Happiness is a Warm Controller

[Sporky111]

My father is 56 and plays a ton of video games, mostly MMO's, RTS's, and RPG's. He's currently on LOTRO. He tells me it's because no one is around to play D&D with him anymore.

+1 to your dad! We need more people in that age group with that opinion. The main problem here is that most people still equate "game" with "toy", so we can't get a lot of respect from them because they won't change that association. Hopefully in ten years or so, when my generation is taking over (I'm seventeen) and theirs is losing steam, videogames will get the same respect as a pastime as movies get.

And I'll be pushing it along any way I can.

 

[SamElliot'sMustache]

I do get a bit of gamer-shame from time to time, but what I'm still surprised by is the occasional sneer about how I still read comic books. That one tends to stick in my craw a bit more, since all the progress in the mainstream that industry makes, and people still tend to look down on people who read them (not collect them, but actually read them). Then again, usually these people are the type who think Fast and the Furious is excellent film-making and worship Staind, so it doesn't get to me as much.

Comics and video games do seem to have that very common trait of being frowned upon by the mainstream, which is just sad and pathetic considering that fantasy football and spending every waking moment twittering is more acceptable.

 

[rohit9891]

Great article sean...lot of people out there dont have a good impression about games,but I think it's because they refuse to give it a try...if they are so stubborn,they are the ones who should be ashamed of themselves.I grew up playing games and I'm still gaming because I feel a lot better when I play games than watching stuff like football or whatever others watch.We never ask them to stop watching other stuff, so they dont have to do it either.And right now modern warfare 2 has collected twice the amount that Dark Knight got on it's first day...and this itself shows that gaming isnt something a small bunch of freaks do. If someone like to play games,people should let them be that way.

 

[ccesarano]

To some extent I think this mentality will carry on for more generations. When I was in College most of my peers stated they simply didn't have the time to play games anymore. Other friends of mine became much more social and drank all the time and had other things they did.

I, however, didn't play games when I had the time. I made the time to play them. Some people looked at me as if I was destined to fail out of College, but in truth I just managed my time. I did my class work, I played games, then whatever time was left was spent hanging with friends or doing something else. No one stopped going to see movies, but I only went when I had the spare time.

So most people will look at video games as being something sacrificed in adult hood, when you just don't have the time you did when you were younger, but I don't think that will happen to me (of course, that happens when you're spending your unemployed time researching the ins-and-outs of becoming a game writer). Games are here to stay.

It's most troublesome with my family, though. Particularly my father. He tries to draw comparisons between my playing video games and people watching sports, as I've never truly enjoyed viewing them on TV. I try and explain that I'm not watching a video game being played, I'm doing the playing. I'd rather go out and play football then watch other people do it. The only sport I can get into is Hockey, and even then to a very limited extent through the television. It's just easier to enjoy in person.

The holidays are always tough, though. I tend to write out a list of games I'd like and where their black friday sales are going to be for my mom, and he looks at it with shame. As if I'm too old to be making lists. However, no one in my family would ever know what to get me otherwise. I mean, what else would I get for Christmas? I have enough clothes and everything I could use that isn't film or game related I already own (a laptop, Photoshop and a Wacom tablet).

Of course, this is also just part of the difference of being a media junkie versus, well, anyone else. I'll learn how to change my oil out of necessity (assuming it saves money in the end), but I'd rather pay a kid to mow my lawn than do it myself. But film, music and games? I'll analyze and dissect it because that's what I do. That's my fascination. Entertainment is a special brand of art that not everyone gets, and it fascinates me.

But I guarantee you when I'm fifty, whether I'm writing about video games as a profession or not, people will still say the same thing. "You STILL play video games?".

 

[CloggedDonkey]

I think every one here still plays games, but I still build LEGO sets. the older you get, the more money you can spend on them.

 

[BobOfTheGlen]

Gaming gets a bad rap for the simple fact that it's long hours spent doing little constructive. Other hobbies provide you with either something concrete (like pottery or painting) or some identifiable effect on your body or mind (like hiking or sports or sudoku). At least, that's what arguments have been thrown at me to guilt me into quitting.

The only hobby with a similar problem is reading, but most "self-important windbags" don't attack this on the grounds that "reading is good for you", and books are nowhere as immature or meaningless as videogames. What they fail to realise, however, is that Mills&Boon is just as mindlessly consumer-driven as most of the low-budget, generic FPS's and RPG's out there, and that in the same breath, "Portal" can be seen as the videogame Isaac Asimov would have created, had he been given the chance.

Basically, both hobbies are regarded by most as being ultimately pointless (unless you read the kind of books the inquirer likes, or manage to defend yourself behind the academic shield of Dickens, Tolstoy or complex philosophical treatises), but videogames have yet to infiltrate the world's academia. Until such a time as the public hears of a videogame Jane Austen, gaming as a whole will be shunned by non-gamers as a simple novelty that should have died out years ago. But the same story played out in the film industry, so I'm not particularly worried.

Off topic, the question "You still play videogames?" has an older brother - one that has p*ssed me off for years - "You still read fantasy?"

 

[Woodsey]

We do it to relax - I doubt many people who go fishing actually do it for 'fun', but that doesn't mean they don't still enjoy it. It's more for the experience.

I've never really understood why playing a game is looked down on more than say, reading a book. Sure, reading is more intellectual, but it also engages your brain less (I guess) and you're still just sitting around.

But it seems far more excepted now - at school many think it's odd if you haven't got a console in your house. A point that is both good and bad for me: I game, so it's good many others do in some way as well, but I vastly prefer playing on a PC which most people who only play Fifa and CoD don't seem to get.

But still, it's getting there.

 

[Tears of Blood]

I can't help but totally disagree with the article.

Okay, I must admit, I'm still 19, but that doesn't make me easily amused, does it? I generally find genuine satisfaction from my games. 75% of the time, at the very minimum, I am having fun playing a game. I usually quit a game if I am not having fun with it, or know I will not have fun with it. Video games are fun in the same ways that sports, movies, and books are fun. You aren't ECSTATIC the entire time, but expecting to be like that the entire time is just ridiculous if you ask me.

That small 25% of the time I am not having fun are times when I have beaten a game and am achivement hunting, or when I am playing online and losing horribly. (A near-loss is fine, but I don't want to be made a fool of.) I'm a completionist, I like to do everything in my games, but I often cannot stand the times when I am not having fun.

I think, perhaps the reason the author has such a low ratio of fun to play is because of the particular games he is playing. He mentioned Dragon Age and World of Warcraft. While, Dragon Age is probably a good game, it is not for certain people. It's known for it's difficult combat and competitive and grind-y nature. Certainly not for everyone. Furthermore, World of Warcraft is totally infamous for truly not being any fun at all. Oh, the countless people that admit they do not have fun with WoW, but still play it.

Perhaps I am the type of guy that needs to go into a field of work that involves video games, (Being a creative-lead on a project would be my dream-career.) because I truly have a love for video games and I truly have fun most of the time when I play them.

 

[Theissen]

I once had an experience n the train, which I think illustrates the fact that 'real' gaming isn't mainstream.

2 girls walk in and sit across me. They talk about how they are going to write some assignment for school, but unfortunately, one of the girls doesn't have her laptop anymore. The other girl replies that it's a shame and that she has a desktop computer (the details are somewhat vague to me, so this is roughly what they said).
Immidiately, the first girls asks, "What's that?". She is then explained what it is, and her first reply is another question, "What do you use that for?"

I was kind of perplexed and surprised that some people doesn't give desktops a thought.o

 

[Nemu]

Usually the folks who direct the 'you still play video games?" comment/question to me are the same people who've gone to (basically) the same bars/pubs that we went out to when we turned 21--over a decade ago.


I don't question their arrested development hobby, they shouldn't question mine.
Besides, there's nothing like coming home after a long night at work and repeatedly killing someone who is quite likely just starting their day.

 

[Mushroomfreak111]

Like all other hobbies games are not always fun. They demand work, and we know that. We don't mind putting some effort into it, cause thats what makes it rewarding! It's the same for people that like building stuff out of wood. The building process is hard work, the good part is looking at and/or using your finished piece.

 

[Frizzle]

I've decided that my life is more fulfilling with games instead of TV. Why watch all that crap and let my mind rot when I can actively participate in entertainment that is engaging, stimulating, and makes me think?

For the people that sneer at you... their loss. A while ago I was talking with a girl who was understandably upset when her computer wasn't working. I told her that it sucks, and I can understand the annoyance of something not working. Her response:
"I know, I mean, how am I supposed to play Fallout 3?! I just got it!"

Needless to say, my eyes were quite wide at that statement. I think the stigma comes from one thing, and one thing only. People think that if you play video games, that is all you do. They don't uderstand that some of us enjoy other things too. Like climbing mountains.

 

[TheBluesader]

Where to begin with this?

1) If any tossed off comment made by people you don't respect to begin with causes you to seriously question the decisions you've made, you don't have gamer shame issues. You have confidence issues, and that's a far larger problem.

2) You seem to have a sense of pride about being more or less a typical suburban person. My question is, why? Why is it commendable to live exactly like everyone else, and then secretly giggle that you do something that they don't approve of? Honestly, that's fairly pitiful. Are we all supposed to sympathize? I'm sure many around here do. But I do not, and I'm sure there are many around here who would agree that there's nothing particularly admirable about it. It isn't BAD, but it isn't some kind of badge of honor, either.

3) Back to the people in question who are insulting you. How do these people feel about full civil rights for gays and lesbians? How do these people feel about interracial intimacy? How do these people treat those in poverty, what do they think about atheists, and are they active politically? Chances are you would not agree with many of these people on many points, which you won't talk about at parties in the first place because it causes problems. So why the heck does their opinion of you as a gamer matter so much, when their opinions on other things are just as potentially contentious?

4) Video game sales are huge, and I know many elder-30s who play and talk about it as a hobby. It's the people who deride it who are no longer in the main stream, not the players. You should deride them for their out-of-date derision.

5) Stop going to "mix-n-mingle" parties attended by people you don't seem to like in the first place. Or do you have to do what your wife tells you? How contemporary of an attitude is that?

6) If you have to keep going, take the derision as an opportunity to point out that being a gamer is no more embarrassing than playing fantasy football or yelling at the TV when you're watching a game you have no control over. Hanging your head in shame and slinking away to question your life isn't promoting understanding in the least.

 

[Ancientgamer]

For all that great build-up, I hate that your conclusion was basically "I-am-because-I-am". While I'm certain that such foundational psychological reasons play a part, there's obviously much more definitive and unexplored reasons that we haven't heard ten billion times before. But I swear I see a re-articulation of this same article just about couple of weeks.

 

[BarefootGamer]

I had a lot of gamer shame in my 20s. I didn't like to admit to others that I played because they just didn't get it. And it's even worse if you're a girl gamer. But now that I'm in my early 30s, and a lot more comfortable with who I am as a person, I fly my girl gamer flag proudly!

 

[YoUnG205]

i game becuase it kills time :0

 

[MmmFiber]

I game for the challenge(in some games). The story(just like in movies). The escapism of it all.

The older I get... the more responsibility I get. So, I'm glad that in games the only responsibility I have is to be a badass and enjoy the ride.

I still get gamer-shame sometimes, though. It's not from the people who think games are bad or going to destroy 'the children.' It's from the people who can't possibly fathom why someone who isn't in high school would play video games. Right now, college is a buffer for me. I'm still 'in school.' But, when I graduate and get into a business setting, it'll probably bring a bit more shame. Who cares, though, right? I'm still going to be gaming.

 

[zamble]

I don't get it - people seem to consider 'gaming' as Mario, Sonic, etc, all the kiddy things.

But who's supposed to play the 18+ games?

According to what Australian politics want people to belive, nobody. Or at least nobody SHOULD, that's why they deny such a classification, and games with violence or sex are considered child corruptors. It's just like saying gaming is prohibited for adults.

Actually,my oppinion is that this very site is good because it is an adult site for gaming, and that's why I found myself at home here from the very first day I discovered it. I'm 28, BTW, and I think our generation and the next won't really be asking THAT question, altough I was asked it a lot. Now I just don't care anymore.

In the other hand, I partially disagree with the article, when the author says he only plays as a means to complete his identity. I think we manly play because we like it, it's not like if our comunity qualifies us. Maybe that could be true for teenagers, though, as if gamers where a social group, like the sportists, the geeks, or whathever.
Gaming don't make me a special person, nor a different person, nor an alternative person. It could do it in the past, but not anymore, games do sell more than movies, we all know that. To think gaming make you different will make you think your hobby should be reserved only to you and a few chosen ones, and after that you'll start thinking that games that attract the casual gamer are bad, because they popularize videogames... that's just wrong, IMHO.

 

[ars731]

Charlie Brooker did an excellent segment on gaming, on his show screenwipe (he also did a whole special on gaming as well) its one of the best defense of gaming I've ever seen


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxP3eBxFTsY

 

[Ericb]

No shame nor escapism for me. I'll take immersion over those two any day.

I still play games because I still find beauty in them. In the creative visuals and the inventive gameplay designs. Character development and writing still beg for improvement, though.

Videogames are what inspired me to study painting and they even inspired me to work in theater, because if I have a love for exploring different things, I can definitely attribute that to how playing videogames made me feel at a very young age.

I'll say I'm not entirely in love with how most AAA titles became macho wish fullfilment, but even that inspired me somewhat to give it a go at understanding computer programming. So maybe I can do something I believed that was going to be created, way back when I dreamt how games could be in the distant 21st Century.