I'm in my late thirties. Played a lot of video games when I was a kid through college and a little after. But this whole idea of there being a "gaming culture" or how being a "gamer" is a major part of peoples' personalities just seems weird to me. Not even a complaint, just an observation.

:grillman:

  • HogWild [none/use name]
    ·
    3 years ago

    If you ask me, there is no gaming culture, it's a blatantly forced, manufactured term for the purpose of social engineering.

    The label "Gamer" is mainly used to invoke some kind of niche, underdog us vs. them group consciousness, while the gaming industry generates more profit annually than the movie and music industry combined. Nobody would identify themselves as "a movie watcher" or "a music listener".

    The end goal, if I had to guess, was to create exactly the kind of reactionary, toxic masculine millieu we associate with the word "Gamer" these days (Btw, I fear that's also true for the kind of people who despise these "Gamers", maybe even more so. This site is proof that many people who hate traditional "Gamers" are probaly avid players themselves), re-establishing it as a mainstream cultural anchor, only this time it has this underdog dynamic, giving it a unifying and pro-active character, where people feel they have to "fight back" against an attack on their way of life. Millions and millions of young people self-identifying as members of a group of an oppressed minority of video game players. It's basically "conservatism is the new punk rock" in a different - a lot more fashy - dress (EDIT: and judging by the general state of things these days, it's working a lot better). "White (gaming) culture is under attack", yada yada yada. Someone with a firmer grip on Hegelian Dialectic than me may come up with a better explanation.

    • ProfessorAdonisCnut [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Nobody would identify themselves as “a movie watcher”

      I uhh... don't know how to break this to you but

    • UlyssesT
      ·
      15 days ago

      deleted by creator

      • HogWild [none/use name]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Out of all the things I said, that's what you're focusing on? Hit a nerve, nerd? 😘

        Seriously, though, it's not exactly rocket-science to predict that any kind of cultural movement, especially a highly toxic one such as this relatively new gaming bullshit, will have a somewhat equally strong pushback, hence me mentioning Hegelian Dialectics. Contrary to what the sarcasm-poisoned brain of the average hexbear user (speaking from experience) might believe, most people do not self-identify as fash, or evil, or toxic masculine. It's why chuds, when you call them racist, are retorting with shit like "but I have black friends". It's actually perfectly plausible, reasonable even, to assume that the intended effect of any social engineering was targeted at the inevitable push-back by "the decent ones" among the capital G Gamers.

        • UlyssesT
          ·
          15 days ago

          deleted by creator

          • HogWild [none/use name]
            ·
            3 years ago

            I think it's pretty telling that your first move is the nuclear option.

            I used the term Hegelian DIalectic exactly once, precisely where I thought it belonghed. Everything else is you projecting like a motherfucker.

    • binman [none/use name]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Nobody would identify themselves as “a movie watcher” or “a music listener”.

      I think they do, actually. The people who contribute to IMDB or music lyric sites pretty much define themselves like this.

      "Gamer" is just a similar ingroup. It's understandable that it got started because nerds who played computer games got bullied by just about everyone in society and computer games were the one place they could not be traumatized. It's not a surprise that having found an ingroup at last, they went overboard with it.

      Ingroups are super important to humans. Humans without ingroups can and will kill themselves in despair.

      • HogWild [none/use name]
        ·
        3 years ago

        You're asking the wrong guy. I'm barely able to piece together the cause and effect here.