Is it odd that I feel kind of put off by non-gamers?

[museofdoom]

Like, all of my close friends are gamers to some degree. People I meet that don't play video games, I don't get along well with. And I'm not like "oh you don't play video games, I hate you!" It's just that I tend to find that non-gamers have this flippant attitude towards gaming, like they think it's stupid or a waste of time. (And before anyone rips my head off for generalizing, obviously not all non-gamers are like this. My parents are non-gamers but they're constantly buying me video games and providing for my gaming needs)

There was one girl I used to talk to at school and if I ever brought up video games she just gave me this look like I was the strangest human being on the planet. "I don't understand the point of video games." I mean granted this girl was incredibly sheltered and didn't even know who pikachu is. (If you were wondering, she thought pikachu's name was pokemon. 0_0 yeah, I'm not joking.)

Anyways, I guess the reason I don't get along with non-gamers is because I find that I don't know what on earth to do with them if we want to hang out. I dated someone who didn't play video games once (I'm sure you can guess things didn't work out) and whenever he was over my house, I didn't know what to do with him! Watching movies gets old ya know?? Also, he had the "I am holier than thou" attitude about it. "I like to do more productive/active things with my free time". ugh.

This ramble was sparked by meeting a girl who isn't allowed to play video games except for wii fit. She bought a wii. Just for wii fit. And I had to wonder what on earth she does with her spare time. 0-0 she isn't allowed to use the internet unsupervised either. she's 18 by the way.

Anyway, Escapists, how do you feel about non-gamers?

EDIT: I'm going to broaden this topic a bit to encompass people who separate themselves from nerd/geek culture. Like the people who don't read, don't like video games except for maybe COD and Madden, don't watch anime, don't read comics, don't like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings, only use the internet for facebook, twitter, and wikipedia, don't get really excited or "geek out" about anything, etc. (these people do exist, just visit my high school for a day and see all the monotony for yourself.) I mean, there's nothing wrong with these people, but I just find them boring and sometimes think they try too hard to be "normal".

 

[Kahunaburger]

People are free to like or dislike the media of their choice, and it makes no sense to judge them for it.

 

[museofdoom]

Non-gamers are fine. If occasionally a little dull. Theres only so many football conversations a man can have before his head explodes. But i digress.

No i only have issues with those who look down upon it. The same thing for people who don't give anime or comics a fair shot tbh. Close mindedness is bad all round. Not just for our hobby.

Perhaps I should broaden this topic to non-nerds. (And I don't mean nerd in a negative way at all.) I feel like there are loads of people that shoot down nerd/geek culture as a whole which is really pooey of them.

 

[Limecake]

Anyway, Escapists, how do you feel about non-gamers?

Most of my friends are non-gamers, the few that are I usually talk to via the internet anyway which means a large portion of the people I interact with everyday don't actively play video-games.

Although that's less true especially now, most people play some sort of video game (solitaire anyone?) this could include sports games, or the popular ones everyone plays like CoD or GTA.

The thing is that you can make a connection with someone that doesn't necessarily need to involve video games. I could talk your ear off about games or music, but you might find my conversation a bit lacking if the topic was about Jersey Shore or barbie dolls.

It all comes down to interests, if you share interests with people you'll find it easier to talk to them. IMO video games shouldn't be your only interest anyway.

A lot of these people who look down on gamers are just ignorant, they might view gaming only in the 'MMO' sense, they might forget about games like pac-man, mario, farmville or tetris. If they truly have never played a game before, you might want to suggest it they might actually have fun!

 

[Squidbulb]

As long as they share a similar interest (for example, in my case that would be books) or maybe a tv show that you like it's fine. As long as you have something to talk about. I'd swiftly get bored if video-games were my only interest.

 

[Don Savik]

Non-gamers are fine. If occasionally a little dull. Theres only so many football conversations a man can have before his head explodes. But i digress.

No i only have issues with those who look down upon it. The same thing for people who don't give anime or comics a fair shot tbh. Close mindedness is bad all round. Not just for our hobby.

Listen to people talk about fantasy football for about a week. Its nauseating. I at least try to regulate my non-gamer talk around people who don't care...but sports nerds? Man its annoying.

Someone posted this today and I feel its relevant here. When it comes to non-gamers, I'll take them any day over the bottom picture. Nothing infuriates me more than this trend of pretending to be geeky to get attention. YOU KNOW WHAT A PIKACHU IS congratulations you aren't special. And the worst part is, (in my experience) they treat nerds (the top picture) as bad as the stereotypical jock. As in, they won't touch them with a ten-foot pole. Maybe its just me, but I've seen enough of them that they've gotten under my skin pretty badly.

Sigh......I think I just need to find a good group of friends (which is probably nigh impossible for me anyways). FML.

 

[Don Savik]

Yea I can get a bit of temper sometimes I guess I have a hard time controlling my emotions with nobody around to keep them in check. Sorry if I come off a bit aggravated.

 

[Tayh]

My entire family, and some of my closest friends too, are anti-gamers. It's positively anti-awesome.
Yeah, growing up was weird.

 

[museofdoom]

Snip!!

I hate pseudo-nerds! Like, no. Stop it. It's not cute! It's annoying because half the time they know nothing about whatever it is they claim to be a nerd for! "Monty Python is a really funny guy." 0_0 And then there's the whole "Yes, I'm a girl, and yes I play video games. Don't hit on me silly boys "

I dislike that nerd culture is being distorted/glamorized. I'm sure you wouldn't see the kids in the bottom picture at an anime convention, or lined up outside a game store for a new system. And I'm pretty sure they were probably never bullied for their nerdy interests. Like, I used to get picked on in elementary school because I preferred Lord of the Rings over High school musical. ><

It's like, if you wear a shirt with pikachu on it, "Oh how quirky and adorable you are!" if you actually like pokemon and avidly play the games "oh my god you're so weird."

 

[Chemical Alia]

If you have trouble talking to or hanging out with people who aren't gamers, maybe it's a problem of your own interests being too narrow. Not to imply that people who don't play games necessarily spend their time in better ways, but you should be able to find some common ground of fun activities to do with people that aren't video game-related.

 

[museofdoom]

If you have trouble talking to or hanging out with people who aren't gamers, maybe it's a problem of your own interests being too narrow. Not to imply that people who don't play games necessarily spend their time in better ways, but you should be able to find some common ground of fun activities to do with people that aren't video game-related.

It's not that I have a narrow set of interests, I do have other hobbies (reading, music, horseback riding, etc) It's just when it comes to hanging out with non-gamers, I have no idea what to do with them.

Also, I did broaden the topic to non-nerds. Because I definitely don't get along with people with no nerd habits. And I find that a lot of people that don't play video games don't do much in the nerd field either, but that's just a generalization based on past experience.

 

[Rawne1980]

I hate pseudo-nerds! Like, no. Stop it. It's not cute! It's annoying because half the time they know nothing about whatever it is they claim to be a nerd for! "Monty Python is a really funny guy." 0_0 And then there's the whole "Yes, I'm a girl, and yes I play video games. Don't hit on me silly boys "

I dislike that nerd culture is being distorted/glamorized. I'm sure you wouldn't see the kids in the bottom picture at an anime convention, or lined up outside a game store for a new system. And I'm pretty sure they were probably never bullied for their nerdy interests. Like, I used to get picked on in elementary school because I preferred Lord of the Rings over High school musical. ><

It's like, if you wear a shirt with pikachu on it, "Oh how quirky and adorable you are!" if you actually like pokemon and avidly play the games "oh my god you're so weird."

So how does a person conform to what your idea of a gamer is?

Allow me to elaborate a second.

Now i'm not a stereotypical "nerd".

As it's pretty well documented on this forum me, and a couple of others, spent a hell of a long time in the army (I was in the British Para's). I slept around a lot, I got into enough fights to scar the vast majority of my body, i'm covered in tattoo's, I drink beer, scratch my balls, watch sports and I spend a lot of time at the gym. I'm married with kids and tend to hang around with folks who aren't gamers. I'm pretty well built, have an overly inflated ego and am slightly vain.

What some Americans would call a "jock" (i'm British, we didn't have a word for it when I was at school it was quite a long time ago).

Now I do queue up at game stores for those midnight releases of games i'm interested in.

I go to conventions and I have 2 Warhammer armies and 1 Warhammer 40k army I take to their tournaments far too many times a year.

I've never classed myself as a "nerd" or "geek" besides having the hobbies I have but by your definition, and a few others i've read here, folks like me bring "shame" to the "real geeks" whatever the feth that's supposed to mean.

Do people have to be a certain type of person to enjoy these things or are we encroaching on the "geeks" space and should burn in the fiery pits of eternal damnation?

No, no I was never bullied for my "nerdy" interests. Does that make my interests a lesser value than yours because you were?

I'm sure as shit not going to apologise for having the interests I have or being who I am.

 

[museofdoom]

So how does a person conform to what your idea of a gamer is?

Allow me to elaborate a second.

Now i'm not a stereotypical "nerd".

As it's pretty well documented on this forum me, and a couple of others, spent a hell of a long time in the army (I was in the British Para's). I slept around a lot, I got into enough fights to scar the vast majority of my body, i'm covered in tattoo's, I drink beer, scratch my balls, watch sports and I spend a lot of time at the gym. I'm married with kids and tend to hang around with folks who aren't gamers. I'm pretty well built, have an overly inflated ego and am slightly vain.

What some Americans would call a "jock" (i'm British, we didn't have a word for it when I was at school it was quite a long time ago).

Now I do queue up at game stores for those midnight releases of games i'm interested in.

I go to conventions and I have 2 Warhammer armies and 1 Warhammer 40k army I take to their tournaments far too many times a year.

I've never classed myself as a "nerd" or "geek" besides having the hobbies I have but by your definition, and a few others i've read here, folks like me bring "shame" to the "real geeks" whatever the feth that's supposed to mean.

Do people have to be a certain type of person to enjoy these things or are we encroaching on the "geeks" space and should burn in the fiery pits of eternal damnation?

No, no I was never bullied for my "nerdy" interests. Does that make my interests a lesser value than yours because you were?

I'm sure as shit not going to apologise for having the interests I have or being who I am.

I'm not saying that people need to conform to stereotypes or whatever in order to enjoy gaming or other 'nerd' activities. There are just a lot of people who pretend to be into nerd things because it makes them "quirky" and "unique". Like, girls who wear pokemon shirts but have never watched the show or played the games. I have a beef with them because people think they're cute and interesting, but if they actually were really into pokemon people would think it's weird. But I'm just going off of my personal experiences at my high school.

My beef is not with people such as yourself. You legitimately enjoy gaming and that's lovely! And you don't fall into the stereotypical nerd area? Great! I don't fall entirely into the nerd area either because I have a preppy sense of fashion, I got to indie concerts, I horseback ride, etc.

So when I'm complaining about "pseudo-nerds" I'm complaining about people who act like they have nerdy interests to be more interesting, but aren't really into them. Not people who legitimately have nerdy interests but don't fall into the nerd stereotype.

I have a really bad habit of typing posts really fast, not reading over them, and then realizing I was being too vague or I contradicted myself at some point. So I apologize for that. o_o

 

[Don Savik]

snip

I feel you boddy, dont you ever wish you were the lowest common denominator? You could relate to so many other idiots, getting brofists constantly and drinking energy drinks all the time? Sometimes I wish I was a sportsfan.

I drink an unhealthy amount of energy drinks already (well, unhealthy to a normal person, I'm pretty sure I've built up an inhuman tolerance) so thats really a non-issue