How to explain your hobby to friends, family and people just being polite. - The Bear and Badger

fullspectrum

Your sweepin' generalisation doesn't create a rule, either Tempy.

http://www.theesa.com/facts/index.asp

Anyway Brooks is right. It will not be an awkward topic in a few years so why stress it now. If other people can't derive pleasure from gaming then that's their loss frankly.

Tempy

Bro do you want a fight

fullspectrum

Yes because my TV delivery guy has got stuck in traffic and my sky engineer dude has apparently fixed my fault from afar so isn't coming yet my Internet is still slow and I took a day off work for this shit.

fullspectrum

Everything's a lot better after marmite on toast though so it's fine.

Rev

Mrs revel, on the occasions she is allowed out the kitchen, can be quite critical of the gaming thing. She said seeing an animal skinned on far cry was horrible. But the other side being she really like journey and would rather I was gaming than out every Friday night with the lads and Saturday at the football. does mean I have no real friends.
'so who is that?'
'thats bollockoff'
'is that his name?'
'no'
'you're weird sometimes, c'mon its time for your walk'

mk64

The bit I find interesting is when people talk to me about gaming (intentionally or not) and realise how i'm upfront about it and dont have a sense of shame about it. I think you can get into muddy waters if/when you look like you've got something to be embarrassed about.

If there is any sneering, I turn around and say I have a World Record in this game. That means that I am the best in the world at something. You might not think gaming is normal but what are you number 1 in the world at? It usually goes quiet. I also bring up that the gaming industry now grosses more than music in sales and so they are probably in the minority if they are being conscending.

I'm pretty proud of being a gamer and the communities i'm a part of. Most of my previous employers have known about me playing Tetris or MK.

tin_robot

fullspectrum wrote:

Anyway Brooks is right. It will not be an awkward topic in a few years so why stress it now. If other people can't derive pleasure from gaming then that's their loss frankly.

I think gaming will be viewed in much the same way as TV - something the vast majority of people do, but is considered weird to describe as a "hobby".

Tempy

fullspectrum wrote:

Yes because my TV delivery guy has got stuck in traffic and my sky engineer dude has apparently fixed my fault from afar so isn't coming yet my Internet is still slow and I took a day off work for this shit.

It's ok as I can let you fight me and so it can make it all better in and around of you xoxox

Jacuzzi_Jackson

I don't really explain it to anyone. People sneering at gaming doesn't bother me, just laugh in their face and harduken their face off.

Hodge360

There's usually two kinds of people that you'd be speaking to.Â
Some people are genuinely interested in finding out what the attraction of games are and they're much easier to discuss with.Â
The vast majority though are ignorant and will sneer at you trying to make you slip up and create a geeky image of you.Â
With the latter,I just ask do you like to watch TV? It's usually a yes so it's just a matter of replying:Â
Well I can't just sit there staring at a screen with my brain going to mush so I like to game to keep the mind active.Â
Conversation usually ends about there.

Fentonizer

I don't really have this problem. My Nan is the one who got me into gaming. She had a gameboy with Tetris, easily my first remembered gaming experience. And she had an Amiga before we ever had a "console" in our house. My family has always been very pro-gaming.

And my friends are my friends because of our shared experiences with gaming. I was lucky enough that I felt I had the friends I needed and if someone said "lol, nerds" it wouldn't bother me because I had enough validation for my hobby in other areas of life.

I will sit in the work tea room talking to the other two people who play Borderlands and occasionally someone will say "what on earth are you talking about?" and someone usually just replies simply with "oh, it's this game we play."

Enough about football and soaps and celebrity reality tv shows get spouted in that tea room that I really have no issue with having a conversation with friends about skill trees and legendary drops in full ear shot of everyone. Mainly because I don't conform to the stereotype and speak like an over-enthusiastic child about it, talking about the noobs i raped online.

[Deleted User]

Tempy wrote:

fullspectrum wrote:

Yo I turned 30 on 1st Jan. You're wrong bro. And I'm proud to play games.

An single exception doesn't disprove the rule! I think there are people that are always endlessly enthusiastic. Reg is, which is why I imagine he is a good teacher. That's why I think i'd be a good teacher too, without wanting to brag.

hi, i love games.
i tell anyone that'll listen, my councer says i need to get out more! (haha).
i told her "i go out every week, to play games at friends houses".Â
she says..."get a beez card and take up a sport".
sports are well and good but i love games and friends dont have time for sports.

FranticPea

I have a varied set of friends, the same conversation went different ways.

Friend A:" What have you been up to?"
Me: "Well, I joined a local boardgame club"
Friend A: "..................."

Friend B plays RPGs on his PC, but not boardgames.

Friend B: "What have you been up to?"
Me: "I joined a boardgame club, it's great"
Friend B: "Wow that's cool. Do they play pen and paper RPGs like D&D?"
Me: "....................."

JMW

Tempy wrote:

I take it 80%+ of the people on this forum are above 30 yeah? I have gathered that when you hit 30 all joy for Books, Films, Music, Comics and Games is just sucked from you by the responsibility of adulthood/parenthood. I do not want to turn 30.

It's only 30 because kids stay at home for another 10 years these days; it used to be 20.

hylian_elf

I usually don't bother with people who don't show an understanding or willingness to understand. I consider myself above them. It's the same with films and books. Over the years I've learnt not to bother with a friend who seems to think Pearl Harbour is a great film. I tend to ignore him in film chats. Sometimes there really is no talking to people.Â

Re: turning 30 and losing interest in games, sounds like bollocks to me. I'll turn 34 this year and I love gaming as much as I ever did. The fact that family and working life hinders my gaming time is a separate issue. My enthusiasm is still there, just don't get to play anywhere near as much as used to.

JMW

So do you think it's wrong to look down on people who play games, as the first part of your first paragraph seems to suggest, or ok to, as the second part suggests?

wonderbanana

On the odd occasion this has come up at work, usually the "oh you play on your xbox" type thing I usually just counter it with " well sometimes but I spend most of my time restoring old arcade cabinets. Most weekends I have my head buried in a cab wiring it and probing it with a voltmeter."

This is of course utter bullshit but for some reason it gets accepted far better. Ive had sneering colleagues and bosses turn from being quite derogatory to almost (almost) quite impressed.

hylian_elf

JMW wrote:

So do you think it's wrong to look down on people who play games, as the first part of your first paragraph seems to suggest, or ok to, as the second part suggests?

Neither.

Mod74

Funny, I don't think I've ever had to explain gaming or me choosing to do it to someone. People that know me know better than to ask something like that, and I've never really had to meet then socialise with a lot of strangers.

I suppose the trick is to maintain various interests and vary your conversation accordingly. If it comes up it comes up.

There was one time I was in a meeting and said sorry, I need to leave early to pick up a game before the shop closes. One guy asked what it was and I said Call of Duty 4. He was a bit sneery (think he was a PC RTSer or something). I didn't see him again for about 6 months and by then the whole world had gone CoD crazy and he was very interested in what it was all about. Saw him again 6 months later and he was a fully paid up member of the shooter club.

Tempy

hylian_elf wrote:

I usually don't bother with people who don't show an understanding or willingness to understand. I consider myself above them. It's the same with films and books. Over the years I've learnt not to bother with a friend who seems to think Pearl Harbour is a great film. I tend to ignore him in film chats. Sometimes there really is no talking to people.Â

Re: turning 30 and losing interest in games, sounds like bollocks to me. I'll turn 34 this year and I love gaming as much as I ever did. The fact that family and working life hinders my gaming time is a separate issue. My enthusiasm is still there, just don't get to play anywhere near as much as used to.

It's an arbitrary age I picked to make a joke about how plenty of people on here are easily able to proclaim stuff as utterly shite really. Why do people take everything I say so literally?!

Brooks

fullspectrum wrote:

Your sweepin' generalisation doesn't create a rule, either Tempy. http://www.theesa.com/facts/index.asp Anyway Brooks is right. It will not be an awkward topic in a few years so why stress it now.

Bear in mind I typed as much very much expecting videogaming of some decades hence to have drifted significantly from current trends and norms. If they stay as they are they'll remain an awkwarder topic.

The rise of phonegaming is sort of interesting in that it creates (or maybe recreates) "gamers" who aren't, y'know, Gamers.

hylian_elf

Erm. Probably cos I didn't get your joke. Soz!

JMW

It's easy enough not to bring it up in general day-to-day conversations, but the test is would you put it into your interests on an application form, and I don't mean for a job in games, and the answer is fuck, no. Unless you have literally nothing else to put. Which you should have.

Tempy

hylian_elf wrote:

Erm. Probably cos I didn't get your joke. Soz!

It's probably because I then proceeded to speak to Nick like it WAS a statement of intent and then he quoted the ESAA at me, and yeah the 30+ year olds are the biggest market, but market doesn't mean player. How many people on here have bags of unplayed releases? How many of them are over 30? My slightly wonky yet utterly irrefutable clase is closed goodnight gentlement I shall see you all at the Jury Inn!

JMW

Popular Brighton footballer haunt.

Crispy

This may be relevant here:Â http://kotaku.com/gamer-shame/

Bit off topic here, but anecdotally, I've noticed that most people that are into gaming with some degree of seriousness haven't the slightest interest or clue into the going-ons of sport (myself included).Â Whenever people at work start going on about football, or hockey or whatever, my eyes just glaze over as do theirs whenever I talk about video games.

I wonder what it is about games and sports that makes them diametrically opposite to one another.

JMW

Fitness and unfitness, I'd guess.

hylian_elf

I think I may have put it on an application before, alongside tennis running films etc. Can't remember if I managed to land an interview on that one!

JMW

We are in the bizarre position here of having to apply for jobs we don't want; I might start putting it on there.

Brooks

Crispy wrote:

This may be relevant here:Â http://kotaku.com/gamer-shame/ Bit off topic here, but anecdotally, I've noticed that most people that are into gaming with some degree of seriousness haven't the slightest interest or clue into the going-ons of sport (myself included).Â Whenever people at work start going on about football, or hockey or whatever, my eyes just glaze over as do theirs whenever I talk about video games. I wonder what it is about games and sports that makes them diametrically opposite to one another.

Very basically, where that observation applies, I think it's about where one's free time was invested as a youngster. Both interest fields generate a lot of lore and that requires a fair bit of energy and focus to absorb and as a kid you'll tend to gravitate towards otherÂ casualties to ratify your choices.

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