Geek - Gamer - Geek?

I game therefore I am geek?

I am geek therefore I game?


These two articles both address the question - If you play games are you a geek? but from very different views. The first article, entitled, "Gamers, yes. Geeks? Hardly, for many E3 is the ultimate cool." talks about how gaming used to be just for geeks and losers, a view that could be seen as quite offensive, but now gaming has gone mainstream and "cool" people play them too. Although to a certain extent I do agree with some of what they say about how not all gamers are geeks but their view seems too prejudice towards people who would class themselves or are classed as geeks, I don't think it was ever that black and white that only "losers" played games before and "cool" people were to busy growing up.

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/GAMERS,+YES.+GEEKS%3F+HARDLY+FOR+MANY,+E3+IS+THE+ULTIMATE+COOL+EXPO...-a0145805880



The second article, entitled "Games aren't just for geeks anymore, sadly." also talks about how games are far more mainstream than they used to be, but that this isn't such a great thing now that games are "quite popular with normal people." Also a very one sided view yet possibly not as offensive as the first article.

http://www.the-pamphleteer.com/2009/02/games-arent-just-for-geeks-any-more-sadly/

"This is all well and good: now that video games are fluffy and inclusive maybe the Daily Mail will stop screaming for them to be banned, and maybe some of us old-school gamers might finally be able to shake off the ‘anti-social dork’ stigma. But for all that, it does kind of feel like the grown-ups have crashed our party. Just like your favourite band selling out and going mainstream, now that the industry has found a much wider audience it seems inevitable that games will never be quite as cool as they were in the early days and mass-market appeal will take priority over the edgy creativity that made it all so much fun to begin with."

This third article also looks at gaming becoming more mainstream, but in what I believe to be a less bias fashion. "blowing away the myth that computers ain't cool."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/1513353.stm

It definitely has a more positive view on the development of gaming into the rest of the world. I think this is a much better way to look at it rather than worrying about how games are going to change or attempting to alter their market completely. We shouldn't be trying to change the culture, just expand it.
"It will be the Olympics of the joystick world and Jones predicts gaming will become a televised sport within five years."