Poll: No One I Know Likes Good Games

[Talson]

All of my relatives think games are for children and all of my friends love fighting and FPS games (which I'm not a fan of). It happens, I just learn to zone out whenever the terms "Soul Caliber," "Mortal Combat," "Street Fighter," or "Gamer" come up in conversation.

 

[Gorilla Gunk]

I used to go to a gaming forum for gay people and it seemed like 99% of the people there exclusively played dance/music games and JRPG's.

I wasn't there for long.

 

[GoldenRaz]

Most people I know don't really think it's just for kids or "toys", but they don't think it has the same merits as other passtimes like sports or whatever. Several of my peers play sports games and CoD and such, some play games like Assassin's Creed and a few play WoW, Diablo and/or DotA-deriviatives. Only a very selected few play "lesser known" titles, and thus not many of the people I know would consider games to have any real lasting value.

 

[dex-dex]

my mum or dad have never expressed a dislike for them.
when I was thirteen, I realised that girls at my elementary school did not play them and thought only boys play them. so I did stop playing for a long time and then I realised that there were guys who liked it when chicks would play video games or know way too much about them.
Most of my friends are male but since college that has become more 50/50 instead of 75/25.
I do have friends who thinks they are an odd way to use your time but they don't hate me for it.

 

[Vivace-Vivian]

I weep for you my friend.

Most of my friends are very accepting or even adore my gaming habits. However there is one person in my life who thinks they are childish, though not necessarily for children considering the M rating son many of my games. That would be my mother. Though she adores Galliga and Pac Man the woman cannot draw a line from those classics to any games today. Understandable but, a shame.

I surround myself with people who accept it because gaming is a HUGE part of my life.

 

[Kanlic]

...you certainly do need new friends... if theyre that ignorant about one thing, theyre likely to be just as ignorant towards everything else.

either that or you need to have a good argument with them, like i do with people i meet... make them understand why theyre wrong. ^^

Yeah, explain to them via a long honest in-depth talk. At least so they understand that you gaming is as their [insert hobby here]. I've even translated a part of Planescape: Torment to give out to people... Here try printing this: http://torment.sorcerers.net/unovel/html/index.shtml#anchor2260

Let's spread gaming awareness, people!

I try to, really I do, but they aren't swayed. I tried to bring up points about Mass Effect or Portal, but then my friends just say "well there are always exceptions." I then compare games to their hobbies, but then they say that games are inferior because they don't encourage social discourse, and multi-player and websites like the Escapist don't count. They can't tell me why.

Keep in mind, I find my friends to be highly intelligent college-aged people, which is why this is even more frustrating to me.

snip

People always bound around the phrase "opinions are never wrong," but if you are the kind of person who prefers "Dogs Playing Poker," to something by Monet, then your opinion is wrong. More accurately, a lot of people are quick to say something is shit, but many aren't able to verbalize why. That to me also counts as wrong because their reasoning is flawed, namely that it is non-existent.

People who just say things like "I don't like (insert artistic medium here)," are wrong too, because chances are those people haven't had enough experience with it to make a valid claim. Things should be judged on their own merit, not just based off of what the person thinks the medium should be. This is my main problem, most people who say video games are shit never played video games, so their point is invalid. The issue here is that is how most people are like in my life. The ones that do play games only stick to the popular ones without ever giving anything else a chance, this close-mindedness is not something that we as a society should tolerate.

 

[Hyper-space]

"Yea video games aren't supposed to have stories, it's stupid."

Damn, that's old-school.

But yeah, every time i see threads like these i think to myself "how the fuck could anyone have friends like these?". I mean, where do you live? douche-ville?

 

[MorsePacific]

Plenty of my friends are big on gaming, but they don't take it the way I do. Most of them are achievement hunters and just into most games for multiplayer, a few of them even play games competitively. I'm sure they recognize that there's a story behind the game, but it's not a big deal to them. Still, they're not acting like douchebags like your friends.

My mom has no idea why I play games, but completely supports my hobby. In general, I find the people around me to be very accepting of video games. In other words, I'm sorry your friends are being such utter cocks about the subject. In all honesty, I'd ignore them.

 

[Nanaki316]

I'm kinda lucky. I'm a complete gamer girl and can play almost anything. I range from the hugely popular as mentioned like CoD and I can play casual things like The Sims. I'm actually a huge Sims addict. Blokes don't seem to care, I like a lot of things that my male friends do and we agree and disagree but I don't face this kinda shit over it.
All my girl friends don't really understand why I'm a gamer girl and not into hair and make up and all that toss.

On the matter of the guy that said games aren't Art or shouldn't have stories? Bollocks. He's a tool. Final Fantasy VII was the game that got me into gaming and also ignited a creative bug in me. I've been writing for 10 years because FFVII inspired me. I would call that art.

 

[Arafiro]

This is why being on a Games course at Uni is great - instant common hobby.

That said, they still won't admit what a great game Prototype is..

 

[Continuity]

The truth is most people view computer games as a supplementary pastime, something subordinate to TV and films, something for just a few hours light "fun" here and there.

The fact that gaming has become a major hobby for many just hasn't really sunk into the public consciousness and so it doesn't have the same validity in your peer's eyes as say TV or sport.

This will change.

 

[drummond13]

Um, get better friends? Seriously, that's pretty silly stuff they're saying. Even for non-gamers. I'm guessing you're all teenagers?

 

[Nocta-Aeterna]

"Yea video games aren't supposed to have stories, it's stupid."

*twitch*


Anyway, my friends et al like story based games, so that's all good. My parents tolerate it but see it as a massive waste of time, but that's more of a generational gap thing.

 

[Skuffyshootster]

I see them as a valid medium of entertainment like movies and books. There are the ones you play for a story, the ones you play for a quick fix (of entertainment), and everything in between. If your friends are big movie or book buffs, ask them how they're different from video games.

 

[Vibhor]

Call them "friggin casuals" and move on.

 

[Chibz]

I'm sorry guys, but I feel the need to point this out: Games fail UTTERLY in the narrative department. Not because games necessarily need to fail at telling a successful narrative but more because they aren't ... actually being given proper narrative.

Thus far, the best a game can hope to have is the narrative of a B-movie.

So maybe before jumping on them for not enjoying "fine arts" you should realize: Maybe an enjoyment of fine arts is why they don't take video game narrative seriously? Maybe enjoying a game's awful narrative intruding on your game play doesn't exclude you from being a gamer? I for one would rather the awful narrative of a game stay the hell AWAY while I'm trying to enjoy it.

Admittedly they have NO taste in games, due to never really playing them.

Keep in mind, I find my friends to be highly intelligent college-aged people, which is why this is even more frustrating to me.

I'd also like to point out that "going to college" is completely separate from "ability to reason successfully". A much more reasonable to associate with going to college would be "Deep pockets" or "massive debt".

 

[ZombieGenesis]

To quote one of my University housemates when I mentioned how good Ghost Trick for DS was.

"I don't own a DS, I don't play casual games."

 

[KingofallCosmos]

That's funny, I always get people around me to play the weirdest games. Mind you, they all rely on me for their source of music, books and generally awesome things, guess that makes it easier.

 

[Tanfastic]

I have a friend that if his games arent realistic modern shooters he dislikes them. For some reason Crysis 2 is fine with him but not other games. I finally got him to branch off a little by getting him to play Halo: Reach... But Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Zelda, Metroid, etc. he just says "I don't have the patience for it" And I just go >.>

 

[ChildishLegacy]

The looks you get when you try to tell people that, "In my opinion TF2 is the best FPS" are annoying.
The response I get from the average CoD player is "It has shit graphics, isn't REALISTIC (would like to see them going into a real warzone with their 360 noscopes and see how they do), it's for children because of how it looks, I played it for 10 MINUTES and quit because it was crap (i.e. they don't have half a brain to understand how to play/enjoy it or didn't give it a chance)"