Eh, be fair. Why does anyone associate anything with anyone else? People form perceptions based on experiences, and they’re not always grounded in rationality. I know I have a few myself, just about different things. I’m not sure this is one battle that needs to be fought.
I don’t know. Preconceived notions and stereotypes I guess? I honestly don’t know. If I met someone that I liked and it came out that he/she played video games every day for hours, I would still be their friend. I am not that crazy against games!
My office is interesting, in that there is no dress code, so we all find our own level: some wear jeans and T-shirts, some “business casual” (khakis, polo or oxford shirts) and some of us wear more formal suits or dresses/skirts.
I am always more formal, just because that’s my style–but I must question your comment about “I choose to dress comfortably rather than smartly.” Honest, I hardly ever wear my Alexander McQueen barbed-wire corset and lobster shoes to work! My dresses, skirts and sweaters are as comfortable as footie jammies, and I doubt any of the other “dresser-uppers” here are the slightest bit uncomfortable, either.
As I said in another thread, because life is about doing more than the bare minimum, perhaps?
I am being fair. “I think video games are for high school boys” is just a more long-winded way of saying “video games are childish.” If there’s no why behind your moronic notions, maybe you should stop repeating them because you’re clearly wrong.
Especially in today’s society where the parallels between game playing and card games/dime store novels/comic books/rock music/D&D/etc. are very obvious. Believing that games are just for kids, in the world we live in, is admitting that you stuck your fingers in your ears 30 years ago and never removed them.
As I’m the one whose post inspired this thread, I supposed that I should weigh in. First I would list what I considered the key differences between childish and adult behaviors and attitudes. Childish: driven by emotions/adult: driven by reason. Childish: thinks and plans for the short term/adult things and plans for the long term. Childish: considers only a selfish perspective/adult: considers the needs of others, family, community, and society.
So one obvious example of something that provides childish stuff for alleged adults is Fox New Channel. It’s a 24-hour network that provides nonstop emotional appeals, immature insults, diversions from reason, and near-hysterical shouting. It’s not alone. The other news channels are not far behind in that regard. Neither are radio, newspapers, or magazines. It’s commonly acknowledged that the state of political debate has gone down the tubes. The substitution of emotion, self-aggrandizement, and insult for debate is a common thread everywhere.
Entertainment is another avenue where the spread of childish behavior seems to be clear. One can debate about whether this film or that video game is childish, but the larger point is that the amount of time a person spends on entertainment and the priority they give it matters more than the particulars. It may or may not be childish to care about the latest Transformers movie. It is certainly childish to spend six hours a day for several months discussing it before it’s released. It may or may not be childish to play Grand Theft Auto. It is certainly childish to play it so much that you drop out of college, which has actually happened to some people I know.
In addition, I could cite other measurable signs of the same trend. There are plenty of surveys documenting that young adults are taking longer to finish college, get jobs, move out of their parents’ homes, get married, have kids, start investing for retirement and so forth. When I was in college (all of eight years ago) we did our own laundry. Now it’s standard, at least at some schools, for parents to hire a laundry service for their kids.
I would actually argue that model railroading is a very mature hobby. It requires and builds extreme care, patience, and aesthetic sense, the very things that are missing from much of today’s entertainment.
Bwuh? I don’t understand. How does your choice of hobby correlate with whether or not you’re doing the bare minimum? And bare minimum in what?
Video games, particularly MMOs, do seem to fall in a weirdly unacceptable category for what they are. My husband and I play World of Warcraft a couple nights a week, and, because the game involves multiple people, our game time is time that we’re out of commission as far as calls and social events go. Now, because we play on two weeknights it hasn’t impacted our other social engagements, but I have a feeling that if I told someone I was declining an invitation because I had a group activity in the game that night, they’d be FAR more put-off than if I told them that was my poker night, even though both events involve similar time frames and the game event involves 5 times as many people.
It makes no sense, but it probably won’t go away for a while.
(Just for the record, we both have other hobbies, challenging careers and busy social lives. We just happen to like video games, too.)
/edit: To actually address the thread, I think it’s a couple things. First, we have more leisure time (and often disposable income), and second that young people don’t “settle down” until later because of more education and difficulty finding jobs, which means they’re living without the obligations of marriages and families for longer, so they’re older when they fit the stereotype of a responsible adult.
Please tone it down a bit.
Thank you.
Because the economy is shit. Why leave a secure house and get your ass kicked on your own when you could instead contribute to the household pool and support everyone?
And again, it’s only childish when compared to recent Western culture. It certainly isn’t that unusual in other parts of the world and in other time periods for multiple generations to live and work out of the same homestead.
Now this I want to see a cite for.
Wow for someone who is so convinced of his position, you sure are insecure and aggressive. I seriously doubt I am the only one who feels this way. And for the record, someone like Bosstone who was even-tempered and dare I say normal, made me rethink my opinion. You on the other hand do just the opposite.
We’re the same age.
If you don’t understand why some of those things are taking longer, then I just have to reiterate my “your fingers are shoved in your ears” theory. “Just get a job” can no longer be considered advice for wayward kids. Especially with a nationwide recession going on.
So we’ve got a generation of kids with less money and less power than their parents ever had. So they go to college. Many of which have upped their graduation requirements considerably. What I had to do to graduate involved a lot more study than the classes that graduated eight years before me. With classes eight years hence, I’ll bet their requirements aren’t any easier.
And moving out, getting married and having kids don’t mean anything on the face of it. For one, having kids later is probably better for the world as a whole. This new crop of parents has had a chance to mature before popping a kid out at 18 1/2. Good for them.
And as for laundry. Who the fuck wants to do laundry? If a college kid can delay that as long as possible, they’d be a fool not to take that deal.
This. This right here. This has to be some kind of comedy routine right? Model railroading is a “very mature hobby”? Please, you’ve got grown adults yelling “choo choo!” as their toys circle a track.*
- Please note that I don’t think model railroading is childish. The only people I know who do it are actually all very old men. But to say that model railroading is mature and liking GTA or the Transformers movie is immature is definitely high comedy.
I definitely consider model railroading a more mature hobby than gaming.
Try to keep up. I’m acting like a childish person because that’s what you expect. It’s schtick, son.
Laying out these points for you in a reasonable and even-tempered way would be a waste of my time. The fact that you’re in your 30s and think games are worthless (when the fact of the matter is that the majority of your generation played games as children AND as adults) means that no one will ever change your mind. You’re set in your ways like a senior citizen. So I’m just trying to impart the reality of the world today to you in an entertaining way so that perhaps you’ll rethink your position someday.
Because, once again, the people who participate in model railroading are old folks. So “their” hobby is mature while “our” hobby is for children.
Similar to how a mature adult listen only to classical music with its greater complexity and depth, as opposed to the simple cathartic crudity of that rock and roll stuff? 
I don’t know man, I’m a 40-something who has had a full-time job for over twenty years, I make good money, have a mortgage and a very good credit rating, make long-term financial plans and generally am a reasonably functional adult.
But I still enjoy the heck out of watching my TV and playing computer games. I don’t really see the contradiction here. Then again maybe he fact that I prefer the likes of EU III and Crusader Kings makes just so much more sophisticated and adult than those immature children with their FPS games :D.
I think ITR has a fair point in the midst of his post: focusing on something to the exclusion of everything else, such that it’s affecting your responsibilities, is a problem and an indication of immaturity, or possibly some other psychological issue.
I love my hobbies. I spend a lot of my leisure time on them. But I also make sure that I come into work, that I give my job its due attention, that I pay my bills, that I keep my car running, that I take care of my house, etc. etc.
The thing is, that isn’t specific to any particular hobby. I don’t care what you do for fun. So long as you’re able to remember and keep up with your responsibilities, have a good time. Letting your leisure control your life is not cool, and that applies to video games, model railroads, TV, movies, gambling, alcohol, whatever. Even work counts for workaholics, if it prevents you from meeting your obligations at home.
By your behavior here and posting style, you don’t do a very good job of disputing my assertion that gaming is juvenile. All your aggressive frothing at the mouth sounds like someone whose mommy forgot to give them their meds before school.
Your continued references to “mommy” and calling me a child when I’ve twice pointed out to you that I’m screwing with you for my own enjoyment says more about your reading skills than it does about my maturity (or mental health for that matter).
OK, whatever. Let’s just end this stupid exchange.
If only the rest of the world were so enlightened.