Gaming and social prestige...

[Fire]

Luckily enough I have quite a few friends who are into console and pc gaming, so there's usually a bit of gaming related chat going on.

Saying that, I know that I'm the most serious gamer among us.

[Tokuda]

Theres a minimal arcade scene in the UK and not much of a following for arcade games anymore. Couple that with sticks being heavy to ship and also taking up a lot of space, and you see that its hard to get hold of a good set of sticks. Its a really really poor situation, but peeps just have to import their sticks.

[Geoff D]

Its a really really poor situation, but peeps just have to import their sticks.

I agree, but the price/usage ratio is still an issue for a lot of peeps, & does nothing but help maintain the so-called divide between 'hardcore' & 'casual' - a week or so ago, someone emailed me (from another forum) to ask if I knew of a decent GC stick; I pointed them in the direction of the SC2 beauty, only to be emailed back being told that I was some kind of psycho for recommending a stick that cost more than the price of the game - & promptly bought some plastic piece of crap for about ?15.

[Cacophanus]

I once had a member of staff at GAME "explain" to me that the Dreamcast TwinSticks "were never made". Priceless.

It is interesting to see how you lot deal with prejudice against gaming, because it does exist. It is nice that the members of this board have the integrity to keep doing what they like regardless of society's misgivings.

After all, it makes a change from me having to endure "professional" games journalist's mouth jism that "games are ART! Dahhhhhhling!"

[C']

Seeing as though a couple of you are telling funny GAME incidents, I'll share mine.

Week before PAL launch of Resident Evil for GameCube. I'm near the GC section so obviously wat to be told about this game (funny thing about the Internet, everything I want to know about a game, I go and look for) so over comes GAME employee #64 and starts chatting for a couple of minutes about RE. I nod along hmmming at the right places. Then I inform him that I've been playing my mates US version for the last month. He then , without any indication or other comments, just walks off, as though he will be fired if he takes about import gaming.

It's madness I tell you.

As for this actual topic, well I don't get any prejudice but other than my arcade hangout gaming hangout it doesn't invade other parts of my life. No one at work is a gamer and my mates play but are nowhere near as dedicated (one of them plays fighters, badly).

[Concept]

Then I inform him that I've been playing my mates US version for the last month. He then , without any indication or other comments, just walks off, as though he will be fired if he takes about import gaming.

It's madness I tell you.

That is bizarre. Invasion Of The Body Snatcher's-esque. Now talking about games which aren't out over here is forbidden in such places?

Oh. Dear. They need to get a grip in GAME. It's through imports that many PAL games manage to separate the class from the dog muck.

[kev2003]

Oh. Dear. They need to get a grip in GAME. It's through imports that many PAL games manage to separate the class from the dog muck.

Hi, whilst I agree that there are some stupid people who work at Game, there are some of us who at least try to stay informed, if I don't know something (such as a question about a particular game for instance), i'll be honest and state that. I don't like to act like i'm a know-all because i'm not, there's other examples I could mention but its late and my brains not in gear at the mo, I know you're not attacking me personally but i do feel the need to state that there are a few of us that aren't complete plebs

Anyway back to the topic at hand, i tend to find that i can talk to friends about games in everyday situations, when just hanging out at each others house or out in the street or whatever, but never in the pub or in the presence of women, which seems silly i know. And I only really have one circle of friends that are interested in games, people who i've known for years who'd come round for marathon gaming sessions, but everyone seems to have moved away so those events are less frequent nowadays.

Kev

[Brats]

I wear my gaming badge proudly. I'm always dipping into my GBA whenever I get a spare moment on my own. I sometimes get strange looks from the other city bods over the pages of their FT's whilst I'm playing Kuru Kuru Kururin on the rush hour train, but I don't care.

At my work, everyone knows my gaming hobby and they come to me for all kinds of technical and general advice, which is kinda nice . I think they all think I'm on the wrong side of extreme, until I point out to them how extreme others can be.

Recently I've got a few colleagues who were bored with gaming back into the hobby by recommending stuff like Ico and DDR. Now they've also discovered Ebay and are constantly buying quality games that they missed before.

[Concept]

Kev, I know not all GAME staff are know-nothings.

It's the ones who do know nothing though who get on my nerves. Especially when they try to 'enlighten' me. It seems that a lot of people work at EB/GAME who don't know much about videogames. Same as how many people work in Blockbuster and don't know a lot about movies, or how HMV employee's don't know everything about music.

The problem is in those such places I don't get constant recommendations on what I should or shouldn't buy. The same can't be said for a large proportion of the GAME employees I've thus far encountered. Hopefully, I'll meet a few more likeminded individuals such as yourself in the future.

Oh, and Brats... Kudos for spreading the word about ICO.

More people need to play that game.

[TommyG]

I play games, I skateboard and I’m 24. Do I need to grow up? Many people think so but **** them I’m having more fun than all of those punks put together. I hold down a decent 9 to 5 job which pays the bills but my hobbies get frowned upon as been for kids and not for a responsible adult. Sad but true. At the end of the day do what you want and enjoy yourself. **** what others think as long as you ain’t causing people harm and your enjoying yourself that's all that matters.

I have a handful of gaming mates who all import so talking about games amongst them is great. I also have mates who aren’t really into games and are more into nice cars, going out getting **** faced and shagging birds……….. hang on that sounds like fun……. What am I doing here??

No seriously gaming will never be taken as seriously as say film watching it’s a hobby and it will always be looked upon like that. I’m guilty of being prejudice to casual gamers in the past, it grates me when manz talk **** about something they know nothing about and I find myself just bitting my lip and politely nodding in agreement…..

[Freedan]

I have a couple of friends who are into gaming, unfortunately most of my friends are pc gamers, with games like counter strike etc, whereas i'm more of a console gamer, which is slightly annoying but communications arent impossible . Some come to me for advice and stuff, but most of the time it is about the pc stuff, which admittedly i dont know a whole lot about. And others tend to make fun about the amount of games i have. But from time to time i do get to strike up the odd conversation about how great some of the old games were and stuff. I dont really face much prejudice, but people do definately find the fact i'm slightly more than a casual gamer a little odd