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Pet Peeves about Gaming Culture
disabledgamerj2
Kirkland, WashingtonRegistered User regular
Kirkland, WashingtonRegistered User regular
Does anyone have any Pet Peeves about Gaming Culture.
My biggest one is people who bash games when they haven't played them.
My biggest one is people who bash games when they haven't played them.
disabledgamerj2 on
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...that isn't unique to 'gaming culture.' That pretty much isn't unique to any culture, really.
edit: Bawls. And everything Bawls represents.
Basically this.
I do. In fact I have forms that I have to hand out to them and then a potentially weeks long process of dealing with the homps afterward because this isn't 1930's Germany and we aren't going to ban the fucking book. But I can't say it like that to their face, so I have to be nice and do a call back if they actually bother to fill it out.
If a game doesn't grab you in four minutes, chances are it's not very good.
Dwarf Fortress
Deus Ex
The fetishizing of proffesional gaming. MLG is to me nothing more then a bunch of elitist shit's who ~having some skill at various video games~ think that they should have the same degree of respect that the folks in the NFL get.
Frankly, I wouldn't care, except you occasionally run into these idiots on message boards or at various cons and they think that they're prophets of gaming and god help you if you think that Halo 3 is anything less then the definitive multiplayer expierience.
I'd argue that for the most part pro sports and pro gaming are equally deserving of recognition, but I do agree that there is something seriously fucking wrong with 'skilled' gaming culture.
For a community I'm actually familiar with, I'll mention WoW; high level PvPers and Raiders alike have are exponentially more dickish than the general population.
I wouldn't say it's a majority, but when a good third are obnoxious loudmouth dicks who look down on everyone else, and anyone who calls them on it becomes an instant pariah...well, there's obviously something wrong.
This is basically true about any culture, or any thing, really, though. That doesn't mean there can't be strong undercurrents of some specific thing to dislike.
Though, admittedly, the JRPG player and the Madden loving fratboy have little in common.
The JRPG player doesn't even have a lot in common with the WRPG player.
Still, gaming culture, as a whole, definitely exists. The existence of Jehovah's Witnesses doesn't mean that a wider Christian Culture can't exist.
Are you sure it's not just a case of obnoxious loudmouth dicks being obnoxious loudmouth dicks? I'm pretty sure the only difference between a dickish high-level PvPer/raider and a dickish nub is the style of dickishness.
Success doesn't turn people into assholes, being assholes turns people into assholes.
Also applies to the ridiculous attitudes people can have about new editions in D&D, as illustrated in a recent PA strip. There are still mountains of people that baw about 4th edition being 'retards D&D' and that we're turning the game into an MMO because tanks can actually, you know, affect monster behavior in significant ways.
And yeah this isn't unique to gamer culture at all, but ho-lee-shit does it ever go to extremes.
PSN: ShogunGunshow
Origin: ShogunGunshow
Steam: pazython
Man, why'd you have to our real, legitimate failure so quickly!
PSN: ShogunGunshow
Origin: ShogunGunshow
Don't forget sexual/gender related minorities. They're a pretty big one.
How embarassing. How the hell could I forget that?
Steam: pazython
I'll admit that's possible. Although I feel being a dick is, if not more common, much more accepted in the serious gaming circles; a high level raiding guild ninjaing an item from a casual is considered something to brag about. For a similar thing in PvP circles, AFKing battlegrounds is not only acceptable, but often recommended.
Neither of these things are at all acceptable in most casual WoW circles. Of course this is all anecdotal, so maybe I've just had unique experiences.
Edit: Looking at mention of the misogyny and racism, it occurs to my the real reason elite gamer culture is what it is: 'Serious' gamers and their circles are almost exclusively 20-something males.
Rude dicks hang out with rude dicks in a fake universe because nobody else tolerates their bullshit.
And I too am annoyed by the extreme fetish for all things Japanese gaming culture seems to harbor. The people who will scream at you if you call an "anime" a cartoon, need to reevaluate their life.
The culture surrounding hardcore gaming is predominantly white, male and heteronormative, though I think I've managed to put a kibosh on most offensive shit I hear.
Edit: Which incidentally, annoys the shit out of me.
edit: Oh, and the Japanese culture fetish thing is just...fucking weird. And I say this as super-hardcore unrepentant weeaboo from hell.
Except I see far more people complaining about people possessing this "Japanese fetish" then I do see people actually having it.
pretty much this. I don't understand "gamer fuel" shit, mountain dew and the like. It'd be like a company releasing "music lover fuel!" "movie goer energy drink!" I have a friend who absolutely loves Fps but he also absolutely hates any game that tries to have too much story, like mass effect or fallout 3. Is someone who constantly and religiously plays farmville in the same demographic as somebody who has bought and played every final fantasy game ever made? Of course not, it just boggles my mind how the "general public" and the corporate marketing teams have a weird time grasping this.
another thing I hate about gaming culture is the people. I've yet to meet bigger assholes in real life than on xbox live or wow. Some people out there are seriously fucking tweaked, and just get off on antagonizing other people. Makes me sick.
Also, being a douchebag gets you attention, and it's far better to not be as awesome in tournaments but be an attention-grabbing asshole as opposed to the polite guy that places very high. The former will attract more sponsors.
What I hate about the culture is the shit that tries to artificially wedge itself in the culture. This is perhaps most evident in a lot of the music. Johnathon Coulton does a lot of geekier topics but has done other stuff, whereas you have this whole "nerdcore" subgenre that feels so forced you can see the scrape marks.
Oh god so this. I call this "Beat up in High School" syndrome, where anything that the "cool kids" enjoy is automatically bad. In some cases I have seen it extend as far as demonizing alcohol, and even sexuality.
I believe it also links into the "'Nice Guy' who thinks girls only date jerks" archetype.
It's like hating on Madden and its fans for the sole reason it came from the US.
Switch: US 1651-2551-4335 JP 6310-4664-2624
MH3U Monster Cheat Sheet / MH3U Veggie Elder Ticket Guide
"Early onset Get-off-my-Lawnism" is another type of this behavior.
I had a coworker that mercilessly ripped on any popular game just because it was popular and available on a current generation console. If it wasn't some obscure game that sold 100 copies 10 years ago, it was garbage and you were stupid for enjoying it. He was about 27 or 28 when I worked with him.
I actually have the exact opposite pet peeve - I hate how widely disdained pro gaming leagues are in the gaming community. Any time I see a post on one of the game news sites that has anything even tangentially to do with competitive gaming, even if it's only a minute part, like a quote from a player or something, the comments are always vehemently negative about it.
I suspect there's an element of jealousy and "I could do that too!!" to it. But whatever the case, it's just really goddamn annoying, and I don't even really follow competitive gaming.
Another pet peeve is when I'm a part of a game's relatively small community and have a presence in the community, and how when people find out I'm gay I'll never be able to enter games without getting stupid fucking comments about it. Especially really ridiculously prurient questions about my sex life.
Steam: Chagrin LoL: Bonhomie
There seems to be this weird divide between people who fetishize everything about Japan, and people who love to make fun of people who say anything positive about Japanese stuff. Often they're the same people too.