fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2285 ]

[ SECRET POST #2285 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2285 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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[NCIS]

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[Kirk Cameron]

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[Lindsay Lohan, Sean Penn, Sean Bean]

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[MCU/Marvel movies - NOT the comics]

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[ ----- SPOILERY SECRETS AHEAD ----- ]

10. [SPOILERS for Spartacus War of the Damned]

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11. [SPOILERS for Dangan Ronpa]

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12. [SPOILERS for The Walking Dead]

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13. [SPOILERS for House MD]

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[ ----- TRIGGERY SECRETS AHEAD ----- ]

14. [WARNING for rape]

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15. [WARNING for abuse]

[the beatles]

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 000 secrets from Secret Submission Post #326.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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Somewhat related to the thread we had yesterday, but I thought that line of thinking died in the '90s. The average age of a console gamer has been 30+ for a decade now. The average age of a PC gamer is over 40. Video games are now, in a large part, by adults, for adults, and while a lot of shitty parents let their kids play them anyway many are very clearly not intended for them.

So what gives with all of the "I feel like I'm an adult now games are a waste of time" comments? Don't you have any other hobbies? Those are a waste of time, too. I hike, jog, dive, and watch televised sporting events. I'm also here. On F!S. None of these things are furthering my career or making me money. All of these things allow me to socialize, meet, and network with others. How are those any different from gaming?

I think it's pretty natural for people's interests to change as they change and grow and mature, in a lot of different ways, and so it's not surprising that some people will get less interested in games as they grow older. And I think that's really all that's happening here - people are changing and things that used to interest them don't any more. I think maybe some people say it's a thing about maturity but people say a lot of things. Just, you know, the way people are.

Yeah fair enough, but what I don't get is the "wasting time" bit. I mean, you're on f!s for christ's sake, just what exactly do you think you're doing right now?

They don't enjoy video games as much anymore, but they still involve post-post-postin' away on the Internet. Therefore, they don't get enjoyment out of video games, so they're not getting anything out of them, so they're a waste of time. Because using time to play video games you don't enjoy instead of doing something enjoyable like f!s or whatever is wasting time.

Again, doesn't have to be more complex than that.

I'm not sure that's entirely true. While it's true peoples' interests change as they grow older, to completely dismiss video games as "childish" reeks of elitism or trying too hard to appear like grownups. It's one thing to say "oh, I'm not into games anymore," it's another thing entire to say "video games are for kids, what are you, 12?"

Edited 2013-04-05 23:57 (UTC)

Re: Video games are for kids?

(Anonymous) - 2013-04-05 23:58 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Video games are for kids?

dethtoll - 2013-04-05 23:59 (UTC) - Expand

Whenever I see people saying video games are for kids etc, it's usually safe to assume it's kids saying it. Same with the kids who are shocked and appalled at people over 30 in fandom. Or online anywhere. Because apparently all your hobbies and interests die when you hit a certain age. Kids these days!

Far from me to go pop-psych about this, but I don't think it's entirely unrelated that the majority of people I see taking this approach are young twenty somethings in a shitty economy who've been denied all the traditional markers of reaching maturity.

That's an interesting insight. I'd never thought about it that way before. My anecdata seems to fit: I've been relatively successful in my own career and managed to get many of those traditional markers of adulthood and oooohhhh boooy do I ever still love me some vidya games.

But that is just anecdata, of course. I know many people who haven't been who still love them, too.

I've been denied a lot of these markers and I've had a pretty confusing time of it ever since I graduated high school. I'm turning 25 in two months and I still feel like I'm 19 or something. But at the same time, I can recognize that my inexperience with handling adulthood has nothing to do with my interests and hobbies. I mean, my involvement in fandom has waned, but mostly because it had to - I don't have the time and energy to devote to that anymore. But I still watch shows and enjoy them, and I enjoy video games, and quite frankly, I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I didn't have these things. On the other hand, I don't think I'm "too old" for video games so much as I simply wish I was younger and had more time and disposable income for video games.

It's confusing. But hey, if people have found something more enjoyable to do with their time, I'm not gonna judge them. So it'd be nice if they stopped judging those of us who haven't.

I don't see people saying video games are for kids that much, honestly. :/ I see "video games are for man children" pretty frequently, though, so there's probably still some "you're too old for those" stigma attached to it.

"video games are for man children" = "video games are for children, only men who have not grown up yet are still playing them"

Same thing, different wording. So yeah, you do see people saying that.

There was a lot of "I'm too old for them/too much of an adult for them" on yesterday's thread, though.

...But yeah you're right, I hate the "man children" comments even more. Fantastic! Gender a hobby to belittle men with a pastime no less productive than, say, shopping or colouring your nails, and erase already-marginalized female gamers at the same time! Right on, sister!

No, wait, go fuck yourself.

This comment is earthshakingly true.

"Critics who treat 'adult' as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."

God, I agree with the point, but... Jesus Christ, freaking CS Lewis. I can't stand that guy.

Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

Eh, as long as something exists there will be people who judge those who like the thing that exists. Saying something, "is for children" is just an easy way to judge someone.

With video games I'm just kind of ticked that the judging isn't consistent. "It's for children." "It's a murder simulator." "It's only for boys." "It's for people with low attention spans." Like, some of these things can't overlap. For example, either they're murder simulators or they're for children. Pick one.

All I'm asking is that they be consistent in their stupid judging.

I think the hysteria surrounding FPS games is that they are murder simulators for children. Murder simulators for adults, well, that's just fine and dandy. And there's a grain of truth to that: modern military shooters are practically GI Joe for the modern age to the young boys who play them, but the adults who play them are playing them for different, entirely grown up reasons: stress relief being chief among them.

That said I judge people who judge people for playing games pretty hard. They'd better not have any hobbies in that case. Their lives should consist entirely of working, investing, cleaning the house, and childcare. If they do.... well, uh, good job Most Boring Person Alive, at least you're not a hypocrite.

That's true. I've just also heard about people complaining about it because they feel it could teach adult who are unstable how to use guns. Then those adults will then use the knowledge to go shoot people in real life. I'm just thinking of a few news reports I was listening to recently, they kept mentioning the video games the killers played.

Technically cleaning the house could be considered a hobby. So they better not do that either.

It really amazes me that the "video games teach you to shoot" argument continues to survive. That's like saying playing Guitar Hero will teach you to play guitar, only even stupider because controllers don't even look like a damn gun.

Re: Video games are for kids?

forgottenjester - 2013-04-06 00:53 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Video games are for kids?

ariakas - 2013-04-06 01:05 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Video games are for kids?

forgottenjester - 2013-04-06 01:14 (UTC) - Expand

News reports involving shooters nowadays will almost always talk about the (invariably FPS) video games that said shooters were playing. What they don't mention is how many people play those games and aren't planning on even owning a gun, much less shooting somebody, or what other games that aren't gun-related the shooters were playing. It's a false correlation - you may as well argue that cell phones or soda were a factor in their killing spree.

Re: Video games are for kids?

forgottenjester - 2013-04-06 01:21 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Video games are for kids?

ariakas - 2013-04-06 02:43 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Video games are for kids?

cassandraoftroy - 2013-04-06 10:21 (UTC) - Expand

There are plenty of people around whose lives do consist of working, childcare, caring for their homes, and trying to plan for the future. They're lucky to have enough time to sleep. The idea that they're boring for not having hobbies--or that hobbies are what makes your life interesting, not your work or your home or family--is pretty pathetic, and fairly juvenile.

Re: Video games are for kids?

ariakas - 2013-04-07 02:40 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Video games are for kids?

(Anonymous) - 2013-04-07 03:14 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Video games are for kids?

ariakas - 2013-04-07 03:18 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Video games are for kids?

(Anonymous) - 2013-04-07 06:45 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Video games are for kids?

ariakas - 2013-04-07 06:49 (UTC) - Expand

Some games are no longer worth my time because it's more valuable, y'know? So the less time I have, the harder it is to be able to sit down and play as much as I'd like...so in my case, that's kind of how they're a waste of time?

I just don't have the time for them anymore, my free time is filled with residul tired so I just...read books, browse internet, things with no real mental effort.

Which makes me so damn upset that I'm too tired to play some games.

I rarely ever hear this argument anymore, but when I do I just tune the fuck out. Clearly they haven't been following the majority of games for the past several years, and their opinion on anything gaming is invalid. I don't have time for that~

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