And yet, despite ALL THESE THINGS, I also still get that eye-roll, and the patronizing, “Wow, you play video games? Don’t you think it’s time you grew up?” It makes me livid faster than I can possibly describe, especially since it is NEVER anyone who like, volunteers at soup kitchens or builds schools as a hobby making this statement, it is always people who watch a lot of television in their free time. Always. I simply do not understand why sitting on your ass watching American Idol is a responsible adult pasttime, but sitting on your ass killing Magtheridon is for immature, unwashed losers. Really? REALLY.

One of my coworkers - who, I might add, is at a lower level of advancement on the career ladder than me - told me that I should watch some show that comes on Mondays. I told her I didn’t watch television because I preferred to play video games. “That’s why you should watch this show,” she said, “it’s about people who get all their social networking done on video games on the internet!”

So I should… stop playing video games on the internet to… watch a television show about… people who play video games on the internet.

REALLY? REALLY?

I find that the people who think gaming is childish are just trying to fit into a social norm. They are the “followers” and just try to do what is deemed acceptable by society. These people have no interesting aspects to them and have no identifiable personality beyond what has been installed by the masses. Also, most of them are douche bags.

50% of guys in my dorm surf, think football is a religion, and talk primarily about getting wasted. Surfing and liking Football are not bad things, quite the contrary. But ,Jesus Christ, have an opinion about it, decide for yourself! If you think games are childish, well, why? Because a lot of people told you they were? I wouldn’t mind these people at all really if they an opinion that was genuinely their own and based on a logical thought process.

Plus, I find solace in the fact that they are indeed wrong, games aren’t childish. When games incorporated sex and violence, I’m pretty sure that notion was shattered. And nowadays, professional gaming can become a career. Hence, not childish. QED bitches! Ok Rant over.

What’s wrong with your hair? o_o? I LOVE YOUR HAIR. What does hair have to do about being mature/immature?! Hygiene is a different issue.. anyways PINK HAIR IS AWESOME. I use to have my hair all pink! It was kickass.. it faded out x_x…. I’ve seen 60 year olds with blue/pink/purple in their hair. It’s awesome.

Anyways, as Kevin said, “I find that the people who think gaming is childish are just trying to fit into a social norm. They are the “followers” and just try to do what is deemed acceptable by society.” TOTALLY AGREE. 100%. I don’t know about you or him, but the people I’ve dealed with tend see video-games as well and having no social life. These tend to be the people who have that “I’m better then you, I can afford more expensive clothes, I got a better body, etc etc”. Aka.. Preps? Lawl.

Oh, ALSO with parents.. I just don’t think they really understand gaming.. atleast my parents anyways. My dad thinks it’s taking my life away since I don’t go out a lot.. MANY REASONS WHY I’M NOT GOING OUT
A) I’m having way too many friend problems IRL right now, and I’d rather not tell my parents that.
B) I live out in the middle of no where ..
C) I love gaming? I’ll go out if I’m going to game with some other friends or something, or even a LAN party! I’m not like most girls here. I think the majority of girls here go clubbing and shit like that.. yeah that’s not my thing.
I’d tell my Dad I can socialize on the internet, but he’d have a spaz attack.. LITERALLY. I mean, atleast I’m not doing drugs, getting wasted, fucking random people or smoking it up? If anything I’m just getting less excersize. Haha.

But yeah, video-games are not childish.. everyone of every age is playing them! People have to learn to take gamers more seriously. u_u

Right.

I’ve been ridiculed by just about everyone for being too “childish.” I leave my TV on all the time even if I’m not exactly watching it. It’s a white noise-comfort thing. But 95% of the time the TV will be on Cartoon Network. I’ve taken a liking to such shows as Ben 10 and Storm Hawks. I’ll even sit there and watch stuff I don’t even really care for.

My computer desk is covered in toys and figurines. I’ve got all my old original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set up along with new ones from the CG movie. I’ve got figures from Star Wars Clone Wars. Stuff from Justice League Unlimited. I even have a miniature model of Serenity from the show Firefly.

In the livingroom sits another TV with my 360 and a pile of games next to it… In front of a wall covered with posters from TMNT, Family Guy, and various comic books.

There’s nothing wrong with having a hobby, even if it might seem “childish” to someone else. One of my best friends used to look down on me for the things I enjoyed. Then I realized how much of a pretentious snob she was.

My theory on the whole situation is that people who enjoy “childish” things are the most creative people on the planet. I mean, where do you think all this “childish” crap comes from? Kids don’t create it. Adults do. People who scoff at others for being into kiddie things just don’t have an imagination. Maybe they’ve become too jaded to take pleasure in such things. The world is a hard place to live in, so I guess it’s understandable. But it’s those few of us who can enjoy such things that keep some semblance of magic and enjoyment in the world.

I used “childish” too many times in this post. I feel ridiculous.

-Dustin

I am 27, fairly well adjusted and a keen gamer. I work at a college, I play in a band and I have an IQ of 155. I have a group of friends who are all fairly similar to me - 25 - 35 years old, all working and all relatively normal. All of us play games. And I do mean ALL of us. From my friends’ sons and daughters to their parents. We all play games and we all enjoy it.

The idea that someone doesn’t play games is, to me, extremely odd. Anyone up to and including their mid thirties must have had at least a passing interest in computers, and therefore, games. Why should we still not enjoy them? Is there some magic age bracket that we pass through where everything changes? A technological puberty, as it were?

Older people may find computer games uninteresting. Fair enough. They are complicated, fast paced and difficuly to play without a basic knowledge of control systems. This can make them hard to learn and confusing to watch. However, saying that we should grow out of playing games is like saying to someone born in the 50’s - “I would have thought you’d have grown out of watching TV by now.”

There is no upper limit on having fun. Lets keep it that way.

I had an interesting experience recently. My boss is grooming me for project management, and has been getting me more involved with that aspect of the project we’re working on now. We were discussing the state of the project a few weeks ago, and she interrupted me to ask where I got my project management experience from or if it just came naturally, because she thinks I’m good at it. In thinking about it… honestly, a lot of it comes from being involved with games and online communities around them.

There are a lot of things you can learn through gaming that can be applied to “the real world.” But there’s definitely a stigma attached to gaming. It’s definitely becoming more mainstream and accepted, but it’s going to be a slow process. And part of it is definitely generational. I’ve talked to some of my coworkers about gaming, and they know what I’m talking about… but they know about it through their children. So there’s definitely a hurdle there.

There’s an article I read about leadership in WoW by Joi Ito a while back ( http://joi.ito.com/weblog/2006/03/13/leadership-in-w.html ) that really I think shows some of the steps we’re taking in getting past this stigma of games being childish. The idea of using lessons from WoW in developing better tools for managing other distributed real-time environments in a business setting, for instance, just jumps out at me.

Gamign is like the new Marilyn Manson, and seeing as gaming has been getting blamed for causing evil in the world and corrupting our children since DOOM came out I don’t think it will be changing any time soon!

But you know what, if people give me “the look” for being a gamer, then they probably arn’t the kind of people I want to be friends with anyways

Good work Brittany!