The Infantilisation of Gaming

[RooksBailey]

I am so gratified to read this from Gratuitous Space Battles' dev, Cliff Harris:

http://positech.co.uk/cliffsblog/201...ng-journalism/

I'm 45 years old. I have a bald spot, own slippers and have a pension. I play games, and so do a LOT of people my age, and a bit younger. Pretty much everywhere, everyone treats me like an adult. When I read a book or magazine, it treats me like an adult, ditto for most websites I visit, or events I go to. Except when any of those involve games. When it's games related, suddenly I am targeted as though I'm a horny and stupid 13 year old boy who wants to shout a lot and say '****' because mom isn't watching. This hasn't been something that appeals to me for about THIRTY YEARS.

...

Lets face facts, gaming will NEVER be taken seriously until it sheds this infantile image. Tax-breaks for the gaming industry? how do you make that argument to a politician my age (or older) when a quick search online for interviews with game developers shows them being quizzed by embarrassing kidults in bandanas holding skateboards saying DUDE and **** at every opportunity? You think that appeals to anyone who is in their forties? It's not just journalists. even the head people at gaming divisions for Microsoft and Sony have the tendency to start saying stupid dumb things and doing high fives on stage the minute they talk about games.

Some games are deliberately immature and silly and aimed at kids. Some aren't. All of them get reviewed by people who think they are making adverts for nerf guns. Please grow up, it is acutely EMBARRASSING to see 30+, or 40+ men pretending to be 'down with tha kidz'. The next time you are posting a video review of a game, see if you can manage it without adopting a stupid voice, and without swearing. If people can review books and movies in a normal voice without screaming and making knob jokes, I theorize the same can be done for games.

Amen, brother! With the exception of the fine company here and a few other places, sometimes I feel like the only mature guy still involved with the hobby!  This is an issue that has been stuck in my craw for so long that I actually built my blog around the idea!

Come on guys!  Grow up already!   ;D

[Huw the Poo]

Link that works ;)

It's an amusing blog entry but I can't say I've really noticed what Cliff's talking about - very possibly because I only read a select few gaming-related websites to begin with.  I'm also so utterly immune to swearing that I don't notice that, either.

Can anyone post some particularly egregious examples?  Which websites are the main offenders?

[undercovergeek]

huw, as Rome II neared completion there were some embarassing conversations on online between developer and interviewer with 'woooohooooos', 'dude thats frikking awesome' and high 5s

lots of footage from E3 show overly-tartazined journalists talking to developers like its a who can be the most annoying c*** competition

ill try and find actual footage

[Nefaro]

huw, as Rome II neared completion there were some embarassing conversations on online between developer and interviewer with 'woooohooooos', 'dude thats frikking awesome' and high 5s

lots of footage from E3 show overly-tartazined journalists talking to developers like its a who can be the most annoying c*** competition

ill try and find actual footage

I've definitely seen some of this goofy shit and thought it was rather stupid in what otherwise should've been a professional interview or show.

However, I still say "****" and enjoy a good "knob joke" on occasion.  It's the Peter Pan Syndrome.

[undercovergeek]

no MP session is complete without a knob joke, but thats between the gamers

under the public eye id like to see it treated with a bit more gravitas but it has been the same way sice i was a kid - we had a programme over here in the 80s called Gamesmaster that had to include a wacky presenter in flowery shirt

Since then any footage ive ever seen has, as Rooks mentioned, had to allude to the skate board bandanna crowd - but then again thats where the money is i suppose. Us old gits buy one game and play it for 10 years where the console kiddies want a new one every 2 weeks (im excluding JD, greybriar, Gus and Jarhead here obviously  :P)

[Nefaro]

Us old gits buy one game and play it for 10 years where the console kiddies want a new one every 2 weeks (im excluding JD, greybriar, Gus and Jarhead here obviously  :P)

I dunno.  There are many more of us here who fit that description.  ^-^

[Gusington]

I don't think the infant issue is that bad, probably for the same reason posted above...I ignore that sort of thing mostly. That said, my knob jokes are premium quality.

[MengJiao]

I don't think the infant issue is that bad, probably for the same reason posted above...I ignore that sort of thing mostly. That said, my knob jokes are premium quality.

  Freud of course long ago covered this territory and summed it up with, "Real Pleasures are always infantile."  Certainly a big part of my gaming experience is exactly a quest in search of infantile gratifications of various kinds: shiny things, strange noises, horribly funny old relatives to outwit :-\ (that would be the Confederate Army).  Sure, I try to maintain some kind of ironic distance from my compulsive savoring of various forms of infantile folly, but a good laugh is what I usually end up with.   :-\

[Gusington]

Like knob jokes.

[Sir Slash]

I think a lot of people are afraid to have fun just because they don't want to be considered child-like and consequently miss much in life and aren't fun to be around. As long as we are able to act a little like children, I think it'll keep a lot of the Real Rectums away from us. Remember your Mr. Spock, "The more complex the mind, the greater the need for play". Having said that I always try to generally act like an adult except in the presence of great Boobs. My Kryptonite. What can I say?

[undercovergeek]

10 posts from OP to boobs

good or bad?

[BanzaiCat]

You guys can do better than that.

I think the average is 6:1. Six posts to one pair of bewbs.

[MengJiao]

l

I think a lot of people are afraid to have fun just because they don't want to be considered child-like and consequently miss much in life and aren't fun to be around. As long as we are able to act a little like children, I think it'll keep a lot of the Real Rectums away from us. Remember your Mr. Spock, "The more complex the mind, the greater the need for play". Having said that I always try to generally act like an adult except in the presence of great Boobs. My Kryptonite. What can I say?

  Or the Cat in the Hat:  "Look at me, look at me now!  It is fun to have fun, but you have to know how!"

  Or Arthur C. Clark: "The more like the Cat in the Hat an advanced technology is, the more Boobs will appear at the last minute in any narrative.  I have revised all of my fiction -- now that I am in Heaven -- to include more Boobs."

  Or Thomas Jefferson ( Rawlick, Oklahoma, July 21st, 1818 AD ) : "A Boob big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take all you've got."

[Sir Slash]

I'm with Clarke. 8)

[Johnnie]

I know I am asking for it, but what is a "knob joke?"