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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ozmar" data-source="post: 967915" data-attributes="member: 8021">Just a rambling rant about gamers and socialibility...I know a LOT of gamers. I've gamed a lot, and most (not all) of my friends are gamers. They come in many, many flavors. Some (most) are geeks. But geek is not a stereotype that gives you an accurate picture of a person, b/c there are many, many types of geeks. Some are geeky about movies, some about food, some about books, some about sports, etc... Gaming itself is kinda geeky, so the name fits just about all gamers.Some of my gaming friends are... socially maladjusted. Some gamers I know you wouldn't want within 50 feet of your dog (they have their good points, but its hard to see them). Some have mental or physical disorders that make life a little more challenging for them, but they also have plenty of good qualities. The "challenged" gamers I know are among the most kind and polite people I know. But most gamers I know are socially outgoing, smart, talented, friendly, attractive, sociable, and well-regarded. Many are married, college-educated, successful and happy. Some are business owners. (A few own game stores.) Some are in the military, some are scientists, many work in computers or technology. Some have children. Almost all are fun to be with and have many interests in addition to gaming (and not all of them are traditionally geeky interests), such as sports, biking, movies, music, politics, computers, origami, knitting, singing, martial arts, philosophy, reading, drinking, archaeology, the stock market and traveling.So gamers are all very different. But they are all very similar, too. What makes them similar? Well, a love of games for one. But even more to the point, gamers are people with imagination. Every gamer I know has an incredible imagination, and they use it. They are creative people. They can look at a rock and see a bird trapped inside. They can discuss an imaginary world with their friends and see adventure. They are not trapped by the boundaries of what they can see and hear. They can imagine a world outside themselves.For a lot of gamers, this makes them more empathic than some "ordinary people". I have found gamers to generally be more open and understanding and tolerant of others. I think this is b/c gamers have practice in pretending to be other people, so they tend to be able to understand another person's perspective. I've never been a doctor or a lawyer or a woman, nor have I lost my parents or had a serious injury - but I can imagine these things (somewhat) and have practiced imagining these things, and I think that gives me a little more talent in emphasizing with people who may have experienced these things. Gaming (at its best) is an exercise in using our imaginations to put ourselves in the lives of other people, and thereby to gain greater understanding of our world.My gaming friends have a word for non-gamers who don't have any imagination. They call them "cardboard" (though not to their faces, I'm sure), because they're like cardboard cutouts of people. They have interests, but are not passionate about them. They don't understand why we get excited about a new movie or a good book or a song we really like. They consume the products of our popular culture (reality tv, movies, magazines) but don't really think about them, or use them to expand their concepts or experience. I've met very few "cardboard" people. I think its a natural ability for people to imagine. Some are better than others, but we can all get better with practice.OK. Enough from me. [/end rant]Ozmar the Imaginative Gamer</blockquote>

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