Greetings humanoids, Zoralink here. I have a question for you. Do you play games? Do you enjoy gaming? If you are reading this, Io ll go ahead and assume that you do. Now think. Think about a time when someone, anyone, has criticized you for being a gamer/playing video games? Yes, it has probably happened to all of us. Discrimination based on the fact that we are people who play video games. Now I am sure that no-one enjoys the shameless name-calling that comes with this discrimination (Some popular examples are Geek, Nerd, or more insulting things.) But hang ono ¦ If you are getting called that by emo teenagers who grow their hair too long and listen to music by a band called something like the o Lamb Killerso (Translated from some German words), then why listen to intellectual failures (Not always, tho.) like them? Just saying, teens on PMC that listen to the o Lamb Killers.o




Examples of the stereotypes




Hmm, where to start? There are too many gaming-related stereotypes to list, but here are some popular ones:



1. The most common, and by far the least true. The idea that 80% of gamers are 20-30 year olds still living in Momo s basement. Heho ¦ Have you ever met anyone like that? If you have, be sure to post it in the comments section.




2. That gamers all sit in front of screens all day while their doting parents bring them sustenance. These are the kind that supposedly o Die of playing too many video games.o Meho ¦ Newspapers and the like exaggerate.




3. That games are for children only and not for adults. Oh wait, thereo s thato ¦ Umm... What was it called? Oh yeah, Call Of Duty. (I dislike CoD intensely, by the way. I dono t agree with a game where your objective is to pump lead into hordes of faceless enemies, but that is another rant.)




4. That all gamers do is sit on their backsides all day, eating crisps and shooting each other. What? They BUILD and WRITE on that thing as well? Nah, youo re joking.




5. That gamers make no contribution to society. Uhh, yes we do! (Most of the time.) Learning to code is a valuable asset to society, which spends ever so much time on websites these days.






And while we are on the subject of stereotypeso ¦




There are stereotypes IN gaming itself! How sad is that? I mean, the way any Sky fan is considered a butter spammer, or the way that o ALL 12-14 year olds love CoD, and shout into their microphones when they die.o Ito s conceited and completely biased. But that is how any society works. There are those who rise up and claim all, and those who are ridiculed for no apparent reason. So here it is, an example: I am a Skydoesminecraft fan, but without the hate for squids and butter (Gold) obsession. Sky comes onto my favourite server, and I am amazed. Suddenly BOOM! Sky was banned. I ask the admins why he was banned, they ask if I am a Sky fan, I say yes, and BOOM! Banned. This didno t actually happen, ito s just an example. But I am a fan of Sky, really. Just not butter. Bite me.





The o Gamers Are Antisocialo thing




WHAT A LOAD OF RUBBISH! I dono t even have to elaborate on this. We are never alone on the Internet, there are chatrooms, forums, liveTV, Skype etc. If anything, we are promoting sociality. People in real life are boring. We are the socialites of today.




The Sad Truth




Gamers will never really be accepted by society. But why should we care? We have our OWN society. We dono t need to be judged. Ito s like comparing apples and oranges. We are the creative ones. (Mostly.) The geeks. The nerds. We are those who led the world into the age of the Internet, and even those emo kids go on Facebook sometimes. Who was there first, leading the charge? Gamers. We dono t do nothing on our screens, quite the opposite. We build, we code, we write, we chat, we Skype, we make friends over the Internet. If you are ever bullied for being a gamer, so what?Just be happy. Whenever I'm called a geek/nerd, I compliment the person saying that. So Io ll end with this brilliant graphic by OliverFrenchie. See him, he can rant better than I.









But seeing as I am a lazy gamer, I couldno t possibly have written this 700+ word blog. Back to my basement, I suppose.


Thanks for pop reel!


--Zoralink Out--