slop101

Very true and pretty funny.

Here's the whole article.

Here are the reasons:
Read the full article and discuss.

spainlinx0

The reason that gamers have those "stigmas" is those are the only people saying they are gamers. I have no problem telling people I love videogames. If that is a problem for them, more reason for me not to associate with them.

PixyJunket

I read this a few nights ago, it's easily the best article on video gaming I've ever read.

fujishig

Very few of non-social-interactive activities are really deemed "cool" (and no, I'm not counting LAN parties or Xbox Live as socially interactive).

It's not cool to play video games, it's not cool to collect and watch DVDs/Blu Rays, it's not cool to watch a lot of television, it's not cool to play fantasy sports, heck, even something as mainstream as watching sports carries some kind of stigma to > 50% of the population.

I'll admit I haven't really read the full article, if only because the writing style and numerous pictures between sentences kinda made it hard to read, but I'll go back and read it later.

fumanstan

It's still cool to be anti-establishment, right?

extreme2700

wish I could check out that article right now, it's blocked lol. Seems like it might be pretty good. I have to agree with spainlinx on his attitude about it, fuck 'em.

PixyJunket

I really think the article should have been titled or aimed at something like "Five Reasons the Gaming Industry Will Never Grow" instead of the whole "Not Cool to Admit" angle, because frankly, who the hell cares about that anymore? Unless you're actually still 18 or under.. you should mentally be past that childish shit.

Kedrix

It is a pretty good article, I admit I laughed a lot. However, I've admitted the whole gamer thing plenty of times, even to complete strangers and my female boss (who is the farthest thing from a gamer). I've never really hid who I am, and it's led to tons of interesting conversations. Sure you get weird looks when a cute girl sees you are reading a gaming magazine in the waiting room but you kinda just smile back and keep reading.

PopcornTreeCt

It's a lot more mainstream than most things, I'd more likely to admit I play videogames than that I own over 2000 DVDs.

slop101

I think one reason gaming is typically ghettoized is due to the fact that the technology and the delivery system is always evolving and as soon as we're about to evolve and mature one facet of the medium, we have to move on to the new and shiny thing and we're back at square-one.

"Oh, look we've finally reached the point where we can do some interesting and creative things with 2D, hand-drawn animation in games."
"Fuck it - check out these wicked new 3D polygons, yo!"

"Oh, look we've advanced to the stage where we can move beyond playing the same games in 3-dimensional space and use what we've learned to create some amazing new content"
"Fuck it - check out these wicked-ass new motion controls!"

"Oh look, we can now use our now finely tuned motion controls to interact with a game in a manner we never could before."
"Fuck it - check out these kick-ass 3D hologram graphics, yo!"

Michael Corvin

I'm going to assume you meant "Mature" instead of "Grow," since the industry has never been bigger than it is now. Nintendo even proved you can bring in non-gamers to expand it even further.

boredsilly

And I can't say I'm all that interested in "mature" games, if that means stuff like Heavy Rain. I'm glad that exists for people, but I'm not interested in that. Call me crazy, but I still come to games for fun, and fun alone. I really don't care about story all that much, but that could be because they're traditionally so bad.

Games could stand to learn how not to be so blunt though, especially with the way women are portrayed.

Michael Corvin

and to go along with #5 "Anti Social" you have articles like this on the main page of Yahoo!.

boredsilly

I like that that article points out that the "extreme" gamer plays about as many games as many Americans watch tv. It's easy to look down on people who play a lot of games, and then turn around and watch tv from 6pm to 12am. The only difference is that people can do other things while "watching" tv (I have my tv on a lot on stations like ESPN, but I'm not engrossed in it -- it's just on), whereas you sort of need to be focused when playing games.

Not that I'm saying playing games for that long is a good thing.

Chris_D

I did a LOT of web browsing while playing FFXIII .

Groucho

I wish I would have heard about that Humble Bundle mentioned in the article.

Drexl

Well, #1 could be applied to any form of media. It may just be more for games because they tend to appeal more to a tech-savvy demographic that knows how to pirate.

Regarding #2, I think we're getting there soon, if we're not there now. It's mostly a fringe that complains about technical issues these days, and in some genres (like music games) all of the talk I notice is about the gameplay. We largely will put up with technical flaws like poor framerates, pop-in, and glitches if the game is fun. Granted, there's an expected standard to reach, and they will get called on it if it's not up to par. But, even things like the Pixeljunk games have been successful without graphics that push the limits of the hardware. And, the most powerful systems traditionally have often not won out. Just look at how Nintendo has done with the DS and Wii.

About #3, never mind that there are enough sports, racing, music, and puzzle games that come out, that plenty of games are non-violent. You could avoid all violent games and still have more than enough to play. Okay, there are still a lot of violent games, but maybe it's because a lot of people that play games want it. People tend to want to do things in games that they don't or can't do in real life because they are too dangerous, illegal, immoral, impossible, etc., and violence is often high on that list. Stop trying to equate what people want to see with what they want to do.

He's probably right about the other 2, for the most part.

Raul3

Videogames are as mainstream as anything now.

If you say you are a gamer, people thinks you have played the latest GTA or Halo. It's like saying you like movies, most people will ask you if you already saw the latest blockbuster. If you watch more than two movies a week then you are geek. If you play more than (insert a number here) hours a week you are a geek.
And of course the same can be applied to sports, music, etc.