Have any "anti gamer" or "video game ignorant" stories?

[Gurgeh]

Let me explain, for lack of a better word for the title. Have you ever met someone who either didn't really "get" video games. Someone who either thought that "OH NOEZ TEH VIDEO GAMES CORRUPT TEH YOUTH!" or "What are you talking about 'good story', ain't you just running and shooting babies?"

[Marko Dash]

not many that ignorant

what I've run into most is the 'but it's just a game' crowd, a lot of older people whose entire gaming experience took quarters, or people who've never really used any electronics other than TV for entertainment.

most also seem to never use the internet for anything beyond facebook and shopping, and always seem to go blank when i try to explain that the sum of most the worlds information is at your finger tips.

if i don't know something, i can look it up. if i don't know how to build/repair something, i can most likely find a video explaining what to do and the exact order in which to do it. something happening in the world? not only will i have info on it up to 48hrs before most news agency's have commented on it, but i'll have seen a multitude of contrasting views on it. making the overall subject as bias free as i can.

[Iroscato]

My dad was very much an Old Fart (TM) when it came to gaming - he saw it as a complete waste of time that did nothing but rot my brain. This amuses me, as he watches an enormous amount of TV that is guilty of many of the same sins...
He's softened a little in recent years, though. Seeing the graphical power of the Xbox 360 and PS3 completely blew him away, and this time around he can't get his head around the One and PS4's capability. He also admits games can be artistically made and have good storylines.
My nan on the other hand, has always and probably always will refer to them as 'silly bloody games', but she can get away with it because it's so damn cute

[Gurgeh]

So here is an article that I found on top 5 reasons why video games can be bad for you:
http://www.familyresource.com/lifestyle ... ad-for-you
1. Video games can be addictive
2. Video games can be expensive
3. Video games can hurt relationships
4. Video games can be distracting
5. Video games can rob you from real life experiences

[PhilosopherOfSorts]

My step-father absolutely hates the very concept of video games. When I was younger, bitching at me about gaming was so important to him, that pants were optional for it. If his dangly bits happened to be swinging in the breeze when he noticed I was gaming, so be it, putting on pants would take up time that could be used to yell at me.

When I moved out the second time, I had ended up moving my 360 out something like 8 months beforehand, because he couldn't handle being in the same house with it. Even today, he bitches to my mom about me playing video games, and I hardly ever see him.

[salm]

All my friends besides one (PC gamer) don´t get gaming. Non besides (a different) one has ever owned a console and that one was an Atari 2600 back in the 80s and a NES in the 90s.
They find gaming boring and probably a bit nerdy but don´t care if other people like it. So I don´t have to listen to them telling me that what I do is silly.
Come to think of it, most of them don´t own a smart phone and the ones that do I´ve never seen playing even a really casual smart phone game.

I really don´t understand that mind set.
I mean, they play other games like sports, cards and board games but as soon as a computer is involved they won´t touch it. It´s strange.

[Gurgeh]

I think the only time that I have encountered any "anti video games" was with my professor about a year ago. She claimed that playing games was a waste of time. Yet she also thought that making a living through gaming was "weird". However she had no problems with showing us how to watch movies online apparently.

[Borgholio]

All my friends besides one (PC gamer) don´t get gaming. Non besides (a different) one has ever owned a console and that one was an Atari 2600 back in the 80s and a NES in the 90s.
They find gaming boring and probably a bit nerdy but don´t care if other people like it. So I don´t have to listen to them telling me that what I do is silly.
Come to think of it, most of them don´t own a smart phone and the ones that do I´ve never seen playing even a really casual smart phone game.

I really don´t understand that mind set.
I mean, they play other games like sports, cards and board games but as soon as a computer is involved they won´t touch it. It´s strange.

Back when I was going to an automotive trade school in Laramie, Wyoming...all but one or two students in the entire school (including me) were redneck farmboys. All of the stereotypical redneck stuff you hear about (4-wheeling, rodeos, NASCAR, Monster Trucks, mechanical bull at the bar, line dancing, shooting at road signs, etc...), they actually were into. Computers, they were not.

So I was given the odd look when I would stay home chatting online or video gaming while everybody else was at the bar picking up high school girls with fake IDs (look, I can't count on two hands how many stereotypes I actually encountered in that one little town).

They only really seemed interested when I loaded a copy of Monster Truck Madness onto the PC and they had some fun with that, but only for a few minutes...then then went right back to drinking.

[TronPaul]

I just read this post and though it's viewpoint is the opposite of what you requested, it has some elements of what you asked for. It's about two friends who grow up practicing martial arts and playing fighting games. One falls out of martial arts and the other falls out of games. The beginning is overly long, but the middle and ending reminded me of people who take that opinion of games.

He needed to put on a jacket first, so I followed him back inside. Now that all his friends had left, his little apartment seemed even more austere and empty than before. While he took a leak, I examined some of his trophies. First place, Wing Chun, 2003. Second place, Judo, 2004. First place, Wing Chun, 2004. Second place, boxing, 2005. Second place, Sambo, 2005. Third place, mixed martial arts, 2006. Second place, Muay Thai, 2007. First place, mixed martial arts, 2008 …

I thought of the impromptu BlazBlue tournament I was probably missing, and realized the evening might be salvageable after all.

“Chinatown Fair is open for a couple more hours,” I told Randy when he came out of the bathroom. “Want to head over with me? We don’t even have to stay for long. It’d just be cool to—”

“Look. Thanks, but no thanks. I’m good. I’m over it.”

“What do you mean ‘over it’?”

He threw up his hands. “I mean I’m over it. I’ve outgrown games.”

It wasn’t just what he said—it was the chilly, familiar black belt tone he said it with.

So there it was. Hajime. We went back out to the sidewalk.

“So,” I said, “what makes you think you’ve outgrown games?”

“I don’t think I’ve outgrown them. I’m certain I have.”

“What made you decide that, I mean.”

“I don’t know. I tried getting back into them a few years ago—had a friend I used to do Taekwondo with, and we played a King of Fighters game. I forget which one. And I just wasn’t feeling it. All of a sudden it just seemed so … infantile.”

“Which King of Fighters? Some of the newer ones are shit.”

“I don’t remember.”

“Was it 2D or 3D?”

“Dude, seriously. I don’t remember. I’m over it.”

“Do you think I’m infantile, Randy?”

He shook his head, but wouldn’t look me in the eye. “Look, I’m sorry. I don’t want to fight with you.”

“Seriously, do you pay any attention to what’s going on in the world outside the goddamn locker room? You sound just like those clueless ‘games can never be art’ Luddites, and I’m sick of hearing it. You know these games take serious skill, just like any sport. And the—”

“Bullshit.”

“What did you say?”

“I said bullshit. It’s not the same.”

“Give me one good reason—”

“Because you’re pretending. It’s all pretend.”

“The scene isn’t pretend. The community isn’t pretend. There are professional players. It takes serious skill. You know that.”

“It’s a pretend game people play because they want to be fighters and champions, but are too lazy and undisciplined to actually become the real thing. You know that.”

I nearly swung at him. I swallowed it and kept walking.

“Damn it,” Randy groaned. “Listen. I’m sorry. That was harsh, but come on. On some level you’ve got to know you’re wasting your time on this stuff.”

“Who the hell are you to say it doesn’t count? What makes what you do any different?”

“Are you seriously asking me that?”

“You heard me.”

“I mean—other than the fact that you sit on your ass and control the movements of a little imaginary karate puppet?”

“That’s the most meat-headed bullcrap I’ve ever heard.”

“But it’s true! You’re like—you’re basically a puppeteer. A puppeteer playing with a pretend Akuma puppet.”

“So what does that make you?”

“I am Akuma.”

“You’re an asshole, Randy.”

Randy sighed. “I’m sorry. Just, whatever. Do what makes you happy.”

I knew Randy, and knew he couldn’t resist scoring a cheap point. Right on cue, he began: “but I honestly think you’d be better off going back to the real thing. Getting back in—”

I cut him off; I told him I didn’t want to hear it and that I could get back to my car on my own.

There's more to it than that, but that's the part that struck me the most.

[Oskuro]

I could answer with a trite "story of my life".

The big problem I see are not people vocal about how games are "for children", but rather people who do not vocalize the prejudice, but still have it.

I can see it in people's eyes, I can see their opinion of me shifting whenever I list videogames as one of my passions. And no matter how much I try to explain I'm mostly into them as a creative medium, I can almost feel the social label landing on my forehead.


That, or I blame that aspect for other failings I'm not aware of (or don't want to be aware of)

[Mr Bean]

I'll toss in two stories.

The first I heard at a party once. Got invited along as someone who knew someone interesting. Two gents in their middle age were discussing "the way things used to be" and one of them who was an assistant coach on a major NFL team made an interesting point. It went along the lines of "Sure I played a video game or two with my kids when they were younger, but these boys when we are on the bus it's nothing but cell phones and xbox's whenever we have down time on the bus". The rest of his story went on to explain how it had swept the bus year by year as the new rookies came in. They started in 2005 with one or two people on hand helds and by 2007 there were two or three jury rigged setups to let them play four player games. The older guys would sleep, bullshit or talk to girlfriends while the youngsters were on laptops, games or doing all three at the same time.

The second comes from a co-worker who falls into that exact same "fell out of video games thing". He grew up with an atari, got a sega and owned a dreamcast before he left for college. He drank, partied, dropped out to work for a family he accidentally created and has not touched video games in years. His only hobby as far as I can tell is the odd TV series and sports. Get him started and he will talk with nostalgia about this or that 90s game but he says he just does not like playing video games. Meanwhile I'm talking to the guy next to him as he relays what his six year old son has done in creative mode in Minecraft recently and he's got no idea about anything happening in the game side of things. I understand his wife and kids are the same because he does not buy his kids anything electronic but the flash games they download off the net.

[salm]

Back when I was going to an automotive trade school in Laramie, Wyoming...all but one or two students in the entire school (including me) were redneck farmboys. All of the stereotypical redneck stuff you hear about (4-wheeling, rodeos, NASCAR, Monster Trucks, mechanical bull at the bar, line dancing, shooting at road signs, etc...), they actually were into. Computers, they were not.

So I was given the odd look when I would stay home chatting online or video gaming while everybody else was at the bar picking up high school girls with fake IDs (look, I can't count on two hands how many stereotypes I actually encountered in that one little town).

They only really seemed interested when I loaded a copy of Monster Truck Madness onto the PC and they had some fun with that, but only for a few minutes...then then went right back to drinking.

Heh, sports and racing games seem to be bit of an outlier and regarded as less silly by these type of people. With me it´s the other way round. I probably find these two genres the least interststing.

[Gurgeh]

Ya know, I think its kind of funny in some ways: that people will comment that you're wasting your time if you say you like to play video games or work in the video game industry etc. yet if you say you like movies or want to make movies that's perfectly acceptable. Think its kind of sad that video games arn't as respected that film has.

[PhilosopherOfSorts]

Ya know, I think its kind of funny in some ways: that people will comment that you're wasting your time if you say you like to play video games or work in the video game industry etc. yet if you say you like movies or want to make movies that's perfectly acceptable. Think its kind of sad that video games arn't as respected that film has.

Eh, give it time, I say. Once video games have been around as long as movies have, they'll probably be similarly respected.

[Dr. Trainwreck]

Hey, isn't gaming old enough to have respect? I mean, it's been around for like 35 years. Unless I'm wrong, cinema was respectable by the time it hit 35.

[Mr Bean]

Hey, isn't gaming old enough to have respect? I mean, it's been around for like 35 years. Unless I'm wrong, cinema was respectable by the time it hit 35.

People died faster back then. We are going to have to wait another ten years before it's respectable. That's when the first few people who grew up playing Atari as a kid will have grandkids playing Xbox Ones.

[Steel]

Hey, isn't gaming old enough to have respect? I mean, it's been around for like 35 years. Unless I'm wrong, cinema was respectable by the time it hit 35.

People died faster back then. We are going to have to wait another ten years before it's respectable. That's when the first few people who grew up playing Atari as a kid will have grandkids playing Xbox Ones.

I don't think that will do it.

I think the actual time will be when gaming is a gender neutral hobby, or at least there are a sizeable number of female gamers or perhaps when saying you play video games doesn't automatically put someone on the "do not date" list. While there is a choice between gaming and reproducing, gamers as a culture are not going to become mainstream. Film on the other hand was something that was instantly more accepted as girls liked movies and you could even go to a movie as a date. Compare the percentage of the population who would be happy to go on a movie date vs a gaming date: until that number (vastly) increases gaming won't acceptable to the mainstream.

This is not to say that gaming is not becoming much more gender neutral, but at the same time how many angry birds players or mobile gamers actually identify themselves as people that play games? Very few.

[Gurgeh]

This also brings up another issue since lately I have been wondering if I should give up gaming:
So, I am 20 and I have always thought that playing video games was a mainstream thing like Going to the movies, watching television, or reading a book. Until I got to community college I meet my first encounter of anti gaming people. But when I started my math class during the syllabus meeting my teacher told those who play video games to "Delete them. Video games are a waste of time." To me, I find this insulting, I don't know why video games are treated as the "pointless waste of time" category when gaming is coming through. But my teacher went on to say that the last game she played was "Mario". She even thought that the whole idea of people having jobs to play video games as weird. She said "did you know there are jobs where you can play video games all day?" To me this was also strange because that is like saying "Did you know that there are people who can play poker all day?"
The next day during break time she told the class a website where we can watch all TV and movies for free to me this was strange as well. Why is it that playing video games is time wasting but it is perfectly fine to watch movies and TV shows?
I even asked around a bit on the internet and I got responses like "Video games are some life robing addiction. When you are in your later years you will wish that you were doing more things with your life than playing video games." Now why is it that video games are getting this treatment and not other forms of entertainment? I have thought about quitting but if I did: the anti gaming crowd would win. If I don't I will still get the gamer stigma. What should I do?

[AniThyng]

This is not to say that gaming is not becoming much more gender neutral, but at the same time how many angry birds players or mobile gamers actually identify themselves as people that play games? Very few.

Considering the vitriol directed at "casuals" by so called true gamers, I imagine it's not entirely their fault if they don't count themselves as gamers for playing angry birds.

Seriously though I still consider gaming a hobby for myself, but since my girlfriend only plays candy crush and I value spending time with her over gaming, and the rest of my time is spent at furthering my career, it doesn't leave me much time to do anything other than mobile gaming on my ipad/phone and the occasional world of tanks match...

I mean let's face it, I can't pour in the time I used to to play games like rome or civ or even reaper if souls. I've become one of those people who just watch the cinematic on YouTube since I don't have the time to play it myself.

@earth001, the reality is we only have 24 hours a day, how you use it is up to you. Frankly if you have time to game then by all means go for it, but it's not unreasonable to note that the effort and time spent gaming is much more than that spent on a movie date, and I've never met a gamer who didn't also watch movies and read ( even if the reading material is considered trash by the literati ), so consider just how much time you commit vs someone who only watches videos and reads.

[Mr Bean]

As I said we need to wait for these people to die. They died faster in the older traditions but we heard the same re-frame for the written word, movies, comic books and the entire genre of fantasy in the past. Your math teacher is an excellent example of someone who fundamentally does not compute. Alternative questions to ask if she's ever "wasted" time playing poker, playing a boardgame. Reading a non-fiction book, putting together a train set.

There's an excellent example, I'm not to far from a model train museum which is the work of one guy over thirty years. Thirty years he spent his off time putting together an entire town for his trainset to go around. Making and painting mountains, staging scenes in tiny extreme detail... and I bet the math teacher would say that was time better spent than a single game of Pac-man.

[Scrib]

This is not to say that gaming is not becoming much more gender neutral, but at the same time how many angry birds players or mobile gamers actually identify themselves as people that play games? Very few.

Considering the vitriol directed at "casuals" by so called true gamers, I imagine it's not entirely their fault if they don't count themselves as gamers for playing angry birds.
.

I'm not sure it's just the vitriol though. These people have found a mainstream game they want to play but don't want to have the gamer label. So they just simply jump over this. I remember a pretty good article making this point: it's different when "mainstream" people do something. Everyone can like BSG or any of the new scifi-but-not-scifi-more-about-people (Lindeloff came out with a tweet essentially admitting that this was the marketing gimmick) without considering themselves nerds or scifi fans because those things are so popular and aimed at them now.

As for the vitriol...meh.

[salm]

Eh, different kinds of people like different kinds of stuff. And hate different kinds of stuff. Just think about how many people think supporting a sports team - soccer/football/baseball/whatever - to be a complete waste of time and think that the people who do it are moronic toglodytes wasting their time with getting drunk in the stadium or in front of the TV. Hating sports seems to be esspeically widespread among nerds.

[AniThyng]

Eh, different kinds of people like different kinds of stuff. And hate different kinds of stuff. Just think about how many people think supporting a sports team - soccer/football/baseball/whatever - to be a complete waste of time and think that the people who do it are moronic toglodytes wasting their time with getting drunk in the stadium or in front of the TV. Hating sports seems to be esspeically widespread among nerds.

Yet, many people I know both game AND support sports teams. I think the crux of the matter here is that what society considers acceptable is >balanced< people, not people obsessed with one thing and one thing only*, unless your obsession leads you to great heights in your chosen field.

*I find Earth001's characterization of gaming vs "reading" and "watching movies" as some sort of dichotomy to be a curious notion. I suppose though one can make do with simply avoiding spending time on reading and movies so to have more time to game, but I still maintain it is rare to find a gamer that does not also watch movies and read...

Also this notion that one must avoid "quiting" games or the "anti-gamers" "win". You either have spare time to devote to your hobby or you do not. Just assess what you are sacrificing to pursue gaming and how much time you have to game. If you find that after you've accounted for sleep, school, work, exercise and socializing (which may even involve games anyway!) you have no times for games, well welcome to the real world? And if you do have time for games after covering the basics, who cares what other people think about what you do in your spare time?

[AniThyng]

This is not to say that gaming is not becoming much more gender neutral, but at the same time how many angry birds players or mobile gamers actually identify themselves as people that play games? Very few.

Considering the vitriol directed at "casuals" by so called true gamers, I imagine it's not entirely their fault if they don't count themselves as gamers for playing angry birds.
.

I'm not sure it's just the vitriol though. These people have found a mainstream game they want to play but don't want to have the gamer label. So they just simply jump over this. I remember a pretty good article making this point: it's different when "mainstream" people do something. Everyone can like BSG or any of the new scifi-but-not-scifi-more-about-people (Lindeloff came out with a tweet essentially admitting that this was the marketing gimmick) without considering themselves nerds or scifi fans because those things are so popular and aimed at them now.

As for the vitriol...meh.

A whole lot of people enjoy watching Star Wars and Star Trek. Comparatively few of them will ever bother going any further than that - it should not be surprising that the "mainstream" finds it odd to go to the point of spending hours on a website composing essays on the topic.

[salm]

Eh, different kinds of people like different kinds of stuff. And hate different kinds of stuff. Just think about how many people think supporting a sports team - soccer/football/baseball/whatever - to be a complete waste of time and think that the people who do it are moronic toglodytes wasting their time with getting drunk in the stadium or in front of the TV. Hating sports seems to be esspeically widespread among nerds.

Yet, many people I know both game AND support sports teams. I think the crux of the matter here is that what society considers acceptable is >balanced< people, not people obsessed with one thing and one thing only*, unless your obsession leads you to great heights in your chosen field.

*I find Earth001's characterization of gaming vs "reading" and "watching movies" as some sort of dichotomy to be a curious notion. I suppose though one can make do with simply avoiding spending time on reading and movies so to have more time to game, but I still maintain it is rare to find a gamer that does not also watch movies and read...

Also this notion that one must avoid "quiting" games or the "anti-gamers" "win". You either have spare time to devote to your hobby or you do not. Just assess what you are sacrificing to pursue gaming and how much time you have to game. If you find that after you've accounted for sleep, school, work, exercise and socializing (which may even involve games anyway!) you have no times for games, well welcome to the real world? And if you do have time for games after covering the basics, who cares what other people think about what you do in your spare time?

Oh, I agree. I find it quite silly to dislike somebody because of the form of his/her entertainment. I´m just saying that people who will dislike other people because of their gaming habbits don´t appear to be increadibly more common than people who dislike people for other forms of entertainment like sports.
But that´s just personal experience. I have no statistics.

Maybe this is also completely different in other countries where there´s a more emphasis on "popular" and "unpopular" people.