As someone who plays games regularly, when I think of gaming as a community, I think of people like this. It ain't a vocal minority. People who are intolerable in some way make up a significant portion of the community. But I don't just mean the elitist types, its also the type of people I have encountered every time I've played a game online: immature, loud-mouthed idiotic, and (usually) teenagers. And a lot of the people who frequent every single gaming forum I've ever been to with the exception of one forum (and no, its not this one) who fit neatly into the pretentious, self-righteous indie slash "forever alone" college student or high school types.erttheking said:I think that when the average nongamer thinks of games, they think of people like this.
Certainly there are many gamers who are ordinary people who just happen to play games, but to say the ones that are not are a "vocal minority" is like covering your eyes and ears, and isn't exactly handling this problem (not that I have any suggestions as how we can handle it.) It's the reason I don't call myself a gamer, and it's the reason I'm sometimes embarrassed to admit I play games and care about them.
But I don't think this is the reason most people see gaming in a bad light. Certainly, when people think of gaming as a community they often think of the nerdy high-schooler, but the reason for peoples disdain towards gaming is because people still think they are toys for children. This has definitely lessened in the past decade in most countries (not so much in the US though as far as I know) but people still think adults shouldn't have gaming as a specified "hobby". They also aren't aware that games can tell decent stories, be mature, and have well-designed, beautiful worlds, and these are the biggest reasons why people don't respect it.
The fact that the majority of the gaming community seems to crave more games like Saints Row 3 doesn't help matters at all. Especially when these same people demand more maturity in their games, right as they are enjoying hitting an NPC over the head with a giant dildo. Sigh.