Discrimination in the video gaming society, problem?

[Gamerforlife]

you have to read my post though
if you are 36, 45, or 99 if you enjoy videogames do it

what i am saying is people around age 40 years old are not interested in videogames. They have kids, home, jobs, married, and they are probably thinking about making most money they can and trying their best to achieve their dreams as kids . To them, they won't look at mgs and say "wow cool, i gota have that!"..

Thank god I don't plan on going that route. I see it all the time at work. People who spend every waking moment of their life just driving their kids back and forth from one extra curricular activity to the next. The rest of their time they spend at their job slaving away, complaining about the spouse, complaining about how much the job sucks, complaining about how so and so just got promoted when they didn't deserve it. Gossip, work place politics, and talking about crappy shows like American Idol. What boring lives. These people have absolutely no life outside of work and kids, work and kids, work and kids. What a nightmare. This is why the whole married with children life doesn't appeal to me. The people I work with have ZERO free time it seems. ALL their thoughts revolve around driving their kids around, disciplining their kids and how expensive raising kids is. No wonder they've got no time to play games.

[Scooter]

Okay, little rant here.

Regarding the last few posts, that's the attitude that annoys me, that gaming is for a certain age group. That's pretty much the root of the whole problem we're discussing here. It's a fucking stereotype. I know many of us(myself included)have been bashing the Wii for not catering to us hardcore types, but if it means that in a few years more people forty and up will play games, maybe we should be thankful.

Nail on the frickin' head right there, mate. Kind of hypocritical for folks to be ranting about being looked down on for being a gamer and then doing the exact same thing by drawing lines within the gaming community to identify what a "true" gamer is and isn't. I probably don't fit the typical demographic and neither do my gaming friends, but that doesn't change our enjoyment of gaming nor does it make us a bizzarre spectacal within our own age group.

I'm approaching 47 and I haven't been without gaming for more than a few weeks at a time. My best gaming buddy is in his forties, has two kids and a stay-at-home wife (which means he works a lot) and he probably games more than I do and STILL makes time for the family, community, work around the home, etc. It ain't hard to do, you just gotta make a choice.

[pompeyparsons]

I'm definetely weighing in a little late on this topic but throughout my life I have never once encountered discrimination or ridicule of any sort from either playing or collecting video games. It may just be my age at 25 but it seems that most people in my age group play one form of video game or another.

At college it seemed like everyone played video games. I was friends with a number of guys on the hockey team and they had an awesome set up with a Gamecube and 4 wavebirds ready to go at all times along with an Xbox set up. They always had it going at all of their parties.

Also during my International Law classes with 300 plus students in the lecture it was hilarious to see how many people were on their laptops either playing PartyPoker, Running Game Emulators, AIMing and not paying attention to class what so ever. Plus there was always about 5 or so PSPs scattered around the group as well.

Likewise at any party I went to most had Guitar Hero going when it first came out, that's fun for people of every age and the girls tended to hog it.

Ultimately for me though, I could care less what other people think of me. Because in the end the only person you have to answer to for living your life is you. If you're happy with who you are than that's all that matter, and it may be cliched but if people don't like you or hassle you for something you do then for me the best answer to them has always been to tell them to "Fuck Off."

[fastbilly1]

As a woman in her mid 20s who works for a telco, I experience far more discrimination than the rest of you for my hobbies. Not only do I play videogames, but I am an avid boardgamer and an enjoy a pnp rpg every once and a while. The problem here is that while most people in a situation like mine would usually be quite and docile, well I am usually loud and quite verbose when confronted.

Case in point, last year we were in a “training seminar” for some such bullocks. I knew it was worthless when the question was asked “Why do people by our highspeed internet product?” to which I responded with something like this “Since base level pc specifications have risen to a level where for $200 you can pick up a pc that is atleast 2ghz, with a gig of ram” and I was cut off by the instructor saying that we do not need to know technical “mumbo jumbo” and to just give a straight answer, well I knew I was not going to learn much from this class. So when we were asked to roleplay, I took my stand. I took the instructor to the side during lunch and asked him what system we were going to use, blank stares was my answer. When I explained my joke he kinda laughed and loudly pointed out that I am a geek. I asked him to explain to me the difference between roleplaying to learn how to deal with a customer, and how to solve complex problems with teamwork. By now several of the members of the class had started to listen in. He did not like that I was pigeonholing him, but he did not see an exit, so he asked me to rephrase the question. So I asked him bluntly, “why is it socially acceptable for a company to force me to roleplay, but it is considered awkward when a bunch of friends get together to polish off a case of beer and play D&D.” A twinkle came in his eye in that he knew how to get out of it and said that nothing I could learn in “a simple game” could apply to real life. I responded very coolly with “years of rpgs is one of the reasons I know how to direct conversations and expose weak elements in ones stories, as seeing how you have no justifiable answer for my question and have brought your argument down to a childish level of name calling I do believe I have made my point.” Understandably I was asked to leave the room by my boss. And since my job at the time was line level, well I ended up handling my entire department’s workload for the next few hours.

I am not bringing up that story to say how great I am at trouncing a big city type at “his own game,” but to give yall a picture of how tenacious I can become when the need arises. On a disclaimer note, usually I am fairly down to earth and easy going as a couple of the fellas on the board can attest. I do have bouts of anger every once and a while, but am fiercely defensive of my friends and family, and am not ashamed of my hobbies. However I do not like long walks (unless it is warm out) and dislike pina coladas. Go failed comedy.

For once I am blessed with a fellow gamer as a cubemate. Sure he is not “hardcore” but he knows what Team Fortress Classic is, has played a 3do, and thought it was cool that for a while I had a trunk of Atari games (don’t ask). This is a big change from some of my previous jobs where most of my coworkers did not speak English (hotels/restaurants). As the rest of our coworkers have cycled we have had a few gamers come through, none hardcore in anything but Madden and Live. So when I got excited that I found a copy of Perfect Cherry Blossom, they were not impressed at all. Well it was a start, I finally have a workplace that is atleast acceptable to videogames (the Wii did help aswell). But when one of them looked over my shoulder when I was glancing at Terragenesis for ideas for terrain, they started to ostracize me. I finally got one to the side and asked, he said that he thought it was cool, but that I shouldn’t talk about it out loud. Eventually I have won them all back, but for sometime I was the crazy one in the corner who paints figures. They have never given me a straight answer about the whole thing, probably never will.

This doesn’t end there, my family is understanding but thinks I am crazy. The fact that I have used my parents basement to store stuff for Momocon and arcade cabinets may have caused that. Or maybe it was when I brought home cotton candy machines. But I don’t see why any of this should be cause for alarm, my old man showed up one day with a real dogsled (we live inside the perimeter of Atlanta). My extended family views videogames as childish, boardgames even worse, and some of them consider RPGs to be “of the devil.” Even when I have shown them that videogames can be art, boardgames can have manuals that rival Asimov in length, and that RPGs can be learning exercises, they refuse to listen. The funny thing about all of this is when they ask for help on their computer they usually ask how I learned how to fix it. The truth of the matter is, I learned how to fix computers so I could run newer games on archaic hardware. I did have a great discussion with one of my uncles last weekend when he asked how I knew how to DJ for a cousins wedding. When I told him a wedding crowd was easier than a rave he glazed it over, but he was offended when he told his children to do what I did to have confidence on a mic and I told him a couple years of D&D with my friends would do it for most anyone. So like most of you I have run the gamut on discrimination, granted I may have poked the angry monster a bit more.

But to give yall my real opinion on the matter is that about six years ago I started to stop caring what people think of me. I realized that no matter what I did people would complain. Sure this has relapsed a couple times in the past year or so, but usually I have absolutely no problem with people detesting me and my presence. I know that it sounds coy or cruel but since doing this my life has become so much easier and happier. While my coworkers are still trying to keep up images and go to trendy restaurants, I will freely take my lunch and go talk about games with the owner of the nearby Play N Trade and pickup McDonalds on the way back. I have no problem buying clothing at Good Will and drive a beat up 99 Taurus (though I almost bought a 29 Mercedes SSK replica – that’s a story for another time). I have the Dorktower comic in Gary’s memory proudly displayed in my cube and have a poster for the Clone Wars movie that my company promoted. Yes I am called a geek, nerd, and occasionally a dweeb. I am insinuated about, both by coworkers and strangers. Told I will never get laid, will always be a slacker, never be productive, and other such nonsense. But what I know is that for a time I worked two fulltime jobs and helped rebuild a house for a church. I have friends that enjoy the same pastimes and if I was ever in trouble would drop anything to help. And have discovered that through my hobbies I have become a better man. While this may not directly help me with the girl problem, though I have dated several gamer girls, eventually I will find one that is as crazy as I am.

Is it discrimination, probably. Does it matter if we stand around bitching about it, it hasn’t worked yet. What I know works is taking action. If someone scoffs at you in public, try talking to them (try to not be as rude as I tend to be). Sure they may not give you the time of day, but every once and a while you will meet someone who is not a jerk about it. Heck I had one guy buy my friend and I dinner because we were talking about old arcade games in line and he enjoyed the trip down memory lane.


Edit:
Holy crap my thought pattern is twisted.

In short, yes there is discrimination both within gaming and between gamers and nongamers.

[Ack]

Just want to say, I know you in real life, and was unaware you're a woman.

[dlmvii]

As a woman in her mid 20s...
...I have become a better man....

What manner of dark sorcery is this?

[Chrono]

1 chips to go please

[Mozgus]

As a woman in her mid 20s...
...I have become a better man....

What manner of dark sorcery is this?

[fastbilly1]

Well it got yall thinking about discrimination again. Or atleast caused you to think twice.

[Mozgus]

Well it got yall thinking about discrimination again. Or atleast caused you to think twice.

Think twice about your typos?

I don't even know what's going on in this thread anymore.