Gamer Rants: Modern Society "Gamers"

G'day folks.

Take a look back twenty years ago, just after I was born; video games and gamers themselves were seen as nothing more than kids in an arcade, trying to beat the highscore master, usually with the initials "A.S.S.", or simply kids gathering there after school to waste away their pocket money in the course of a day playing on all the new games that had just been released. Back to reality here in 2013 and not much has changed; Arcades are near, if not already, dead and can only be found in theatres, children themed fast food places or an expensive plaza in some godforsaken area in the city. Video games evolved from the Arcade, to the living room and even now to the bedroom, where gamers will spend hours if not days mastering moves, conquering the first-time players (quickly adapted from newbies to noobs) and as Online came into play, beating the other teams with a bunch of friends screaming in joy in your ear. But that's not the point of this rant. Simply put, gamers or simply "nerds", have become so popular in the mainstream that simply just to act like one can be considered cool, especially with girls. Women online are "foretold" to be a rarity online, while the truth is much more understandable. In Australia alone, 47% of registered online users are women, the average age for a female gamer being the ages of 22 - 24. What you're seeing to the right is something I came across a few weeks ago; unfortunately I'm unsure who the original artist is but they do have a valid point. "Gamer Gurl" is the slogan to a young woman who claims to be a gamer but in truth, only does

so for attention. Claiming to be one is simply the buzzword of the year as being a nerd or dork becomes the norm and standard of society; if you will, take The Big Bang Theory as the example. While I do know a few women who exceedingly play on a console or PC, it seems that as the term of "Gamer Gurl" becomes more well know, the sexism and stereotypes become more insulting. Women have been labeling this term and women who abuse it as "hurtful, offensive and misleading" and to this I agree, however some young men online do take it too far. The stereotypes of women tend to lead to the dismantle of many online gamers while the men winge about their bachelorhood.
Men, on the other hand, haven't changed much in the last twenty or so years. Many male gamers still disband as the Console wars rage ever onward (but I'll get to that in another rant), and the youth that are joining the gaming world online is becoming younger and younger each year. While the standard overall is at the age of 32, young lads will be heard (Quite clearly in fact) online, generally in first person shooters, gun games or anything adhering to violence. In this gamer's view, the youngest person I had confirmed to be online was six years old. At that age myself, I was only just starting to get into gaming with the Nintendo 64, but with kids games such as Diddy Kong Racing or Super Smash Bros. Young men are exposed to things they shouldn't know for years and years into the future

and because of the Live online community, children learn words they don't even generally understand. While young lads or teens control most of the online scenarios, the older generations are either sticking together to avoid the squeaks of puberty, the unintelligible insults such as "You're a queef!" (To which I was called several times last week; when I questioned the young man if he knew what that meant, he tried to claim that it was the sound of male urination) or simply unable to stand the idiocy of the online community (Such as Trolls, AFC players, the annoying ect).
 What is my point to all this?
Gamers over the years has made a lot of process both in the community and in the media but because of this, the true gamers are left in the shadows while the stereotypes are becoming the norm. Women gamers are becoming a sexist symbol to reject and become disgusted with, leading to the eventuality of women gamers being looked down upon from enjoying a game now and then to spending hours trying to unlock Achievements for hours. It's sad how men's situation in this genre of entertainment hasn't changed much at all; whether you play them, develop them or like me and review them, nothing much has changed in our time. Eventually, and hopefully, things will change for the both of us and soon enough, gamers and nerds alike will be looked down for being themselves once the buzz goes down. And hopefully I'll still be doing what I love.