

The only thing people at work talk about is X Factor, Jungle and something about Essex. They spend their lives watching other people live theirs. Yet somehow gamers are the social outcasts?

I will freely admit that most Friday and Saturday nights I'll be found at home on the computer, but to be honest going out into town and getting pissed in bars and clubs holds no appeal to me whatsoever. Again, why is it somehow socially acceptable to stand in a deafeningly loud bar trying to work out what people are saying, yet speaking with friends over the internet earns you pariah status?

In terms of the "layabout" status, papers like the Daily Mail seem to assume that if someone who is unemployed plays games, then it's the games that are causing the unemployment. No evidence is ever offered to back this claim up, and logically you could blame X Factor, Jungle and Essex for the same problem. One's employment status should not have any bearing upon the thing you enjoy, unless one is preventing the other i.e. a crippling crack addiction. There are always some who take it too far (usually Warcraft players), but out of the 2m currently unemployed in this country how many do you think that applies to?

If you're looking for examples of what jobs gamers do then, briefly and vaguely, I manage an office of around 35 people, 300 clients and with a turnover of approx. £40m per month. I have never called anyone a noob or threatened to pwn them.

[tandino]

The only thing people at work talk about is X Factor, Jungle and something about Essex. They spend their lives watching other people live theirs. Yet somehow gamers are the social outcasts?

I went to the pub with a friend of mine on Thurs (yeah, gamers have REAL FRIENDS and often leave their houses!) and we were talking about the horror of society and reality TV. It's a heavy burden to be surrounded by decaying society.

If you're looking for examples of what jobs gamers do then, briefly and vaguely, I manage an office of around 35 people, 300 clients and with a turnover of approx. £40m per month. I have never called anyone a noob or threatened to pwn them.

I love the image of you dragging an underachiever into the office and yelling "NOOB" at them. On their exit you'd have to shout "lol pwned" after them.

[Dog Pants]

Article is up. http://www.geekinpublic.com/?p=171

[Roman Totale]

Hurrah!

Incidentally the PCC responded to my complaint about that Daily Mail article (see Two Minute Hate post) - they're contacting the people who did the original research to see if they would like to complain about their results being skewed. Either way their article was utter bollocks just for picturing a child playing GTA.

[Dog Pants]

I'd consider that a result if I thought the PCC had any teeth. Still, better than nothing.

[FatherJack]

I find gaming's becoming a lot more "acceptable" these days, which I think is for a number of reasons.

People have grown up with consoles and computers used mostly for games, or have played them at friend's houses, as opposed to when I was a kid: home computers were a rare, new thing and most games couldn't sustain your interest for very long. I think Elite was the first title that I was more interested in staying in and playing than going out on my bike.

Games are now big business, you get adverts on primetime TV. The Wii, DS and casual web-based games have introduced gaming to whole new markets of people who would never have bought a dedicated gaming machine.

Admittedly I've only ever worked in IT and am now at a web design company where most employees are quite young, but I hear increasing mentions of games being talked about - yet it's still a little embarrassing to be too enthuasiastic about them and certainly not something you put on your CV. There's a kind of guardedness where people don't want to sound too geeky or to not be taken seriously, but a lot of people "secretly" play them and enjoy them.

It's also a pretty cost-effective way to entertain yourself. Even if X-Factor and similar shows are your thing, they can only entertain for an hour or two a week, and if the rest of the telly is not your thing then you end up paying more for better telly, or movie rentals. A game, which even new doesn't usually cost more than £40 can give you 80 or more non-contiguous hours of entertainment.


However, like with all hobbies - there's the question of the amount of involvement - as if being too enthuasiastic about your hobby is in itself an unhealthy thing. An obsession.

I've been given the blank/slightly scared looks where after somebody mentions they play (say) WoW - I kind of assume they do guild-level raiding and talk for five minutes straight about some intricacy of the game before I notice their discomfort and mumble unconvincingly that I don't play it that much.

It's like people who build castles of out matchsticks, who modify their cars, collect comics or furnish dolls houses - you're a bit wary of coming across as some sort of kindred spirit to them or they'll talk your ear off all night expecting you to have the same knowledge and love for the subject as they do.


Still a lot more people play games now, albeit secretly or in a noncommital fashion - it is after all getting towards being as lucrative as the movie business, so people must be. So it makes me laugh now, rather than be dismayed, when I see some ill-researched negatively-couched article about them because it is no longer the case that the self-proclaimed "expert" author is (mis)informing readers about a subject but instead making themselves look an utter fool in front of an increasingly larger percentage of their audience who are more knowledgable about the topic than they are.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

For what it's worth, me and wifey are both unemployed (Disabled) and gamers, got chatting in wow blah blah, also her sprog (10) is a gamer.

[Dog Pants]

I think you have a certain amount of tunnel vision there FJ. Not to say there's no truth in what you're saying, but by your own admission your work and social circles are target demographics for games. The Playstation suddenly made gaming a lot more acceptable, but there are still a lot of people out there who see it as the stereotypes we try to avoid.

[FatherJack]

I think you have a certain amount of tunnel vision there FJ. Not to say there's no truth in what you're saying, but by your own admission your work and social circles are target demographics for games. The Playstation suddenly made gaming a lot more acceptable, but there are still a lot of people out there who see it as the stereotypes we try to avoid.

Maybe, but that's why I mentioned it. My friends and family have very high percentage of gamers, but that again, may be because of me. I admit, I can't see much beyond that because I don't know what strangers do in their spare time - but I've had a few pointers. Guys who come to fix my boiler/check my meter/install my cable have all commented on my rather obvious rack of gaming devices in my living room and mentioned they play a little. I hear people in shops discussing gaming moments with each other (not just in the game shops/aisle), I've seen game loading screens through windows as I drive/walk past houses, kids in the street act out game-inspired sequences. It's starting to sound like one of Glibberig's dreams.

Again, not conclusive by any stretch, but my point is that it's happening more - a lot more than it used to even five years ago. Also, the figures which state the gaming industry is starting to rival the movie industry in terms of profit must also mean more people are playing (or everyone's stealing movies). It is of course my straw poll, put a finger in the air, pluck a number out of my arse guesstimate, but I think gaming's growing. One day, perhaps soon an anti-gaming article in a newspaper will attract the same sort of derision amongst the majority as perhaps one written today proclaiming "The Internet Is Bad" might - in short, they won't be written anymore.

There will always be stereotypes of course, and even if we shrug off the common misconceptions and everyone in the world played games, there will just be a new one for Game Addicts/Obsessives.

Of course, I'd be interested to hear what others have experienced. As gamers we're perhaps more attuned to overhearing or spotting game-related stuff going on around us - do we think it's on the increase, or has it merely plateaued now that all the people who were a bit geeky anyway are gaming?

[Joose]

Of course, I'd be interested to hear what others have experienced. As gamers we're perhaps more attuned to overhearing or spotting game-related stuff going on around us - do we think it's on the increase, or has it merely plateaued now that all the people who were a bit geeky anyway are gaming?

I definitely think its on the increase. Its only inevitable really; our generation has grown up with computer games being a thing, the generation after ours grew up with computer games being a more common thing, the current generation sees computer games all around them like they do TV and films. The age groups who are not used to this new fangled type of entertainment are constantly getting old, dying, and being replaced by people who see games as common place. That came off a bit "hooray, they are all dying", which is entirely unintentional.

Plus, even within our generation its getting more acceptable. Its still got a bit of stigma attached to it, but 15 years ago the majority view was that computer games were only played by the super nerdy. Now, through things like xbox and playstation, more people are regular gamers. Hell, if you add in mobile phone games and the DS, and I would say that more people of my generation have played games on a semi regular basis than haven't. I probably know more people that have played Angry Birds now than I did people who played computer games of any sort when I was younger.

Of course, the gamer=social leper view hasn't completely disappeared yet. It probably never will entirely, but eventually the people who think that will be considered as wobbly-brained as the people who think TV will rot your eyeballs and Rock and Roll music will lead to an epidemic of vagrant youths.

[Dog Pants]

There is a difference between a person who plays Angry Birds on their iPhone and a gamer (in the context I've been using it) though. Mrs Pants plays games on Facebook, my mum used to play that pinball game which came with Windows XP, but both have voiced some of the stigma we face as gamers in the past. I can't remember the specific example, but I'm sure my mum even quoted one of those ridiculous Daily Mail articles at me once. Of course the rise in people exposed to games also increases the amount of people who play regularly, but I don't think we've reached social acceptability yet.

[Joose]

There is a difference between a person who plays Angry Birds on their iPhone and a gamer (in the context I've been using it) though.

Oh, absolutely, but Angry Birds player is closer to a gamer than someone who doesn't even play Angry Birds. What I'm getting at is that its going to be a slow but inevitable crawl towards acceptability (emphasis on slow, unfortunately), not some sudden realisation in everyone that being a gamer doesn't say anything about the rest of your life.

[tandino]

I'm quite facist in my view of what a gamer is. Play only MW3 or FIFA XX = not a gamer, proper games = gamer.

Unbalanced and nonsensical personal gamer classifications aside, great article Doggers, I shall share it forthwith.

[Dog Pants]

Thanks for the Facebook pimpage guys!

[TezzRexx]

If you're looking for examples of what jobs gamers do then, briefly and vaguely, I manage an office of around 35 people, 300 clients and with a turnover of approx. £40m per month. I have never called anyone a noob or threatened to pwn them.

You should try it, you might make £41m :D