# Got any "anti gamer" or "video game ignorant" stories? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [February 11, 2014, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-anti-gamer-or-video-game-ignorant-stories/681044 "2014-02-11T10:00:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Earth001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a6a055/32.png) [@Earth001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earth001)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-anti-gamer-or-video-game-ignorant-stories/681044/1 "2014-02-11T10:00:58Z")
Let me explain, for lack of a better word for the title. Have you ever met someone who either didn’t really “get” video games. Someone who either thought that “OH NOEZ TEH VIDEO GAMES CORRUPT TEH YOUTH!” or “What are you talking about ‘good story’, ain’t you just running and shooting babies?” ---
**Author:** ![sentrix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac8455/32.png) [@sentrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sentrix)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-anti-gamer-or-video-game-ignorant-stories/681044/2 "2014-02-11T10:02:27Z")
yes well, the zombies never win if you have cheats. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-anti-gamer-or-video-game-ignorant-stories/681044/3 "2014-02-11T11:17:38Z")
I love when TV shows etc. portray gaming as a nerdy thing, and only nerds know about games like “Calls of Duty” and “the Skyrims.” Meanwhile, in real life, your grandma is playing candy crush, while “you” are 37 with 3 kids and just now finding time to play GTAV. Also, [Jack Thompson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28activist%29) and [Leland Yee](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leland_Yee#2005) but I haven’t met them. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-anti-gamer-or-video-game-ignorant-stories/681044/4 "2014-02-11T15:35:22Z")
My wife. ---
**Author:** ![Bellhorn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@Bellhorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bellhorn)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-anti-gamer-or-video-game-ignorant-stories/681044/5 "2014-02-11T16:03:08Z")
Outside of a few games of Tiger Woods golf 15 years ago, I’ve never played any video games. I do play chess, but not on-line, preferring to play against opponents face-to-face. Chess consumes all the available time I have to allocate to sit-down recreation. I have no interest in ever playing video games, but, considering my own pre-occupation with chess, I don’t pass judgement on gamers. (My daughter never played video games, as well. I steered her towards chess at an early age.) ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-anti-gamer-or-video-game-ignorant-stories/681044/6 "2014-02-11T16:18:50Z")
Not long ago, I tried to teach how to play Minecraft to a friend who’s twice my age. He could _not_ figure out the concept of using W-A-S-D to move his character. He finally gave up on learning the game, which is probably best because Minecraft really is a game for people who have no lives. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-anti-gamer-or-video-game-ignorant-stories/681044/7 "2014-02-11T22:17:21Z")
While I understand the use of WASD in a FPS, why would you see any advantage to WASD over the direction keys in Minecraft? ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-anti-gamer-or-video-game-ignorant-stories/681044/8 "2014-02-11T22:36:56Z")
I don’t remember the name of the raid or the boss, but there’s a raid in World of Warcraft, in Wrath of the Lich King, in which the final boss is a giant demonic beetle. My guild had tried several times to down this boss and were finally successful, just as my wife walked behind my chair on the way to her computer. Me: Woohoo! Wife: (looks at screen) You killed a bug? Me: … a _giant_ bug. Wife: :dubious: Me: … a giant _DEMON_ bug! Wife: Uh-huh. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-anti-gamer-or-video-game-ignorant-stories/681044/9 "2014-02-11T22:44:48Z")
I have zero interest in video games. I don’t have anything against them, but I just don’t see the appeal. I spend too much time in front of a computer screen as it is. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-anti-gamer-or-video-game-ignorant-stories/681044/10 "2014-02-11T23:04:00Z")
> [@asterion](#): > > While I understand the use of WASD in a FPS, why would you see any advantage to WASD over the direction keys in Minecraft? Unless you completely remap everything, won’t you have to either reach your right had **over** your left to pull up inventory, etc., or else remove your left hand from the movement keys and move it 6+ inches left. I cannot remember when I realized the glory of WASD. I remember playing DOOM using the mouse OR arrow keys as a movement device, with no mouselook, so left/right turned, not strafed. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-anti-gamer-or-video-game-ignorant-stories/681044/11 "2014-02-12T07:50:44Z")
I always remap the keys when I come across a WASD game. I just can’t play it otherwise. I remember playing American Mcgee’s Alice using only directional keys, man that was hard. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-anti-gamer-or-video-game-ignorant-stories/681044/12 "2014-02-12T09:54:57Z")
While you still see a little of it, moral panic over video games seems to have faded pretty quickly over the last decade or two. There was a brief lived effort by the NRA to try and blame violent video games for the recent spat of school-shootings, but even they don’t seem to be able to get much mileage out of the issue anymore. I think a large enough portion of the population has now grown up with videogames that they don’t really seem as weird and scary as they once did to the adult population. Now judgemental adults spend all their time worrying that ubiquitous texting is going to turn kids into illiterate idiots with no attention span. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-anti-gamer-or-video-game-ignorant-stories/681044/13 "2014-02-12T10:51:06Z")
My wife doesn’t really get “proper” video games (Portal, Civilisation, Fallout, etc) but she’s not against them either and - like pretty much everyone else except me - quite happy to play Angry Birds or Candy Crush on her phone. I agree the moral panic around video games is pretty much gone now, though. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-anti-gamer-or-video-game-ignorant-stories/681044/14 "2014-02-12T15:52:49Z")
Not “anti”, but ignorant: A few months ago, I went airsoft shooting with several of my male relatives (the ladies were all having a bridal shower). For those not familiar with airsoft, you have guns that shoot little plastic pellets, slightly painful but not really dangerous, and you use them to play games like Capture the Flag. Well, my 60-something uncle was the oldest person at the site by at least two decades, and he enjoyed himself, but was completely befuddled by the video game terminology everyone else was using. Respawn? What the heck is that? ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-anti-gamer-or-video-game-ignorant-stories/681044/15 "2014-02-12T16:35:54Z")
::raises hand:: I’m **AHunter3** and I’m video game ignorant. I don’t get the attraction people feel for things that go beep zeeee boop doodle boop and focusing so much concentrated attention on trying to get through the maze or stop in the incoming missiles from zapping your city or playing ping pong against an invisible opponent in perpetuity or whatever. It ranks right up there with defragmenting my hard drive and watching the weather channel as a source of ongoing entertainment. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-anti-gamer-or-video-game-ignorant-stories/681044/16 "2014-02-12T17:04:09Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > I agree the moral panic around video games is pretty much gone now, though. On the one hand I agree that the vast majority of it was overblown. On the other hand, having recently seen Kung Lao’s “Jewel Splitter” fatality move in Mortal Kombat\* I sometimes think a little restraint on the part of game designers would be nice. \*Two-click link to a video because it’s quite disturbing and probably **NSFW** :[Finish Her](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjhESCu3g0c)! ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-anti-gamer-or-video-game-ignorant-stories/681044/17 "2014-02-12T17:13:05Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > ::raises hand:: > > I’m **AHunter3** and I’m video game ignorant. > > I don’t get the attraction people feel for things that go beep zeeee boop doodle boop and focusing so much concentrated attention on trying to get through the maze or stop in the incoming missiles from zapping your city or playing ping pong against an invisible opponent in perpetuity or whatever. While this still describes some games, there’s been a lot of progress in the story aspect in the last 25 to 40 years. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-anti-gamer-or-video-game-ignorant-stories/681044/18 "2014-02-12T18:27:52Z")
> [@ZenBeam](#): > > While this still describes some games, there’s been a lot of progress in the story aspect in the last 25 to 40 years. Yes, ( \*\*pats **ZenBeam** on the head \*\* ), I’m sure there has been. ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-anti-gamer-or-video-game-ignorant-stories/681044/19 "2014-02-12T21:30:10Z")
@ **AHunter3** … is that intended to be as jerkishly condescending as it sounds? ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2014, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-anti-gamer-or-video-game-ignorant-stories/681044/20 "2014-02-12T21:44:18Z")
> [@wevets](#): > > @ **AHunter3** … is that intended to be as jerkishly condescending as it sounds? You [die and come back](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Ebert) and see how you’re feeling! 😃 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-any-anti-gamer-or-video-game-ignorant-stories/681044.md?page=2)