View From the Road: It's Time to Grow Up
- Thread starter John Funk
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It is quite odd indeed. Though I'm pretty confident in myself as person, there is a little something inside me, that suppress the fact, that I am a gamer, to the world's non-gamers.
I have no idea why.
Maybe it's because, people don't get, that games are time-consuming and not life-consuming.
I have no idea why.
Maybe it's because, people don't get, that games are time-consuming and not life-consuming.
Jim Rossignol wrote on this gaming stigma of shame in his book This Gaming Life. I, too, am ashamed to admit to many of my acquaintances that I am an avid gamer, mostly on the grounds that most of the people I know think that gaming is a waste of time.
Don't forget certain companies won't hire you if your a known WoW player, and women/men/signifigant others are crazy on the BEST of days.
To this day I believe RealID would have been a fantastic idea. I will say this. I find it VERY ridiculous that those that consider themselves "famous" in one form or another make the excuse that RealID would increase harassment in their future. This will sound rude, but the so called famous people that go from anywhere like Hollywood to game editors are about a 1%-2% of the millions that play WoW. That RIDICULOUS notion that these people prevented a good idea from coming to fruition is insulting.
Did that make me sound like a prick? I do believe it does, but does not change the way I saw RealID removed for such STUPID reasons like having your name shown. I'm sorry, but unless your credit card or social security number are shown next to your name. Your fears are nothing more than egotistical problems, nothing more.
Did that make me sound like a prick? I do believe it does, but does not change the way I saw RealID removed for such STUPID reasons like having your name shown. I'm sorry, but unless your credit card or social security number are shown next to your name. Your fears are nothing more than egotistical problems, nothing more.
This is certainly one of the best articles I've seen on The Escapist, I fully agree with your opinions here.
I'm not ashamed of my WoW playing. I openly tell my friends and anybody who asks, and we all have a good laugh about it and move on. Hell just this evening I explained the concept of a dungeon group to a mate using dots, squares, a triangle and an x.
You know. It is somewhat similar to people with different sexual orientation. The whole coming out thing, it's not easy for many.
The stigma of gaming is still strong, especially in some parts of our wonderful world. When you say openly "Hey i play video games" people tend to go "Uh whaat? Ain't those, like for, you know, uh, like kids, like?". Some time will have to pass, till the older generation that got unlucky enough to fully ignore the whole computer-world expanding onto their lives, will either accept the fact or die from natural causes (yeah... natural, right).
I personally never shied away from it, even my office has gaming posters and gaming references all over the place, but it took time to convince some of my bosses and co-workers that it's not some idiotic toy for little kids.
Surprisingly they had much easier time accepting my music and clothing style (mostly something you could call cyber-gothic/punk/classic gothic) than my gaming hobby. For them internet is just a tool for work, checking the news, contacting with business partners and so on. They maybe played Solitaire once or twice, but never bothered with anything more. It is the harsh reality.
Just like you cannot force people to be fully open everywhere about their religious beliefs, sexual orientation or other private details, you can't expect them to not want to share their, still often frowned upon, hobby.
Gaming as a wide spread phenomena just surfaced really not long ago, 6 maybe 10 years ago. You need at least another 5-10 years for it to become socially acceptable. Believe it or not, not everyone lives in US.
The stigma of gaming is still strong, especially in some parts of our wonderful world. When you say openly "Hey i play video games" people tend to go "Uh whaat? Ain't those, like for, you know, uh, like kids, like?". Some time will have to pass, till the older generation that got unlucky enough to fully ignore the whole computer-world expanding onto their lives, will either accept the fact or die from natural causes (yeah... natural, right).
I personally never shied away from it, even my office has gaming posters and gaming references all over the place, but it took time to convince some of my bosses and co-workers that it's not some idiotic toy for little kids.
Surprisingly they had much easier time accepting my music and clothing style (mostly something you could call cyber-gothic/punk/classic gothic) than my gaming hobby. For them internet is just a tool for work, checking the news, contacting with business partners and so on. They maybe played Solitaire once or twice, but never bothered with anything more. It is the harsh reality.
Just like you cannot force people to be fully open everywhere about their religious beliefs, sexual orientation or other private details, you can't expect them to not want to share their, still often frowned upon, hobby.
Gaming as a wide spread phenomena just surfaced really not long ago, 6 maybe 10 years ago. You need at least another 5-10 years for it to become socially acceptable. Believe it or not, not everyone lives in US.
Hell if I played wow I wouldn't want employers being able to look that up, and for exactly the same reason why I wouldn't want them to be able to look up the fact that I drink on weekends. I may not be addicted but it is an activity were enough people are and that the risk of it is always there.
I know we have one employer in town who will not hire you if they find out you play WoW. It cuts into the workers productivity and they aren't focused on their jobs like they should be, or at least that's what they said(in their defense they have had quite a few people with WoW problems make life hard on everyone else there).Matt_LRR said:
why risk it? if it is not sure to be a positive thing i would like to keep it away from interviewersMatt_LRR said:
extreme example that holds no basis in reality: you are a mass murderer, maybe you let your interviewer know, maybe he is one too and you bond and you get the job yay ! but i guess it would go wrong, i dont see how, but there is a way
I also feel people need to grow up. I have no problems talking about my hobbies and I hold a professional job. I have even defended videogames (And films while I was at it) at training events with no repercussions.
People need to stop pretending the RealID changes would have been the end of the world.
People need to stop pretending the RealID changes would have been the end of the world.
The truth is, when I was in high school if people played video games few of them ever spoke about it (I was more up front about it, but then again I loved my free FF7 T-shirt)fast forward a decade and I'm subbing in a classroom and a group of students are casually talking about playing MW2, and these are kids of a wide variety of social cliques (a Cheerleader, a hippie, a jock, and stoner among them). I had to keep myself from jumping in and talking about my favorite sniper spots with them (not out of shame, more out of professionalism). When I was in high school that would have never happened.
It's slow in coming Funk, but it's coming nevertheless.
It's slow in coming Funk, but it's coming nevertheless.
I don't use my real name for anything on the internet. Chances are anything I say now I will look at in 10 years and think "god I was an idiot" back then. But it seems to make sense now dammit!
I'm not ashamed of gaming but I also don't feel a pressing need to broadcast every detail of my life to the rest of the world. If someone wants to know about me they can ask me. Googleing someone to learn about them is mild form of cowardly voyeurism and I protect myself from it. Just like I close the shades when I change my clothes (though that is more to protect my neighbors from seeing horror that they can't unsee than any kind of modesty on my part).
I'm not ashamed of gaming but I also don't feel a pressing need to broadcast every detail of my life to the rest of the world. If someone wants to know about me they can ask me. Googleing someone to learn about them is mild form of cowardly voyeurism and I protect myself from it. Just like I close the shades when I change my clothes (though that is more to protect my neighbors from seeing horror that they can't unsee than any kind of modesty on my part).