Why it's still not cool to admit you're a gamer.

[mcj metroid]

Here's a nice little humorous article mostly about the annoying habits of gamers.

http://www.cracked.com/article_18571_5-reasons-its-still-not-cool-to-admit-youre-gamer.html

 

While he does make some good points, it is all true though. I personally wouldn't go out of my way to tell people I love videogames. The same way I wouldn't say i'm a wrestling fan.

 

So why do you think gaming isn't as accepted as movies yet? If we invite a girl or guy over to the house you'd watch a movie, you'd listen to some music but it's almost laughable to think of playing a videogame with her/him.

I'm just giving examples but why?

Are you a proud gamer ?

 

heres my analysing of the points. I read through them quickly mind.

 

5: I pretty much agree here

4:well his mature part is a little strange.

 

About half naked female charaters. In all fairness this is usually japanese characters and they do this in every medium they can.. In fact in regards to sakura check out this 5 minute trailer from a japanese b movie called machine girl

 

My point is the issue about women not being treated right, or things aimed at teeneage boys extends to every medium.

 

3: again totally simplifying things.. I could do the same for movies

titanic: a ship sinks and people drown

avatar: man hunts down many aliens

 

don't agree with this point at all.

 

2: and people didn't shit themselves months before avatar..

technology is evolving in videgames.. it barely is in movies that's why nobody cares and trust me people nearly shat their pants when they saw tron for the first time

1:

 

yes and no. Yes you get greedy guys who want it all but the videgame industry is far from perfect and from all the money it does make.. you know than movies or music you'd think they'd be able to solve paltry problems like release dates.. I know again this exists in most mendiums but when the ds was first released we waited 6 months and almost a year for the psp.

Edited May 24, 2010 by mcj metroid

[Jonnas]

I agree with points 1 and 2 the most. 5 too to some extent.

 

As with the others... there are plenty of games that mesh gameplay and story, and even those that don't, aren't about the story in the first place. Videogames allow for a bigger margin of freedom than most other mediums.

And like mcj said, oversexualization of women happens in any medium.

[Emasher]

It seems like another person wrote an editorial about how they think games need to have more qualities in them that movies and books have to be considered art. People need to realize that games are art for a different reason than Movies are, just like Paintings are art for a different reason than music is. Games aren't art because they have an original art style, games aren't art because they have a story of a certain quality. Games are art because of the overall experience that they bring to the player. Tell me this, why is it that a "realistic" painting depicting war is considered art, however, a "realistic" game depicting war is by some people not considered art? Movies need to have a good story to be artistic because that's the main thing people who watch movies are interested in. People who play games are mainly concerned with the gameplay, and I assume people who are into paintings are most concerned with how good the painting looks, and how well it represents what its supposed to represent (although, I'm really not sure about that one). Games shouldn't have to become more like movies to be treated the same way. Games are games, and if you want to watch a movie, you should go do that instead. Game developers should be more concerned with being more artistic with the gameplay in games than the cutscenes, story ect. The author of that article seems to imply that games should cut out gameplay and instead have the player play out the actions of the character in a movie. You only really need to watch a movie keeping this in mind to realize how boring that would be. Another quick fact that the author has overlooked, videophiles watch movies too, they don't just play games. If he had actually done some research, he might have found that out. If videophiles didn't watch movies, we wouldn't have such a thing as Blu-ray. Its possible we wouldn't even have HDTVs.

 

This appears to be what the author was addressing, but the title of the article suggests otherwise. In all honesty, I don't think these reasons really contribute to the way people perceive gamers. The root of the problem really goes back to the 80s and 90s when gaming was widely considered to be a children's pastime. The fact is though, gaming never had an age limit on it. The gaming industry never really had to grow up, as it was all just outside perception that it was for kids. Most statistics say that the majority of serious gamers are adults. The main reason that people still see gaming as a child's hobby today is most likely that the idea has just stuck with them. Once something is perceived negatively by society, it takes a lot of work to get it back into a positive light, and we're simply not going to get that by making games that cater more to adults, either because of their artistic merits, or for other reasons. People who don't play games still aren't going to experience them. Making games that cater towards people who don't play games isn't going to change things either, because very few of these games look and play like they've been created for adults, and to be honest, they're not an accurate picture of what games are for the most part either. The equivalent of an R/18A/14A/PG13 rating in North America being described as mature is a bit of a problem as well. If you look at the descriptions of the other ratings, its quite obvious that this means the games are for people who are mature enough to experience them without being influenced by them in a negative way, not that the games themselves are "mature". I mean, you wouldn't look at a "Teen" rated game and think "This game must be a teenager".

 

I agree with the author on the whole piracy issue, but that's more related to PC gaming the way he uses it, and not gaming as a whole, and in all honesty, it is an issue throughout the industry.

[or else you will DIE]

i wouldn't mind telling people i have a ps3 or 360 or snes or whatever

 

wii though, no.

[Emasher]

I forgot to mention, personally, I'm completely open about being a gamer. If someone doesn't like you just because you're a gamer, they're most likely not worth hanging around at all. Although, that might explain why I'm still just "That guy who is nice...and smart".