The USS Quad Damage

All the normal people

Pushing forward white, blonde, attractive women to normalise gaming doesn't help anyone.

Nightcrawler: Excuse me? They say you can imitate anybody, even their voice.
Mystique: [as Nightcrawler] Even their voice.
Nightcrawler: Then why not stay in disguise all the time? You know, look like everyone else.
Mystique: Because we shouldn’t have to.

Before I start, this is not me having a go at Hex. Got it? Good, let’s go!

After reading the most recent incarnation of “Gamers are normal people too”, a few things have started to bug me. To be fair, it’s important to challenge the stereotype. A lot of points are well made, for example the demographics, the social nature of gaming, and that gamers are (broadly) normal. I’ll expand on that later. But firxt:

Many statistics are used during these talks. They effectively challenge the gamer stereotype by appealing to numbers. If I were to compare it to racism:

Aborigines have been found to have an intelligence similar to everyone else.

When put that way, it’s fairly abhorrent. A lot of other “big numbers” are also used. This is an appeal to the size of the gaming market (There are over 9000 gamers). From the perspective of “we are not to be trifled with”, this is fine, but this sort of size comparison seems more like a childish appeal for acceptance.

The inclusion of casual gamers as gamers is a little bit disingenuous. Casual gamers are broadly gamers who don’t play games, and I don’t believe are singled out. They are not going to complain about the R18+ rating and are just as likely to side with Caroline Overington before playing another game of bejewelled.

We don’t feel the need to label people as “TV-ers� , so maybe its time to stop feeling the need to place people in a box?

Actually, there are a fair few people who are very knowledgeable about TV, “movie buffs” is a well known sub-culture, and “Musos” are another group who don’t seem to draw the ire of the media.

The thing that really gets my goat, though, is that people like Steph Bendixson or Erin McNaught are trotted out at each of these occasions, talk a little about gaming, and walk away again. Again, to be fair, what the hell else are they supposed to do? They’re gamers (at least Steph, I would assume Erin), and when they’re talked about in an unfair way, they will defend themselves. Its the fact that others basically choose them — and its a fairly deliberate choice; as these bastions of normality. Why are Lux or Rei not pulled out? Hell, why not Bajo or Jung or pretty much any old gamer? Are they not “normal” enough?