It always amazes me that when a hobby genre is featured on a national website it drags certain individuals out of their slumber to post rude and uninformed opinions on message boards.
Take, for example, these messages left by people on a BBC 'Have Your Say' board about this years Golden Joystick awards and people's favourite computer games in general.
Who cares, save your money, put it to better uses.
[braveraddish], Gr Manchester, United Kingdom
I vote for whichever is the favourite of the nerd who believed this would be a suitable topic to be aired on HYS.
[Hiwilawonga], Bury, United Kingdom
So now the bbc has nothing to report about than video game of the year???
Well, London
What a sad bunch. Get off your backsides and get a life,
Steve Hadenough, South Shields, United Kingdom
I would say to all video game addicts - "get a life."
[friendlynorthernlad], Hull, United Kingdom
I took up hiking this year and I'm loving it!!It has a really cool 3D visual format that presents all of the beauty of southern California, actually gets your heart racing, fills your lungs with fresh air and gives you a tremendous sense of accomplishment.So far, I've lost 50 lbs and feel great! While I've not gained any extra lives yet, it has remarkably improved the one I've got.... you should get one too!
Walter Wilson, Los Angeles, United States
Then there was this from an article called 'What Happened To Dungeons and Dragons?'
It is sad to see people waste their lives in fake adventures when there are so many real ones out there. If anyone wants to know what it is like living in mediaeval times, I can point them in the direction of parts of the world where serfdom etc still exists. They will soon find the horrible truths behind their 'imagined' worlds of heroes and villains.
Karl Dunkerley, UK
Oh please - it's for kids, but it's worse than adults reading Harry Potter.
Sven, UK
D&D? Reminds me of unusual spotty students drinking cider and eating wheat crunchies - obsessively playing Hotel California on the juke box whilst pretending to wizards and serfs. Why bother? The real world is more fun.
Daren, Scotland, UK
This all reminds me of a letter I once read back in 1996 in one of the first issues of 'Arcane' magazine - it was before the days of easy posts on internet message boards. A person calling themselves 'The Real World' wrote a letter to the magazine and explained to us roleplayers that we were all sad, that he had watched his little brother playing the game and thought the whole thing preposterous. I remember thinking the same thing that I do now when I read posts like the ones above - this person went out of their way to read an article that they obviously have no interest in, and not only that they leave condescending and rude messages for fans of the genre to read. In the case of the author who penned the letter to Arcane magazine, he went out of his way to write a letter and post it.
Some might say that this smacks of elitism or ignorance but I don't think that's the case. If they were elitists they would be looking down their nose at people who are interested in the same things they are, and if they were ignorant they wouldn't have read the articles in the first place. No, I think they're just cruel. Cruel, rude and selfish people who obviously have a chip on their shoulder about something else and have decided to take out their frustrations on people they consider lower than themselves on the social scale.
It's the only conclusion I can come to. Why bother to go out of your way to offend someone in a hobby you do not participate in? You may as well just walk up to a stranger in the street, ask them what they like on their pizza and then punch them in the face if they don't mention certain toppings that you like. It's that level of nastiness.
Yeah, maybe I'm generalising the people who leave such messages. Well, at least that puts us on a level playing field, eh?
Your destination for fast, simple TTRPGs - home of Fireteam, Deep Space, Cyber Streets and adventures for the Those Dark Places RPG from Osprey Games
It makes me proud to be a roleplayer!
ReplyDeleteAs for video games, I like to compare and contrast with cinema going:
What, you mean you sit in front of a screen while it flickers, reading you a story? That's for kids! You mean there's no choice? No skill? No interactivity? Get outside get a life.
Don't worry, going to the movies is only a niche hobby. In 2008, movies only grossed $9.78 billion, whereas the Video Game industry was at $11.7 billion in games alone. And it's still growing? Attendance at cinemas is in decline.
On another note, I used to have people mock me for going to the Air Cadets. How 'nerdy'! How 'gorky'! I finished my 20 year connection with the Air Cadets with 435 hours of flying and over 200 young people trained to fly.
ReplyDeleteIt's their ignorance that will lead to their downfall. The geeks will inherit the earth. Oh, they already have.
And FISHING?! You sit by a river. In cold and wet for hours on end in absolute silence and you catch nothing. How is that a fucking hobby?
ReplyDeleteNow I'm angry.
See what you've done?
What have I done?!? I've turned you from a mild-mannered computer dude into a monster!
ReplyDeleteROB LANG SMASH!!!!!
Mate, I've always questioned the idol-worshipping strangeness of people who love their football stars, even though they're overpaid drama queen prissies who kick a bit of inflated leather around a field. You know football - that beautiful game that people get into fights and beaten up over. I'm still waiting for D&D hooligans. 'You lose another eight hit points! You're going home in a fuckin' six-by-six ambulance!'
So it's socially acceptable for me to drape my rooms with football paraphernalia but not gaming stuff? Bite me.