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90°

Is “Gamer” a Stigma?

Apart from a conversation at E3 or PAX, if you’re like most adults, you probably don’t describe yourself as a “gamer” right away. Many times, this is because the social aspects of video games are seemingly still deemed, well... anti-social. Society at large seems to think that being a gamer involves long hours of alone time, sitting in a dark room living life vicariously through pixels and sound effects.

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gamersriot.com
mrsatan5417d ago

It's definitely a stigma still these days, though I like to wear it like a badge of honor.

HaterRade5417d ago

How can you say that? Nearly everyone in my school has played Call of Duty...it's definitely not the same "stigma" it was, say 10-15 years ago.

The stigma is for the niche japanease rpg games, or other niche titles...Gaming is very mainstream, hell let's not forget Black Ops still holds the record for the most sales in ANY medium.

FunkMcnasty5416d ago (Edited 5416d ago )

Well if everyone in your "school" plays video-games I think you might be missing out on the deomraphic that author is talking about. I don't think he means school aged adults between 18-21, but rather older, professional adults of between the 30's-50's age range..

I tend to agree with him in that respect, that a stigma does exist if you are that age and enjoy games.. My friends and I are all in our early 30's (and have been gaming forever!) and out of all of my friends several of them, like me, are hardcore gamers and will happilly spend 4 hours after a hard day of work at the office, blasting away on our favorite games. Now, When I'm hanging out with my close friends and everyone knows us, we'll happily talk gaming with each other.. but when we are out at a social gathering and I'm being introduced to friends of friends, wives or husbands, and generally other folks my age who I don't know.. if the conversation turns to "what do you do for fun" I tend not to immediatley devulge my passion for videogames because I am instantly assumed to be 'immature' for my age. There's the stigma right there.

I haven't felt this way until I april 2008 (i was 28 then!) and I felt judged by a few co-workers once when I admitted that I was taking thre days off because GTA IV was coming out and I had been really looking forward to it.

All in all, when you get to be in your late 20's into you're 30's some people in your peer group "expect" you to fall into that demographic's status quo, (i.e. marriage, kids, carreer advancement, post graduate studies, etc.), and while all that stuff is fine and those are noble life goals, If you're seen as a "videogamer" and you still happen to be renting an apartment and you don't have kids yet, some people will label you. It's not fair and it's not right, but we all do it right? I mean right here in videogameland, we stigmatize gamers who play certain games dont we? Just think of the stigma of admitting that you enjoy a Call of Duty game on an internet gaming website? You will be instantly deemed a "noob" or a "casual" gamer :)

HaterRade5416d ago

When I meant school, I meant collage. Around the 20-28 demographic. It's only strange if your 30 and are a gamer because 20 years ago, video games were still considered toys. The kids today are born with a xbox controller in hand, and those same kids will be future parents, and future grandparents.

It's a wave of change...slow, but strong if you ask me.

70°

Microsoft Gaming Revenue Drops 7% Year-on-Year, Content and Services Down 5%, Xbox Hardware Down 33%

Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.

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simulationdaily.com
Jin_Sakai19d ago (Edited 19d ago )

Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.

dveio18d ago

To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.

Jingsing18d ago

The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.

Tanktopmaster9218d ago

Once they re-evaluate exclusive all will be fine….

S2Killinit18d ago

Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.

Jingsing18d ago

15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.

Tanktopmaster9218d ago

These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse

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50°

Report: Injustice 3 in Development at NetherRealm Studios

Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.

50°

Spiders Studio, Developers of GreedFall: The Dying World, Announce Liquidation of the Company

Spiders: "We're going to cut straight to the chase so you're not left wondering: After a long period without clear answers, we have received confirmation that Spiders is being liquidated.

What does it mean? This means the company as a whole no longer exists. We'll cease our functions immediately. The planned DLC will release via Nacon, and then-- well, that's it.

We're sorry that it's come to this and would like to thank each and every one of you for your support over the years.

If you have any questions or run into issues with your games, please contact Nacon directly as we'll no longer be able to reply."