Gaming Elitism

It should come as no surprise (I hope) that I have rather strong feelings about people feeling they are better than others.  I also realize, in many ways, I may come across as a hypocrite saying that.  After all, don’t I word my rants from a “place of authority” I am not necessarily entitled to?  On the other hand, things annoy me and I have to talk about them somewhere, so you poor wretches get to deal with it.

Just recently, I read an opinion going roughly thus:  “I hate it so much when people play Skyrim because it’s popular without playing all of Bethesda’s other games”. 

Well… That’s nice. (There’s a great joke about someone who went to finishing school and learned to say “That’s nice” instead of “Fuck you”.  Keep this in mind.)

I realize this is opinion but it goes into a lot of what I see in hardcore gaming culture in general, and it just twigged me off.  Now personally, I own Morrowind and Oblivion, and haven’t gotten through them, but I still want to try Skyrim because it sounds like a good game.  I also tend more toward indie games, the not big budget games, because that is the market I want to go into, and more importantly, I’m cheap.  I don’t see the point of many of the more popular games (Call of Duty and Battlefield, I’m looking at you), but I won’t deride a person for playing them.   … Okay, I will deride a person for playing them, if they complain they have no time for their homework because they were too busy playing the game all weekend, but that is less about the game and more about the time management skills.

Anyway, I have rather digressed.

My point is this.  Just what is the problem with playing something because it’s popular?  It’s sort of a circle like that – People play things because they are good, making them popular, which makes more people play them, which makes them more popular.  Now granted, Skyrim had its popularity set from day one, along with several other hotly anticipated games (Portal 2, I’m looking at you).  What I am saying is it is illogical to dislike a game just because it is popular.  This is entirely different from wanting more exposure given to the indie titles without the huge marketing budgets.  I for one would like to see a lot more people play games like Bastion, Jamestown, Dungeons of Dredmor, and Offspring Fling.

Gaming is no longer this walled garden, and it feels like a lot of people feel it still is.  For better or for worse, it is a far more generalized hobby now, with all that implies.  It’s not just the hobby of nerds.  … I feel it necessary to say I am a nerd, and have no shame in this fact.

Anyway, where I was going:  Gaming attracts all sorts of people.  This means that not everybody has played all the games you have.  Not everybody likes the games you like.  And yes, people play games because they are popular.  My question for all the elitists out there is this:

Why do you care?

I’m serious.  Why do you care?  What harm is happening to you because a person does not play all the games you wish them to?  There are many reasons they might not but is it really anybody’s business?  Now there is something for bashing games they’ve never played and know next to nothing about (or because they are popular.  I deal with those a lot.)  But what business is it to the Society of Purity in Gaming Busybodies just what other people play? 

… Given something I plan on talking about of the roles I see women taking in games, how I am opposed to a lot that I see portrayed, and how I dislike that these are so common, I just know somebody is going to call me out as a hypocrite.

What it comes down to is this, in my mind:  What matters in games is that people have fun.  Preferably, that fun comes without exploiting people in the games.  For all I say that games don’t matter, they do matter for how they take such a large role in peoples lives.

But for those purists who insist that everybody like the same things they like, everybody play the same things they play, everybody looking for the idea that gaming is a huge monoculture based around their wants?

Go Eat a Bag of Cacti.  Raw.  And pointy.

So yeah.  I just… elitists in all respects annoy me, for all I talk on a really high horse myself (That phrase makes me think of a horse that somebody gave a great deal of pot to…).  While I think games are important to the future, for educating and getting through to people… The most important factor is fun.  People tell me the most important parts are story, plot, characters, gameplay… but the most important part is fun, and people trying to take that from others in the name of feeling superior, or because they feel they are part of some walled garden that no longer exists bugs the hell out of me. 

Speaking of walled gardens, watch this space for a rant about portrayals of various people in games (As I am a fat female, guess my nitpick of choice!  However this extends over a lot of things), narrow perceived audiences, and worldwide monocultures in fantasy settings, because dear lord that is creepy.