Are gamers really that pathetic?

[Wormwood]

It's like the goats at the petting zoo complaining about the hand that holds the pellets.

Sorry, ladies, you can wash off the cooties after you cash your check. Until then, just look pretty and deal with it.

Love, Wormwood (happily married, but showin' a little love for my single-guy bruddas out there)

 

[Emiricol]

I think it's conventions. I started gaming when I was 10, but socially I sure didn't suffer at all in school or in my adult life (not that I advertised that I was a gamer). I've never been to a game Con, though, so I'm just guessing, based off my own viewpoint on it.

 

[Clint]

That model (let's say) just had her picture taken hundreds of times in one day solely because some gamers want to be photographed with an attractive woman. For these gamers, such an event is special in some way. What does that say to the model? I'm not judging it; but picture the situation from her point of view.

I imagine a model's response would be similar after a video game con, sci fi con, or any other show where random boys/guys can approach a model and ask for a picture.

-Clint

 

[Laurel]

I have a feeling this is just a case of media slanting things... there are lots of gamers who aren't like this. And even if they don;t remeber them the girls probably met quite a few normal people male and female.
I also think this may be a case of reporter asking "What was wierd?" or "What do you remember?" and the above remarks may seem like they would bring more attention then a 'they were normal' answer.

I do know there are some gamers like those discribed in the article, but I don't think they total or even make up most of the players out there no. And that may just make them the memorable people to those girls.

I also want to add that for some GenCon puts them in a not so normal mind set... and may alter actions, not the girls themselves but the whole convention.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

I am socially maladjusted and I usually do not shake when talking to a girl. Granted they are not pathetic just because they are not the most social people you have ver met.

 

[Incenjucar]

*shrugs*

It can't be worse than the furry convention I went to; then again, people there tended to touch like a compulsion (ever seen people petting a guy in a collar in public? ever seen a girl calling out 'yerf!' to nobody in particular? I have.).

Some people who get too in to just about anything tend to have problems.

Me, I'm a definate, proven nerd (I consider the periodic table entertaining, and am taking an English major to a large degree because of D&D). But I've also had a sweet, sexy, extremely smart and *gasp* socially-capable girl come all the way from Australia hoping to get a chance at getting my pants off. And I'm definately no Vin Diesal.

 

[fanboy2000]

I'd say most gamers arn't pathetic. I don't know about this years GenCon, but I'm guessing most booths don't have booth babes. I've gone to a lot of conventions, and generally if there's a girl working at the booth, she's probably a regular employee of the company, or a game designer, or an artist, or whatever. The only time I remember booth babe at a convention was at Troma's booth, and, if you've ever seen a Troma Movie, that won't suprise you.

 

[alleynbard]

Here is the article in question, I think
http://www.gamecritics.com/feature/report/e3expo2004_babes/page01.php
The article is about E3. It also seems to be written in a mildly condescending manner. I think the writer was fishing for some of the answers she got, but I could be wrong.

Personally, I have never known anyone like this. Every gamer I have ever known was very social and never had a shortage of dates or social activities outside of gaming. Most of my friends could recognize an attractive booth babe when they saw one but never went "ga-ga" over them.

I never understood the booth babe fascination, of course not being interested in woman may aid in that confusion.

 

[Stone Angel]

I suppose I understand where the article is coming from. I had a little joke with a few of the other guys about doing a doc film about Gamers hitting on chicks. There was a specific incident which brought this up. But I can only laugh and poke fun because I am similarly dorky and such. But all in all I think that the article was a little skewed. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that she was famous and a celebrity more than the fact that she was pretty. I mean look at how 12 year olds react to seeing a Backstreet Boy. Can you imagine all the gamers screaming, crying, and shaking "It's the Beast Master, ohmy gawd, ohmy gawd *Faints*!"

So I don't know if I would shake when getting a picture with a hottie, I mean cmon I could walked down Illinois street and gotten a much better show

The Seraph of Earth and Stone

 

[maddman75]

Yes - though there are plenty of perfectly normal gamers, it is an escapist, intellectual hobby. Therefore it naturally attracts people only interested in intellectual pursuits or who really want to escape life. Also many people fall into the Geek Social Fallacies and allow these folks to not develop their social skills. And meeting one Cat Piss Man will make the typical person (or Booth Babe) forget about the last hundred normal gamers they meet.