Gamers, no-lifers and normal people.

#0 - Jan. 19, 2007, 4:04 a.m.

I did a bit of thinking (then I stopped because it hurt).

I've seen a lot of talk about the guys who rush to level 70 as fast as they can. I've read about the french guy who did it in one sitting of 28 hours. These guys set up a goal, they went for it, they made an effort. The most common reaction to this seems to be that these people are poor sad bastards with no life. Everyone asumes they are fat spotty kids with glasses who still live in their mothers basement at 28.

It might be true and if they are that IS a bit sad. However, how they look, where they live doesn't matter. They still made the effort, they set their goal and went for it. Yet they are publicly scorned and riddiculed by the majority of the people that know of their achievements. Why? It's not because they are fat, ugly, no-lifers who are scared to go outside because they might meet actuall "normal" people. We don't know that, we just asume they are because they are dedicated to a computer game.

Let's draw some parallells to other achievements.

People who climb Mount Everest:
They spend months in advance to prepare for their expedition. They spend enormous amounts of money on equipment, food and travels. They do all this so that they can climb through wind and snow to the top of some stupid rock somewhere in asia. What kind of no-lifer would do something stupid like that when he can be normal guy and have a life with wife and kids.

Supermodels:
These girls/women (and probably boy/mens too) dedicate their entire lives to their bodies. They measure every gram of food they eat. They excersise regulary according to a rigorous schedule. They do this in order to let some guy with a camera take flashy pictures of them so that normal people can judge them by their looks, tape their pictures on the wall or on their computer desktops. What kind of sick weird exhibitionsit no-lifer would do something like that when you can be a normal person and hang out with your friends down at the pub.

Athletes:
Yet again people who spend their youth pursuing a goal. They run the same tracks over and ocer again to hone their bodies and trim their muscles to the best. They do this in order to try to run a predetermined path faster than anyone else, or lift a piece of junk so heavy no one else can lift it, or hit a little ball with a club in order to put it into a small hole. What kind of psychopatic autist would do something like that, when you can just walk those 100 meters or take the bus if it's longer. What kind of moron would do that when any normal guy would just ask their pals or hire a forklift to get junk out of the way. What kind of freak would do that when they can just pick up the ball and drop it off when they don't feel like carrying it around anymore. These people can't be normal.

See what I'm getting at?
Hopefully some of you will get but I have no illusions that everyone will. Some of you guys are too used to yourself being "normal people" that you're not able to fathom that people with different interests and priorities aren't freaks.

Recognize the effort. Don't search for flaws.

#23 - Jan. 19, 2007, 8:52 p.m.

Q u o t e:
The correlation falters the moment you put the same weight to a gaming obsession as opposed to a hobby, a sport, a day-job. The three categories you described will for now as it did in history bear more weight then the achievements in games. When the time comes that games will provide a suitable income, have garnished a more respectable reputation effectively destroying it's stigma then perhaps we can start this charade again.

You do raise a good point as your arguments hold some truth in my opinion, but I think I must agree somewhat with what the OP is trying to say.

When people say they like to play computer games and that they often spend a long time doing so, then it is not an uncommon thing that those people are ridiculed, dismissed and even harassed. But when people likes to sit for long periods of time in their basement playing poker (or other socially acknowledged games) )with a few friends, then they are often considered as nice and normal people, who found a clever way to use an otherwise rarely used part of their property, while being healthily social at the same time.

Judging people based purely on stereotypical views and prejudice is wrong, and ridiculing people for their passions and interests is very narrow-minded.