Did I miss the day in school where they taught you how playing games instantly pigeon holes you as a socially maladjusted freak that never went through puberty?
I may well have, since I spent most of my college days at home playing Star Wars Galaxies instead of learning about Mary Parker Follett and her "art of getting things done through people" in business studies. Yawn.

Well, I'm older now as well as a little bit wiser, but I still cannot understand why people who play games on a regular basis (affectionately known as gamers) are looked down upon in such an inferior manner.
I ponder this because I recently bumped into an old school friend, who when told that I worked and lived for games, started talking to me like I had just confessed that I soil myself at night.

Why do I, or anyone else for that case, deserve this reaction from so many people simply because we have a hobby that we love and enjoy and take pride in.
Do football supporters get the piss taken because they wear their teams shirts and talk about it with friends?
Do music fans get talked down to because they go to concerts and wear band merchandise?
Do film buffs get followed home, beaten up, mugged and then raped, repeatedly, for paying to go see all the latest blockbusters?

I think not.

Everyone is allowed their hobbies but I'm sick and tired of feeling like I can't openly celebrate the things I enjoy most, simply because the ignorant masses still believe that gaming is meant to be for teenagers or people with no social life. Well I say fuck 'em.

351.75 Million consoles have been sold over the last three generations of console wars. With the industry worth over $12.5 billion last year and major growth expected this year how there can even still be ignorant masses lord only knows.

All I know is I don't give a bukkake anymore about what people think of me. I'm just gonna go out wearing my geekiest geek-ware. Announce my undying love for LANs, conventions and Peter Moore. And then just get on with life and let everyone else deal with it.

Cos they're the ones with the problem, not me.

[/rant]