Poll: Gamers Over 30 Are ?Weird?

[jamesworkshop]

And this is why i hate the label "gamer". It implies, and morons like those guys infer, that we have no other interests. Imagine if they made up a group name for people who enjoy a certain food. "Oh, you're a PB&Jer! You only eat peanut butter and jelly!"

Exactly. Like ExtraCredits pointed out, we don't call people that read books "bookers".

no we call them bookworms or film lovers as movie buffs, I mean why do people define themselves by their job, why do we say "i'm a crash investigator" or do we say

"I get in late and watch reruns of buffy the vampire slayer in a room with a carpet stained with dried tears..And yourself?"

I think it's a stupid thing for EC to have said and for other gamers to repeat.

I've never understood the "destroyer of lables" crowd if we had no lables the entire idea of meaning and meaningfull language/discussion would be negated

But their point was people that read books obviously do other things. Or should be anyway. Which is what you said in your first post.

why should gamer imply exclusivity or be infered by the listener when said by the speaker, that they only do one thing, than when people say audiophile or bookworm.

Nobody is just one thing, my political views are largely conservative but that doesn't mean that their is absolutly nothing that I am liberal about.

It's a semantic argument that really seems to belong to the idea of either the "euphemism treadmill" or simply trying to avoid the question, instead of defending gaming lets runs and "bait and switch" and hope that people are to dumb to notice

 

[monkey jesus]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/8564342/Average-video-gamer-is-37.html

I'm not even average age yet. I can't see me stopping playing games ever, TBH those Today show a-holes are just a symptom of how the games industry is seen by people with no experience of it.

Fuck 'em in their stupid ears.

 

[Manji187]

Ha!

Medium war! Fight for validity! Slander be thy weapon...

The newspapers have been attacking television for years, it's tv's turn to be worried and take it out on the internet and gaming.

You forgot "generational clash". I wonder what our generation will ***** about...

 

[TrevHead]

Ive skipped through most of this thread. I just wanted to throw this in for discussion: that the whole give up your hobbies when your an adult and take up beer and golf is still widespread in Japanese culture. This includes video games where an adult who plays games at home (handheld on the train seems ok) is seen as taboo (suprisingly anime is even worse).

Thats why the average gamer age in Japan is mid teens compared to 30ish in the west. Taking this fact into context its explains why the adult otaku are so goddam creepy, as they are outcasts in front of their peers for been gamers anyway.

I havnt been in Japan myself, Its just what i learned from this VERY intresting podcast called The Outcasts http://theoutcastpodcast.blogspot.com/2010/01/out-cast-episode-0-final-fantasy-xiii.html

 

[OpticalJunction]

Pfft. Everyone's weird to someone. It just depends on who you know really.

 

[DeathWyrmNexus]

Inorite? I know I haven't even received word on when I will receive my golf clubs and mistress since I apparently need a more "mature" form of fun when I turn 30 this year...

Golf and mistress are paid options. The freebies are a beer gut and a form guide for the ponies.

Well played, I knew I should have gotten a premium account when I was born...

 

[PimpHandofGod]

I plan to die with a controller in my hands or a visor on my head if virtual reality ever pans out.

 

[Double A]

I love it when idiots criticize people who enjoy different entertainment venues than them.

And if you want to talk about what's really weird... plastic surgery.

 

[The Cheezy One]

I'll probably have stopped gaming to the extent that I am now when I turn 30, and I'm ok with that. I wouldn't say it was weird, but it depends on what kind of game. Pokemon is always awesome. Yellow, that is.

EDIT: I expect to be working hard and have very little free time, because that's the kind of person I am. If my kinds want to play games, I'll join in, but I'll probably hang up my 'hardcore' gaming sahs when I go to uni this September. I'm not embarresed about being a gamer, but I don't want to become 'a gamer' to everyone else. I've already reinvented myself as an active guy this year, so I might stick with that. I'll still game occasionally, but not seriously.

 

[T-Bone24]

I thought that the average gamer was over 30? I swear I read that somewhere, and I don't have a hard time believing it.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Mind telling me who writes all these games? Coz I'm pretty sure Schafer, Molyneux, and a lot of the rest are over 30.

In all fairness from what ive seen of Molyneux, hes preaty weird.

Weird...LIKE A FOX!

 

[EradiusLore]

no way, most of the people who make games are over 30 and people who have been gamers since the beginning will obviously be older then 30

 

[A Free Man]

Well this is kind of a strange one. Because on one hand I have nothing against any age enjoying any medium, however there is a big difference, and that is that when watching a movie or reading a book etc. You don't actively engage with young children on a regular basis. So from that I think gaming is fine for older people but it can be a bit weird if they are generally playing multiplayer games and with people much younger then themselves. Although I've found I don't really mind playing multiplayer games myself with older people as I kind of have a mental image of everyone being my age and base it more on their personality then the how old they are.

 

[Artina89]

I know plenty of people who are 30 and over and they still play videogames. As many people hav already pointed out, you don't "grow out" of reading books and watching movies. It's a lot healthier than injecting a potentially lethal toxin into your face (I am looking at you Kathy Lee)

 

[Vault101]

Well I'm 30 next year. But it makes it okay if I'm female right? RIGHT?

[small]It probably makes it worse doesn't it...[/small]

But seriously video games are the biggest entertainment industry in the world and we aren't supposed to like it? Sigh.

for some reason that made me LOL

I think part of the reason is because gaming as evolved at lightspeed, they havnt quite caught up, its still "kind of" a niche thing, so alot of people dont really understand this huge THING that is gaming

 

[KaosuHamoni]

Well I'm 30 next year. But it makes it okay if I'm female right? RIGHT?

[small]It probably makes it worse doesn't it...[/small]

But seriously video games are the biggest entertainment industry in the world and we aren't supposed to like it? Sigh.

Female? That makes it awful! You should be out shopping, gossiping about celeberties and exploiting men at bars! Don't you understand? That is what a normal and healthy life looks like!

I tried to watch xfactor once.

Does that count?

As torture? Yes. =P

OT: Since when have we cared what these uneducated fools think? Let them live their ignorant life, blind to reality, while we all go about doing what we love, because we want to.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Aren't their developers that are over 30? Does that make doing their jobs weird?

Anyways, weird is a shorthand for "does not fit cultural norm or ideal" (shutup, it is) so whether it is weird or not depends on the person and their cultural and experiences and blah blah, get a degree in anthropology.

 

[standokan]

NO NO NO, gamers over 30 are the coolest gamers out there. I hope that when I'm over 30 that I still play games.

 

[infohippie]

As a 35-year old gamer, who does not plan on ever putting away the mouse, I'd just like to say that these overpaid twats don't have a clue what they're talking about.

 

[Hugga_Bear]

And this is why i hate the label "gamer". It implies, and morons like those guys infer, that we have no other interests. Imagine if they made up a group name for people who enjoy a certain food. "Oh, you're a PB&Jer! You only eat peanut butter and jelly!"

Exactly. Like ExtraCredits pointed out, we don't call people that read books "bookers".

no we call them bookworms or film lovers as movie buffs, I mean why do people define themselves by their job, why do we say "i'm a crash investigator" or do we say

"I get in late and watch reruns of buffy the vampire slayer in a room with a carpet stained with dried tears..And yourself?"

I think it's a stupid thing for EC to have said and for other gamers to repeat.

I've never understood the "destroyer of lables" crowd if we had no lables the entire idea of meaning and meaningfull language/discussion would be negated

Only if they're obsessed and that's the problem. A bookworm isn't someone who reads a book every now and again or has a book on the go all the time, they're someone who reads books constantly, over other things. A film buff isn't someone with a passing interest in films, who watches the new releases and good films and so on, they're someone who obsesses over films and is generally considered a douche.

The term gamer tries to label anyone who games in the same way, as someone who obsessively plays games over doing other things in life. It's ridiculous.
If we want to play the game I would be a gamer, I play pretty regularly. I also watch a lot of films and know the industry fairly well so I guess I'm a film buff, I also read a lot of books, mostly highbrow, so I suppose I'm a bookworm. I go to the gym 3/4 times a week so am I a gym...er...? I have interest in music and a lot of knowledge of that industry too so am I a music nerd?

It's just a ridiculous label, I'm not a gamer any more than I am those other things. I'm sure there are a good number of people who are obsessive over games (see: WoW player stereotype) but not all of them are, in the minds of the layman, no thanks to ignorant fuckwits like these bints, a gamer sits in their mum's basement at 37 with no job, covered in stale red bull and cheetos while leering at virtual titties. That's just not the case and is the fundamental problem with the label, it's completely inaccurate and used to generalise a group (which right now is incredibly vast) into something it's not. It is not used for parts of the group, a gamer is seen as binary, you either are or you aren't and heaven forbid if you are.