Post by trog @ 11:25am 14/03/12 | 67 Comments
The article bounces somewhat wildly around several issues - to the point where it is hard to identify a central theme, other than (obviously) to make people like me froth and fume as I frantically hammer out a comment to what is almost indistinguishable from flamebait. It really just harkens back to the days of yore where gamers were criticised as being basement dwelling nerds, and as such is actually sort of offensive.
The article begins by implying that playing video games is not social - not in that "real-life, face-to-face interaction" way that you get when you trudge outside. As someone that has made some of my best IRL friends from playing video games - both from going to LANs and simply meeting people in the flesh after playing them online - this whole premise just seems laughable to me. I know with the age of broadband that LANs are less common, but I still know a whole bunch of people that have become at least "real-life" acquaintances, if not friends, after playing games together online.
And that's before we even get into the people that get happily married after meeting in World of Warcraft!
The article then - somewhat bizarrely - treads into the realm of religion, based on a single anecdote in which a gamer described their game playing as "spiritual", and then goes on to imply that gaming is somehow worse than religion because it fails to offer the same sort of social crutches and "handy how-to relationship messages" as religion.
I don't even know where to start here; this section makes the article read almost like a stalking horse for how great religion is for managing your life (and to yet again mention De Botton's new book?!) - just because gaming can't support your emotional needs or help you manage your relationships. That is not what gaming is for. It is entertainment. It is not a magic book that is supposed to be a life guide. You are comparing very unlike things.
The conclusion then takes the time to conclude that because of how women are portrayed in video games, us gamer types are struggling to "have healthy adult relationships". It stops short of calling us misogynists, I guess, but again the implication that we're basement dwelling geeks unable to interface with humans of the female variety outside of typing "A/S/L?" is a bit disappointing to see in 2012.
I guess there are still people out there that haven't noticed that video gaming is now one of the biggest industries in the world. Treating people that partake of gaming like we are socially maladjusted and need to get out more is, frankly, old fashioned and offensive. I would encourage people who still have this belief to explore the world of gaming a little bit more - our universe is filled with more amazing people than you can imagine and everyone can find their own place here.
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Posted 11:42am 14/3/12
This kills me. It really drives me crazy, I know its not their fault for thinking it, but the people that say this are usually uninformed or just out of touch.
My parents are included in this, they give my youngest brother a hard time saying that he should get away from the computer and be more social. What they don't understand, although I think they are starting to, is the crazy amount of friends he has made playing competitive multiplayer games.
He is in a clan focusing on Blops, is a bloody amazing player in one of the top clans on CyberGamer for it, and every single day he is playing with mates. Talking, laughing and playing games. I s*** you not, I'll be working/playing behind him and he is spending hours talking and joking around with these people he met online to the point I want him to shut up :P
These people who write things like this need to wake up and see how things actually are these days. Times have changed, not every gamer is as you said, a "basement dwelling nerd".
And another thing, most of these people who complain about people playing too many games etc spend just as much time, if not more on their asses watching TV or movies.
Posted 11:43am 14/3/12
Posted 11:45am 14/3/12
Posted 11:45am 14/3/12
Posted 11:48am 14/3/12
Posted 11:49am 14/3/12
If played for excessive times sure, it can be detrimental to health and social life in some aspects. Majority of the time no one plays stupidly long hours unless they are LANing or pulling a long night or something out of the ordinary. Actually that reminds me, LAN's are probably the biggest social thing to do when playing games. I have had countless hours in LAN's and it was extremely fun, extremely healthy and overall a worthwhile experience.
Overall, it's not just woman who are out of the loop with gaming. Sure she sounds like she has more problems then a guy playing video games (her relationship doesn't sound to healthy), but that's just the way some people are. Her arguments are flawed though, and she obviously hasn't done enough research and is using it as a soapbox for her own problems.
Posted 11:52am 14/3/12
Posted 12:05pm 14/3/12
This blogs are written on purpose to elicit such rage from their targets (gamers!) and their target audience (ignorant people). Writing a comment won't help in my opinion, send a compliant.
I want to know how I can get a blog on news sites like these. I can write equally flame worthy blogs with little to no references and make wild generalisations.
I just noticed this part on the blog (left hand side):Surrrrrrrreeee you are.
edit:Checkout one of her older blogs - http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/lifestyle/life/blogs/citykat/angry-young-men-20120221-1tlob.html So not only is she ignorant, but a dat bit misandric .
Posted 12:05pm 14/3/12
How editors can express nothing beyond opinion frustrates me to no end.
Give us evidence based pieces, or go back to your own personal blog.
Posted 12:05pm 14/3/12
Posted 12:06pm 14/3/12
It's basically a higher class of trolling. I felt bad for falling for it, but I thought it was a good opportunity to draw attention to just how out of touch some people are with gaming, even though it's 2012 and gaming is now so mainstream that it is just not even comparable to anything else.
last edited by trog at 12:06:55 14/Mar/12
Posted 12:09pm 14/3/12
Posted 12:11pm 14/3/12
Posted 12:13pm 14/3/12
Posted 12:14pm 14/3/12
Posted 12:24pm 14/3/12
The mere fact we have a term "talking head" ... WHAT.
Ooo lunch time!
*** Zakson is now known as eating head.
Posted 12:24pm 14/3/12
Posted 12:28pm 14/3/12
That i dream of. She only plays fruit ninja ATM but its a start.
As others have said, its an opinion blog without evidence. Pretty s***** way of brainwashing people to think her way.
Posted 12:32pm 14/3/12
Posted 12:33pm 14/3/12
Posted 12:37pm 14/3/12
Posted 12:41pm 14/3/12
Posted 12:45pm 14/3/12
I am all for Lan's but I dont see any way that one is 'extremely healthy' when you compare it to other social activities..
Would ask Steve for pics of partner but by the sounds of it it is usually the kind of chick you don't want to see pics of. If she is hot... well done fella!
Posted 12:48pm 14/3/12
Posted 12:51pm 14/3/12
Posted 02:14pm 14/3/12
Posted 02:37pm 14/3/12
Steve, have you been shopping and Jinx.com again?
If not, some great gaming T-s**** and stuff there....
Posted 02:51pm 14/3/12
I have made more friends online than i have made friends offline. The online friends are then converted into offline friends.
Posted 02:52pm 14/3/12
Posted 03:19pm 14/3/12
Journalist is probably just bitter because her boy would rather play CoD then listen to her talk all day.... with an attitude she seems to have I don't blame him one bit.
Posted 03:20pm 14/3/12
What's the difference between games and religion? The people that play games know that games are make believe.
Posted 03:32pm 14/3/12
Ive think more so then a console a fast game PC and especially since MP can affect a young persons life as it puts some of them at risk of being recluse and then when they realise life is passing by they can find it hard to get out again and mingle etc.. For two i know it seems impossible and even though it must be a godsend for people who cant get out and about for whatever physical, mental reason, i worry about them greatly.
On the other hand i think most of us do get something better out of it wether its software/hardware knowledge, game interaction, MP comms, manners online :) and plain old fun.
Digital games shouldnt be allowed on students pc,s .... whoooa yeah
Posted 03:43pm 14/3/12
Posted 03:52pm 14/3/12
We say too much make-up.
OR:
We like games, you like guys who treat girls like conquests. Each to their own.
*shrug* It evens out.
last edited by Raven at 15:52:51 14/Mar/12
Posted 04:02pm 14/3/12
also
I don't think we need to go here do we? I mean nothing good will come out of it except a lot of flamming and possible nuking.
last edited by DM at 16:02:45 14/Mar/12
Posted 04:09pm 14/3/12
I know there's a lot of women that are pissed off by that as well, but I can't help but be bemused when people call foul on video games before trying to address stuff like body image issues caused by women's magazines. It is weird.
Posted 04:13pm 14/3/12
I don't think writing shoddy opinion pieces a few times a week really requires a journalism degree.
Not all of the flunk outs go on to write bad blogs, some of them manage to score a plum gig on breakfast tv.
Posted 04:18pm 14/3/12
http://katherinefeeney.net/
Posted 04:19pm 14/3/12
Posted 04:20pm 14/3/12
Not just skinny, but borderline sick half the time. Some of those girls look like they would be able to slide under a closed door or get sucked into an open air vent, that sure as hell isn't healthy.
Posted 04:51pm 14/3/12
Why would you bother to write about this and give it more attention? It's so obviously brain-dead gutter-journalism, yet here you are essentially syndicating it.
Gaming does not need to be defended from every little attention whore that writes a shock piece to try and bump up the circulation of their irrelevant site or newspaper. Rebutting this gives it more credibility than it ever could have achieved if ignored, and frankly does more to expose your own insecurities than the fallacy of her argument.
Posted 05:02pm 14/3/12
Posted 05:03pm 14/3/12
To start a discussion with the type of people she is writing about I'm guessing...
Posted 05:03pm 14/3/12
However, the sheer... wrongness of this article, combined with the fact that it was presented to a large audience on a popular mainstream media news site I felt compelled us to say something in this instance. We've put up with the basement dwelling anti-social geek nerd image for so long that to see it raised again today, in 2012, like it's still a real thing is extremely frustrating, and I think calling it out and drawing attention to the fact that it is Not That World anymore (if, indeed, it ever was) is important.
Posted 05:10pm 14/3/12
Posted 05:21pm 14/3/12
I don't think it is necessary for us to hold an _opinion_ to account, because as the saying goes, they are like a******* and everybody has one. As you have outlined yourself, this so-called article is vacuous and devoid of even rudimentary causal logic, let alone some kind of evidence based exposition. I highly doubt that the person who wrote this is quite as stupid as they come across in the piece, which makes it a troll in the purest sense of that words meaning on the internet.
The article does not hope to achieve anything. It has no plan, and no call to action. It's victory condition isn't about changing anyone's mind, but of coming to the awareness for as many people as possible.
Posted 05:28pm 14/3/12
Posted 05:31pm 14/3/12
Posted 05:32pm 14/3/12
Posted 05:38pm 14/3/12
I don't see it getting rejected though, my responses/comments have all been particularly narky and they went through.
Posted 05:54pm 14/3/12
Posted 06:00pm 14/3/12
I totally take your point though.
Posted 06:19pm 14/3/12
Why would that happen when gay people aren't even considered to be people?
Posted 06:21pm 14/3/12
this
Posted 06:35pm 14/3/12
Too much of anything is bad for you. She could have put this at the beginning and saved us all from reading thru that crap.
Posted 06:37pm 14/3/12
I met her partner a couple of years ago and he came across as quite shy and nerdy so I wouldn't rule out that she may have been burnt by video games once or twice in her time.
Posted 07:35pm 14/3/12
Posted 07:51pm 14/3/12
Posted 08:06pm 14/3/12
Posted 08:33pm 14/3/12
Through gaming I met some awesome people at QGL LANs (where's my achievement trog, I damn well showed up!@) and ironically I was talking to hoggy about this a week or so ago and he asked what it was like to play at one of the LANs. I had no idea - I used to go to hang out and talk to the people I met playing them online.
Wifey and I also enjoy a shared interest in gaming, although it's probably more a competitive streak applied to everything than just gaming. We used to play Tetris head to head on game boys, take turns on the consoles trying to beat each other and she even got into WoW for a bit and was totally hooked - in fact I know just as many chicks playing WoW than I do guys these days.
Fast forward to me being all grown up and I've ended up having business relationships and currently contract to people indirectly because of gaming and the people involved in it. Most recently we're doing a bit of SWToR raiding once or twice a week and the few hours shooting the s*** on TS is probably one of the biggest social (for fun) parts of my week. These days (see thread about quitting job) it seems that every phone call, chat over coffee or meeting is about work.
In summary, gaming rocks and the outdated view points in that article belong in the Katter party policy.
Posted 12:01am 15/3/12
Posted 08:28am 15/3/12
Posted 08:40am 15/3/12
Nice try, gamer boy.
Posted 12:36pm 15/3/12
http://kotaku.com/5893313/dying-boy-gets-his-own-personal-virtual-wonderland-built-by-a-game-community-in-just-four-days/gallery/1
Posted 02:59pm 15/3/12
Posted 03:01pm 15/3/12