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Gamer Geeks

[9 Feb 2012 | Mark Webb | 6 Comments]

The term Gamer Geek is one that still gets thrown around quite a lot. If you are a fellow gamer I am sure you are called a geek, told you need to get a life, or that you are anti-social.

Where does this stigma come from and why do people stereotype so much? From my personal experience gaming has always been very social; even way back in the early 90’s when I found my joy in playing Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge or Sensible Soccer on my Atari ST.

I remember that in those days my friends and I would gather ’round each other’s houses and play Mario on the SNES cooperatively. Take it in turns playing Sonic or beat the crap out of each other on Street Fighter.  When the N64 came out with Goldeneye and Mario Kart it was a revolution for social gaming in every way possible. My friends and I would spend nearly every night together playing these games together on split screen and we never got bored.

Later on with the advent of the internet, online gaming made my favourite pass time even more social and with websites and forums to build great communities we have never had it so good.

With the arrival of the Nintendo Wii many people would say that gaming has finally gone mainstream. Even your mum, dad, and grandparents are buying one and waggling their controller in the air, but there are still people that call gamers geeks; saying they have no friends or leave the house?

My question is why do people categorise gamers this way? In my experience the typical person who does this has never played a video-game in their life. Do they stereotype because they don’t understand games? Are they scared of games? Generally, you’d find these people sitting in front of the TV every evening watching whatever crap is on. Now it doesn’t take a genius to work out who is actually more social here.

On one hand you have the gamer who is either playing with their friends online, chatting away and having fun or has a few buddies over playing with them. On the other hand you have the person sitting on the sofa watching crap on TV not talking to anyone at all or getting moaned at by their partner.

Now I understand that by saying this about non-gamers I am also stereotyping. I acknowledge that not every non-gamer is like the above mentioned, I am just writing from my own experience.

Personally, I would rather spend my Friday night gaming with my mates, having a laugh and socialising instead of going to a pub/club and wasting £100 on beer and then puking it all up in the street or getting into a fight. I don’t know about you but I certainly know what is more appealing to me.

In my opinion, I believe that people stereotype against gamers because they are jealous of the great fun we have, they don’t understand that gaming is now the most popular entertainment in the world and makes more money than movies.

I just hope that one day all the stigma against gamers does go away but until that day keep your chins up guys and be proud to be a gamer. I am proud to be gamer and I am thankful for being part of the greatest xbox community on the world 360GamerCast.

  • Voodoo

    I actually take it as a compliment these days when people call me a geek because I know it’s a sign that they appreciate how into gaming I am. The ignorant majority are always going to stereotype what they know nothing about and personally I don’t really care. If they could just stop slagging things off that they know nothing about then I would be happy.

  • BerryGunner8

    Personally, I would rather spend my Friday night gaming with my mates, having a laugh and socialising instead of going to a pub/club and wasting £100 on beer and then puking it all up in the street or getting into a fight. I don’t know about you but I certainly know what is more appealing to me.

    thats exactly what i say to people but i still get called sad and got no life.

    whats worse, me spending £40 on fifa or MW2 and having hours apon hours of fun or spending twice as much on 1 night? people are dumb

  • festa73

    one day we will rise up and smite them all revenge of the nurds .

  • The Lastviking

    Very good article! In this day and age I’d be more happy with the knowledge that my kids were safe in our home or friends house playing video games than roaming the streets and getting in trouble with the law, due to anti social behaviour, underage drinking etc
    Although gaming wasn’t about when I grew up, the nearest we got to shooting games was going to the local woods and playing war with air rifles and believe me the pellets used to sting when you were shot!

  • stuntmaster

    there a geek in all of us but some like to hide it .

  • alexik72

    Great article,good points well made and it’s something that a few of us gamers have been talking about.Something i try to explain to folk in work who ask me sabout my hobby,who give you the look of “Oh,hmmm,here we go.”When you tell them you play video games,it is an art form like any other.Negative portrayals of video games come from uninformed assumptions.I would bet that the vast majority of sneering bystanders,ready with the old familiar jibes and stereotypes,have never played video games,at least not enough to be able to comment fairly on the topic.If you are then try Mass Effect or Deux Ex that have incredible nuanced stories,both of them alterable based on the players actions,you will find incredibly well developed and imagined worlds,full of award worthy plot and performance.Because i play video games it doesn’t make me a closet weirdo that masturbates to elves and uzis.Stereotypically portrayed as either acne ridden,nasal voiced adolescents,or awkward,overweight,balding men,the common categorization of “the gamer” is just as juvenile as the stigma that it perpetrates.That negative perception of video games in general may have been relevant twenty plus years ago,but look at how far video games have developed since then!!!