The source article...

Okay, I clicked open the Onion's sister site, A.V. Club. It's a good op-ed site on movie reviews, music, and pop culture. I spotted an article on the 20 things that are nerdier than Monty Python.

I read over the list and saw some hallmark nerd cachetisms, your Star Trek, LARP's, Role Playing, even Frank Zappa (what? no Grateful Dead?), but no where on that list is video games.

I'm sure we're all glad in some respect that video games don't make their point to be on that list, but there is a strong stigma against video games that should've been touched on LOOOOONG before Frank Zappa needed to end up on the list.

And I'm not talking about the stigma against anyone group of gamers. You can easily reference a half dozen strong examples of gamers who take it a few steps beyond reality.

The closest this list touches on video games is WOW, which is an easily cite-able example.

What about console fanboys? Vehement deniers of fun? They prey upon the weak willed with NPC sales figures, a loose understanding of computer functions, and buzzwords aplenty to rally people to their cause.

What about retro geeks? I count myself in this group, to be sure. We're stuck in our past, rebuying old games, playing emulated versions of ones we can't rebuy, making various tools and fashion accessories out of our old discarded controllers.

What about Madden fanatics? Is there anything more sad that participating in a corporately sponsored "tailgate" party at midnight outside a video game store? All you're buying is an updated roster, a handful of visual tweaks, and a new "cursed" player on the cover. Maddens generally don't change all that much from year to year, guys. Sad thing is that most of these same points get dragged out again year after year, and make the news. A national day off for a football video game? Ugh, no thanks. When they make the day after the Super Bowl a real day off we can start looking at one for a fucking warmed over rehash video game.

What about Halo fanboys? There are people who eat sleep and breath Halo as much as WoW. I mean, we're what... 4 years past Halo 2 and people only put it down late last year?
The last game I played for 3 years straight was, oh... nothing. I fear getting on the ranked games because it's full of snorts, racist comments, and kids shouting "n00b!" before their damn balls drop. You know what? Lump all those people who still play the original CS in there as well. WTF? It's a game, not actual anti-terrorist training...

J-RPG's? People who splurge thousands of hard earned dollars to buy every goddamn thing that's branded with FFVII? I drank that Potion flavored soft drink. I'd rather have it poured in my eyes than drink it again. Or buying every soundtrack remix ever thought up by Square. I enjoy a good J-RPG about once every 3-4 years, but people get nomadic about these games and they've always got one they play. If I breathe the words "Kingdom" without saying that OTHER word, I'd risk death if I said anything negative about it despite the fact that I can't get into it at all, and do not understand the fanaticism that follows it.

And to tie in another of their list choices, Wikipedia, I guess the AV Club has completely spaced GameFAQs. Though GameFAQ's has undoubtedly saved me from spending a single dime on buying anything from BradyGames or any game guide that Nintendo didn't mail me with my Nintendo Power subscription. People are nuts on GameFAQ's. Like 4chan bad sometimes. It'd be no shock to start seeing "Type sauce/sage with your elbow" posts on GameFAQs. When new games come out, there's this suspension of disbelief that people sometimes are able to get advance copies, and demands of photographic proof are thrown up left and right. Any pictures of discs and receipts are immediately questioned as photoshopped trickery. And no one ever owns a decent camera.

I guess this ended up with a touch of a personal rant in there, but the AV club missed an opportunity to rip us a new one and point out some, what I feel are, obvious issues with gaming as a subculture. We may have mass acceptance, and may not be looked upon with as much scorn as we were when we all had "video fever" back in the 80's, but there's still a lot of strange deviations in the gaming culture that are open wounds and targets for ridicule.

Don't get me wrong, let your freak flag fly if you're into any of these things, I know I do, but for pete's sake, if someone else ain't on your side, leave 'em alone.