How do your friends and family react to you playing games?

Feels like it's been a while since we've had one of these threads...

We used to talk about the Playstation breaking ground in terms of making gaming more mainstream and 'acceptable', and now in these post-Wii days (which many would say was another breakthrough), and with Xbox and Playstation brands being household names, have you noticed a difference in how people react when you say you play games, or have you seen people who'd never played them previously begin to play games? I guess we should mention mobile gaming as well, and the fact that huge numbers of people who wouldn't have ever bought a console or PC will happily play games on their phone or tablet (but do they treat that as different to playing on a console/PC?).

Personally speaking my parents still seem bemused by the whole idea of games, but they never question it (unlike when I was a teenager and they'd ask me why I was wasting my time, or - while I was playing Zelda - why a teenage boy would want to play a game with fairies in it :slol:

). My brother has no interest in them, despite us playing a few co-op games when we were younger or him getting quite attached to certain games I had (Perfect Dark, Unreal Tournament, Majora's Mask, etc), but he underdstands why I enjoy them.

My friends broadly fall into three camps: those who play games regularly like me, those who play FIFA and pretty much nothing else, and those who actively mock me and still see it as something only a child does (they also take the piss because I like Pixar films

). I haven't seen much change in behaviour or attitudes amongst my friends or family at all really, and I guess the only difference is a few more of them might play FIFA, COD or GTA (but I don't think I'd catch them playing anything else).

What's your experience, and how have things changed (if at all)?

Pretty much how you describe. Though I am still reluctant to tell people I enjoy gaming just because of that negative stereotype. It always catches me by surprise when I found out someone plays and I didn't know. I think there are a lot more closet gamers out there who still aren't ready to come out to to their friends and family.

People still thinks it's for kids which irritates me. Just try explaining that it generates more money than Hollywood or the music industry.

And I was looking through my gaming collection and 80% are rated 15 or 18, so how can it still be viewed as a kids hobby!

I usually reply with: “well you watch soaps, right?”

*family member nods*

“It’s a load of shite but you don’t see me going on about it in your face. So bugger off back to Waterford.”

“But I’m not from Waterford.”

“You are so! Bugger off back there!”

I pretty much just say "I like video games" and it doesn't really go further from there unless they do too. It's hard to argue with that.

I try not to evangelise hobbies, everyone has some gooseberry fool that's really boring to anyone else.

I was quite lucky; my dad was in IT in various ways for most of my childhood so helped me build my first pc etc and let me play the original gta and carmageddon, that kind of thing.

I was very much in the nerd group at school who played 40k etc so videogames were fairly normal subject matters for conversation. Fortunately in my adult life my gf is a recovered wow player who likes the visuals and stories of games when they're interesting but not so much the mechanical dexterity required. Our collective friends range in games literacy and knowledge but have a baseline nerdiness which definitely helps.

I've worked for a market research company who did consumer intelligence reports for big publishers on the games industry and if it ever comes up negatively i mention that i've spoken at 2 academic conferences about military narrative framing in post-9/11 games; that normally silences most critics.

Mum and dad don't really understand. I've tried to get them to, but it's never stuck. Amusingly, the closest my dad ever got to enjoying a game was Mass Effect 1.

My brother thinks games are either cool (GTA, FIFA) or for nerds (everything else) so obviously thinks I'm a massive drongo for having them as a hobby.

Apart from when I was a kid I've only really had a handful of close friends that were as into games as I am. I've heard all the typical comments like "they're just for kids", "what do you get out of it?", "you're wasting your time" or "you need to get out more" and I think many of them could be leveled against any hobby or interest.

As for family I used to play a lot of co-op arcade games with my dad when I was a kid and he used to play on my Atari ST quite a bit but the closest my mam ever got to video games was Beehive Bedlam on Sky. My younger brother on the other hand is kind of obsessed with them more so than I've ever been. He's disabled and can't (more like won't) get a job so games take up just about every waking hour for him which even I think is unhealthy and would say he needs to get out more.

Pah most males my age play them or understand them, females sometimes don't. But they waste all their time on other menial shite so swings and roundabouts. I don't particularly talk about it as one of my main hobbies, but will happily say I played a game whilst chilling on the weekend etc....to be honest though, its a rarity these days. I've been on leave the past week or two and have played RE 7 a lot, but this is unusual behaviour for me.

I tend to talk little about my fondness for videogaming as, being a single bloke in my 40s, the reception isn’t usually positive. None of my mates play videogames. My brother plays a little bit; he buys two or maybe three games a year and usually plays them to completion.

I sometimes wonder if I’ll ever stop playing games. I can’t imagine dropping out of the scene entirely but I may get to a point where I don’t have such a high level of interest. Even now, I spend more time reading and watching vids about games then I do actually playing them.

The vast majority of my time spent chatting about gaming is here in GRcade :toot:

.

If I'm talking to someone new about my interests it's always mentioned in a self deprecating manner. Y'know, 'I'm a massive nerd lol'. I don't know why, I'm not ashamed of my hobby really, I just know some folk are a bit snobby about it and it makes me defensive.

The people I know already and my family are totally fine with it. Most of them play videogames in some form.

My family have no bones with it, it's just something I've always done and something they encouraged when I was a child.

My wife doesn't like it when I get annoyed with a game and verbalise my feelings but otherwise has no problems and occasionally likes playing games with me.

My family were never really too fussed apart from playing too much, which applies to any hobby. They used to come out with things like "Don't plug that in it'll break the TV" or "You'll get square eyes", to stop me using the main TV in the living room, though. Now my girlfriend doesn't really give a toss how much I play.

I almost wish games could go back to being a nerdy subculture. Gamers these days are largely despicable cretins.

The missus hates me playing games but has no problem watching gooseberry fool like Master Meff and Sunday CuntBrunch and will even watch repeats of said wankery. I mean come on FFS :slol:

It astonishes me how non-gamers fail to differentiate the difference between sitting there watching gooseberry fool after gooseberry fool (And I've no real interest in TV really apart from series I watch and I download them or use Now TV) or sitting there engaging yourself in a game and actually using your strawberry floating brain.

My family know they can't condescend to me about games. If they try, I just remind them that at least I'm not my cousin, who got a criminal record for buggering a pigeon.

KjGarly wrote:It astonishes me how non-gamers fail to differentiate the difference between sitting there watching gooseberry fool after gooseberry fool

This. The other day I overheard this American girl whining about how her boyfriend spends hours playing games, then she went on to say "I mean, I like spend hours on Facebook and Instagram, but playing games is just so juvenile". I could have sworn it was a setup just to annoy me.

rinks wrote:My family know they can't condescend to me about games. If they try, I just remind them that at least I'm not my cousin, who got a criminal record for buggering a pigeon.

If you're playing that card I guess you could make yourself look good in a hell of a lot of situations.

shadow202 wrote:
rinks wrote:My family know they can't condescend to me about games. If they try, I just remind them that at least I'm not my cousin, who got a criminal record for buggering a pigeon.
If you're playing that card I guess you could make yourself look good in a hell of a lot of situations.

Totally. As soon as that happened, I basically stopped making any effort in life whatsoever. Working out OK so far.

rinks wrote:
shadow202 wrote:
rinks wrote:My family know they can't condescend to me about games. If they try, I just remind them that at least I'm not my cousin, who got a criminal record for buggering a pigeon.
If you're playing that card I guess you could make yourself look good in a hell of a lot of situations.

Totally. As soon as that happened, I basically stopped making any effort in life whatsoever. Working out OK so far.

Fair play, full cruise control, I like it.

As I’m 50 most of my family and people I bother with just think I’m a childish twat. I like Chupa Chup lollipops as well which probably reinforces the stereotype.

I don't think I could properly be friends with someone who would take the piss out of me for playing games. More or less everyone I know is a nerd in some respect, and the vast majority at least likes the mainstream stuff like Pokemon or all that Pro Halo Call of Football: Madden Warfare Manager 2017 nonsense on the Xbox (

). My partner is more of a literature nerd than games, but likes Zelda and Mario.

There's a guy in the office who once told me I would "grow out of it" but literally everyone else in the room is a gamer so I think he knows he's outnumbered!

How do your friends and family react to you playing games?

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