No Weekly Lagout this week. My heart and thoughts go out to the victims, and families of the victims of the tragedy in CT.
But I just want to say, Monsters are made, not born. There’s something amiss with things, because this crap didn’t happen when I was a kid, bad shit might of happened, but the frequency of it has gone up.
From the off, I’d like to state that the following is categorically not an attack oncasual gamers, bandwagon-jumper-on-errs, or people who wear thick-rimmed glasses without any prescription in the lenses.
Nor will it be a discussion on where the ‘cool’ line is drawn. Are you only a real gamer if you can remember the theme tune to New Zealand Story without looking it up on YouTube? Are you just a dumb poser if you don’t know what the hell New Zealand Story even is? Who the hell cares, man? We’re not at high school anymore.
But I’m sure the very recent (and very sudden) culture shift hasn’t gone unnoticed.
For the first time in history, it’s apparently now cool to be a geek.
But the question is, should the dudes who were already here get defensive?
Pre-Packaged Sexy
The global value of the video games industry has surged over the last decade, now hovering somewhere around the $70bn mark. Make no mistake, the industry has always been worth a dime or two (even in the Atari home console days), but for the first few decades the money only ever circulated between those who made games and those who played them. Maybe a bit of merchandizing too, but whatever.
All of a sudden, gaming and all the nerdy associations which go with it are now heralded as a fashion statement, and people buy into fashion statements. Before you know it, some savvy marketer realizes this and starts cashing in on it, selling a lot of pointless crap that he doesn’t understand to a group of people with more money than personality.
Can’t be angry at the marketers. Their business is to make money, not care about gaming culture. But can we be angry at the vapid consumers who are buying into the culture only because it’s now deemed acceptable?
Kinda. But being irritated by it isn’t the same as hating all the new fans who suddenly like Band X because you’ve been following them since ’82.
The difference is, nobody treated you like a social outcast for liking Band X for thirty years, then all of a sudden agreed the band is awesome after all.
So that’s an annoying aspect to the whole ‘geeks are cool’ thing of late. I’m not saying that growing up as a nerd is anywhere near the worst stigma at the puberty party, but it’s a bit rich that we had to almost seem ashamed of such an innocent hobby for so many years only for everyone to join the road after we’ve paved it.
But the Hipsters Might Cure Cancer. Seriously.
What? Yes, I did just say that. Stick with this as we move over to the flip-side.
Firstly, the reason why it’s a bit puerile and childish to hate your favorite indy band as soon as they become mainstream is because you’re supposed to want them to succeed. You haven’t been supporting them all these years with the hopes that they can’t fill out anything more than a small club or buy decent coke, have you?
A similar principle could be argued for the explosion in gaming, minus the drugs (although playing Guild Wars on mushrooms is one hell of an experience). Gaming is now accepted as a social experience, as an art form; already the shrill accusations that games turn you into a school-shootin’ psychopath are becoming more infrequent and sounding sillier by the day. If the price of having this brilliant art form accepted by – and accessible to – the masses is having some hipsters on board who claim to play games to look ‘alternative’, then I’m all for it.
Without the glorification of geekdom, we almost certainly wouldn’t see the likes of Felicia Day making a mainstream success of herself, and that’s not the kind of world I want to live in. Remember: for every wannabe ‘gamer girl’ who puts on some thick-rimmed glasses, an actual hot girl who genuinely loves WoW just came out of her basement.
The Knock-On Effect
Taking things one step further, the more society embraces nerdy pursuits as being ‘sexy’ (whatever that means), the more society benefits. Compare and contrast Bill Gates’ image in the 90s, with Steve Jobs’ image in the 21st century.
The acerbic web writer Maddox ruthlessly picked apart the ‘geeks are sexy’ thing in an article last month. While his schtick has always been to go a bit over the top, and he talks about science rather than gaming, he does hit the nail on the head and I’ve even borrowed a couple of his observations here.
But I think he’s missing the bigger picture.
This isn’t about protecting hobbies and interests. If gaming is embraced, it puts a lot of money into the industry. This money creates the kind of jobs out-of-work creatives would kill to get into. It fuels interest and puts bums on seats at places such as the NYFA game design school. In turn, it creates better games.
And outside of gaming, this glorification of intellectual pursuits can by a boon to the science and technology sectors, to such an extent that I wouldn’t be surprised if someone who got into biochemistry after Portal left a big impression on her went on to cure cancer.
Honestly. It’s just a numbers game – someone is going to do it, so why not a newly-transformed geek?
So let’s welcome everyone, old and new, into gaming. Let’s get more people into programming and app development and science.
But just not like this…
… Good lord, not like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g032MPrSjFA
Do you agree with my irrefutable logic, or do you still think get irate at hipsters jumping on the game bandwagon? Either way, leave a comment below. Fiiiiiiight!
Are going out to the people in the Northeast braving Hurricane Sandy. Good Luck, and Be Safe
High Latency Living –
Well going to do some more farming for World of Warcraft MoP. Getting excited for GW2 a little, we’ll see how that goes, but my visions of becoming a Viking Warrior are becoming closer. Also this weekend the developers over at Mechanists City of Steam invited me to take a look, thanks to the Noisy Rogue.
High Latency Love –
A facebook friend of mine wrote an article about Women in FPS’s…Check it out.
Rowan and Sctrz wrote a poll, why don’t you fill it out…here
A Twitter Friend of mine needs help… Sign This.
Show them all some High Latency Love!!
High Latency Laugh –
Mist of Panderia Trailer Part 2
With that…
MY PING SUCKS, AND I’M A FALLING LEAF!!
I thought to give you another fun post. I have been labelled everything from chauvinistic to mysogistic, and everything in between. That is so untrue I firmly believe there are some things women do, that simply men can not match.
1. Take Pictures of Themselves – Women when they take a picture of themselves, whether doing the arm stretch with the phone, or in a mirror it always looks good to really good. When Men do it we either look like a creep, or a douchebag a la Pauly D.
2. Cosplay – Seems to me most women go that extra mile when they Cosplay, Men seem to me half assing it. Like we’ll just put this shit together. Well at least I hope those are women.
3. Jedi Mind Tricks – Any guy who finds himself hunting for some Chocolate Brownie Ice Cream in the middle of the night, at the 3rd 7-11 he went to knows what I mean by this. From tears to puppy dog eyes, us men from time to time think to ourselves. “What the hell just happened?”
4. Memory for Details – I don’t know if Men just don’t care what you wore on our first date, or something is physically wrong with our memory or the way it works. Women have the most uncanny sense to remember miniscule things. Like when I use to get into arguments with my ex-girlfriend, she would go, “Remember what you said September 30, 2011″ I was like…”Uhm…No”
5. Multi-Task – Most Women are awesome multi-taskers. I know a girl who would do her homework, watch her TV shows, talk on the phone all at the same time. Just the thought processes of a girls mind boggle me, like I could be talking about what we should have for dinner, all of a sudden my ex would look up, and go “I think you need some drapes in here” I would just give her a look like a lost puppy, “Huh?”
So there you have it, some things I believe women are better at then men.
First I love beating a dead horse, not a real horse, I just like dissecting a topic, and analyzing it alot.
So the Bossy Pally made a post about Identity, and Self Identity. In it she made a reference to an older post from a different blogger the Noisy Rogue, she used it as a reference of escapism. That this blogger was escaping the crucible of his life by using games. Though the post was more pointed at feminists, and used to slander them almost. It basically said you come to my house, you play by my rules. Plus NPR is doing a show on it as well. It made me think, “Has things gotten better?”
A House Divided…
As of March, I see feminism again becomes a topic among some of my fellow bloggers. This time Effraeti stand’s up and says she is not a feminist. After reading her post, I found myself agreeing with ALOT of what she said. Unfortunately the Feminists did not, and they launched an offensive. These feminists crying they are oppressed by society, and that they want to be treated equally, even when they separate themselves by hate rhetoric, and toss someone who wants more equality under the bus. As a the former president Abe Lincoln once stated, “A house divided, can not stand” . As long as Feminists continue to keep everyone at arm’s length with hate, and not try to embrace their female sisters who don’t subscribe to their hateful rhetoric, they will not be taken for serious.
Ack…Ack…A…Dack
There was a Flinstones episode where Betty, and Wilma want to see what the Boys do at their lodge, and to get in they have to say the password…”Ack, Ack, A Dack” I noticed that over my lifetime, that women always want to break into male oriented things, then when their in, demand things become more girlie. When a girlfriend comes into my male dominated house first thing they do is buying throw pillows, and scented candles. Men don’t have this need to be a part of anything female oriented, well most straight men I know. We don’t go into an Oprahs Bookclub, and demand we read Vince Lombardi’s book. (I’ll wait why the women google that) When we resist, we are being horribly male. Yes gaming is male dominated, what gives you the right to demand anything? Because you’re female, you have the right not to be looked down upon by us males until you prove yourself. In male culture, that’s what we do on a daily basis, we prove ourselves. Feminists love to mention privilege, I don’t think males have privilege, we have our own trials and tribulations, and your right we may have some privileges, but you as a female have a different set of privileges.
Where I let the little head, do the thinking for the big head…
I was reading over my thoughts (sadly empowered fire is gone, another arch enemy gone ) over this subject from a couple years ago, and I noticed it hasn’t changed alot. I feel we all have our problems, whether you’re a male, or female. We all have those expectations placed on us, it’s up to us to either live up to those, or break the mold so to speak. Now I am not the same man I was 2 years ago, I think I’ve become more open…well a little bit more. I do believe we live in a violent culture, and that we as humans are nothing more than animals with a thin veneer we call civility to mask our baser instincts. I have to illusions of what, or who I am. Let me put it this way, if we we’re alone on a desert island, and it was a choice between you, or me…who do you think is going to be dinner?
Is it getting better?
I posed that question to the Female Twitterati (What I call people who use Twitter), and some of them responded it really hasn’t, but the ability to discuss it has become more open. I think it’s a positive move. In spite of my caveman, phallic centric, sexist views, I really do believe in about 100 years from now things will be much different. If we get past 2012, those damn Mayan soothsayers, with all the phyto estrogens in our soy products, we’re all going to hermaphrodites. For right now though, we still have to live with each other, let’s try to play nice in the sandbox.
High Latency Living –
Just PvPing in WoW, actually enjoying it, but thinking what my future plans are with GW2 coming out in a couple months.
High Latency Love –
Got a couple new blogs on the blog roll…TLDR, and Malefic Incantations…check them out.
Any Guild Wars 2 specific blogs want to get on my blog roll let me know.
High Latency Laughs. –
With that…
MY PING SUCKS, AND I’M OUT OF HERE SUCKAS!
I kind of want to clear something up, even though I wave my red blooded American Hetero Male Flag like it’s going out of business, I in no way condone mistreatment of others.
When I was fresh out of High School, I went to work at a quick oil change place. This place was filled with more scum, and villiany then the Catina in Star Wars. Here I met “Teddy”. Teddy was a unique man, in respects I don’t know if he was a hippy per se, or just really high all the time. The first time I met Teddy, he looks me in the eye and goes, “You can be whoever you want to be, you want to take that last piece of pizza, you take it”
The reason I bring that up. I recently came across a post about Proudmore Pride, and I was thrown back a notch. I didn’t think events like this still occured in WoW. Oh I remember the heyday of WoW there were huge events. It kind of warmed my heart a bit to see it.
As I dug deeper into Ironyca’s blog I found this post. Tell you the truth I find the whole subject of gender, and gender roles facsinating. When I say I am a man. What does that mean? What does it mean to be a man? On the flip side of the coin what does life look like from the other side. In virtual world’s you get to change your perspective, and I delved into that myself. To me life is perspective, and when you change your perspective of things, you change your life.
Here’s the thing if you fill your life with hate or prejudice you will as even the bible says, “Reap what you sew”. So when I say I am a man, my Dad once told me, “As a man you must do the right thing, even when the right thing isn’t popular”. Found out later he stole that, but I don’t care I’m still giving the old man credit.
The right thing is whether you’re a women, a gay, a lesbian, and yes even a role-player. I may not agree with you, I might not like what you say, but I will keep an open mind, and not judge you, for even Jesus said, “He without sin, cast the first stone” when those people were judging the harlot, and folks I have a shit ton of sins. Here’s the payoff keep an open mind, and who knows one day you might have your perspective changed, and then your life will change.
As for my friend Teddy, he passed away hiking in Alaska when he fell and hit his head on a rock, and I’ll miss that man because he wise beyond his years, and he could play spoons like none other.
I’m not one of those people who say they hate World of Warcraft so much they will never be back. Do I like the path Blizzard took, No not really. Do I hate the game? No, there are some aspects I still really enjoy. SWTOR is kind of losing it’s luster to me, and Diablo is fun, but I can’t play for huge amount of time. So when my guildies of old (I’ve been playing with these peeps for over 10 years) planned to head back to WoW, I was down…like a clown. Back in the old days I use to play a healer first in Dark Ages of Camelot, then a brief tour of duty as a priest in World of Warcraft. Until I got burnt the hell out, that was like 7-8 years ago, I havent really seriously healed since then, sure I dabbled hear or there, but nothing serious until now.My guildies of old needed a healer, so I decided to go back to my role of healing bitch.
I’m glad we went Horde, I love the Horde, I played Horde for most of my WoW career. There is a certain mentality that is there that just isn’t there with the alliance. It’s not there as much as it use to be, back in the Vanilla days it really meant something that you played Horde, there was a brotherhood there of sorts. That attitude still lingers about sometimes, and it’s refreshing…..but with the Horde when things go wrong, they go horribly wrong. We start to turn on each other, and bicker it’s really horrible, but sometimes it’s like a train wreck I can’t turn away. ,
So my pally is a tanking Pally, and to make him into a healing pally, i bought some gear what I could, but i might as well be wearing wet towels. Lo and behold it’s Alterac Valley weekend, which meant I wouldn’t be poorly geared that much longer. I got 4/5 of my pvp healing set. Tonight I’m hoping to really rock it, and get my helm, weapon, and shield. even try for some feet. That way all i have to worry about is some trinkets, and a relic.
As for healing I’m no slouch, some of the old healer is left in me, just have to be more aware situational, and one thing I forgot. Don’t lead the charge, you suck at doing damage. I was laughing as I was charging for Van, all of a sudden I found myself in the Alliance base with nobody around….DOH! Bottomline I’m having a bit of fun again in World of Warcraft, and looking forward to working on a warlock, and making some gold again, which I already started that ball rolling. Oh and any Healing Pallies want to toss me a few tips feel free to leave them here.
High Latency Living –
Well alot going on today…
First off Adam “MCA” Yauch of the Beastie Boys died today, I usually don’t post this stuff, but the Beastie Boys were a huge part of the fabric of my life. He was only 47. Last week also lost a dear friend to liver failure, he was only 32. He was a great guy, he will be missed.
Today is May the 4th, official Star Wars Day. In honor of that I started a Sith Inquisitor, a new friend invited me to their server of Ebon Hawk, I took them up on it. One of the things I enjoy doing is starting fresh on a new server. I got to say though I’m really liking the class, but don’t know if I should go Sorcerer, or Assassin. I want to be good dps’er at PvP, but I hear about Sorc’s doing Heroics by themeselves which is way cool. I’ll have to do some research.
Wondering when the next GW2 Beta will be…hopefully soon.
High Latency Love
Gonna give some love to Psynister for some SWTOR Sorceror Guides
NBI – This month I’m going to be picking 3 sites from the NBI Forums, and giving them some love every week.
Ocho from Casual Aggro looks like he’s started with a full tank of steam, and is looking good.
Zellviren is doing a Protection Warrior blog, since I played one in the days of old, I wish Zell the best of luck.
MMO Compendium looks hot, check it out.
Youngblood has a Onion type blog up called The Poisoned Mushroom.
I’m putting these blogs up in my blogroll feel free to check them out
High Latency Laugh:
May the 4th be with you…here’s a little Jedi Cat Fight.
With that…
MY PING SUCKS, AND I AM OUT OF HERE
A High Latency Life 