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:
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.
I uhh... don't know how to break this to you but
Calling "watching movies" your hobby is not the same as self-identifying as part of a cultural Gamer movement. There is no "movie watcher sub culture". Totally different quality.
go work at an 'arthouse' theater and tell me there's no subcultural milieu amongst the pretencious moviegoers
There are subcultures of cinephiles and movie buffs though. There are sub-subcultures for plenty of film genres too, hell some individual films even have their own cult followings..
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You're claiming that opposing a toxic extreme side of a fandom, one that labels itself for purposes of gatekeeping as well as self-appointed elitism, is somehow equally as bad, "maybe more so?"
That's quite a stretch. Most people that mock Epic G*mers here play video games but avoid the label because of what's generally done with it by people that identify with it. It isn't some mind blowing revelation to say so, and I don't even see how it really ties into that claim.
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.
You started pretty early on with that claim, and it was a pretty absurd claim.
Also, you're going Dril levels of false equivalency under pretenses of being very very Hegelian. I've seen this song and dance before. It's done in defense of treats, especially on :reddit-logo: . The treats. Are. Not. In. Danger. In fact they aren't even being criticized at all here. The toxic fringe of their fandom is.
You might like Hegel, but applying Hegelian buzzwords in a slapdash way everywhere is not far off from applying the words "logic" and "reason" to opinions to make them look more important and unassailable. :expert-shapiro:
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.
The basis of your absurd claim was based upon your "exactly once" invocation. You also started early on with it, too, since it was the apparent basis of your argument.
You've made several personal attacks on me already, with a touch of concern trolling, and now you're complaining about "nuclear options?"
I don't think replying to you anymore is going to go anywhere good.
LOL, keep reaching, debate bro. I'm disengaging from this nonsense now.
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I criticized a for-profit private enterprise, administered by some of the richest and most destructive people on the planet, and you took that criticism personally. You apparently approve of the privatization of space in a way that doesn't seem very leftist and I stand by that.
You talk about "escalation" and you brought that personal baggage here, unprompted. You accused me of being "obsessed with Reddit," but you're demonstrating what seems like a Reddit-style grudge because someone, yes I'll say it, criticized the space treats.
You don't have to like me, but that grudge isn't going to go anywhere good.
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We're only human and we have feelings that can be hurt. I'm definitely no exception. I admit I was worried that you might start following my posts and attacking me all over this site. It's something I experienced in the past in other places and it still bothers me when I think about it. I'm sincerely glad that you posted that followup that you just did and I feel relief.
We don't agree on everything, and that's fine. I thank you for your reply. :an-eco-heart:
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.
What can be done to reverse this trend?
You're asking the wrong guy. I'm barely able to piece together the cause and effect here.