The title is something I have felt like saying to a number of people lately simply because of the aura of pure arrogance I feel when listening to them talk on various subject. I assure you that this topic will some how come back to gaming, but there seems to be a running theme in my life lately that I will be surrounded with smug bastards who love the smell of their own farts. Anyways, on to the rant.

One of my roommates is a nice guy, don't get me wrong, but he drives me up the fucking wall. He's one of those strongly opinionated people you can only find at college campuses, an Apple store, or an online forum. He will put down people for having a difference of opinion with him and will wonder why he doesn't have many friends. He even goes so far as saying that all other majors are inferior to his. He's kind of hard to explain, so I will just bring up a few gaming related things that annoy me when he opens his mouth. This basically boils down to a concept that has (in my opinion) destroying my way of life: "gamer-cred."

This concept, I feel, is damaging to the gaming community. It often ends up invoking John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory, creating rifts between various gaming communities over their concepts of what makes a person a gamer. I am sure many of us are guilty of this, calling people fanboys or attacking people when they don't like things you like. Hell, I am not going to be a hippocrate and claim that I am innocent of this, but there are far too many people like my roommate that just can't get past their own bullshit to see that they are, in fact, douche bags.

Allow me to give examples. A group of us here are pretty hardcore gamers. We'll discuss anything from various genres, games, and even hardware. During one such conversation about the Game Cube, discussing the various strengths and weaknesses the system had, he added only to the conversation that the best thing he ever did was to sell a Game Cube he got second hand to buy an X-Box and mod it. When we tried to continue the conversation after his rather prickish remark that he made in an attempt to trump us all, he continued to insist that his stance was right and that the Game Cube and all games on it were worthless.

Sexism is another large part of the whole gamer-cred thing, especially with him. Watching things like "Attack of the Show" or "X-Play" or even when I listen to RetroforceGO! he will target any female speaking on one of these shows and say, "She doesn't play games." How the hell can he know for sure?

Many people who tie into delusions similar to his have this insane notion that there is no such thing a girl who plays games. This concept bothers me because it implies that at least three of the women I've dated are in fact post-op transsexuals. I've known many a woman who knew as much as the next guy when it came to gaming. It is pretty annoying when people insist that gaming is a boy's only club.

I suppose the thing that really pushed me over the edge when he actually used the term "gamer-cred" in a serious conversation. He claimed that Adam Sessler really didn't have as much credibility as "any of us." This really set me off. Let's examine his "gamer-cred," shall we.

The first console he owned was a PS2, which he used exclusively as a DVD player. He owned a Game Cube for all of a week (not playing it mind you) before trading it in for a moded X-Box. This X-Box is an underpowered media center PC, used primarily to watch recording of USA Sitcoms. He craps on all genres aside from the ones he plays. The genres he plays are Sierra Adventure Games, First Person Shooters, and Dodonpachi Mame Roms. He universally frowns upon anyone who plays an MMO. He calls the people we often see playing Rock Band, Guitar Hero, or Halo 3 as Generi-Gamers. But the number one thing that sets me off is the fact that rather than actually sit down and enjoy a game, he DOWNLOADS SPEED RUNS and watches to get his impression of games. He's the one who puts the most weight on this bullshit concept of "gamer-cred" and he has the least credibility as a gamer using his own measurements of what makes a person one.

The worst part is, the recent trend of achievements and gamer scores encourage this shit.

I have no idea how to end this, other than do say, "Shove it, you pretentious dick."