Love/Hate: Gamers…Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em.




I think back to elementary school, reading my Nintendo Power magazines and talking to friends at lunch about; how to find whistles in Mario 3, how to survive in Lifeforce, how far we made it in Legend of Kage, how many TD’s we scored with Walter Payton in Techmo Bowl, tricks on holding the zapper close to the screen in Hogan’s Alley, scoring 100 points in DoubleDribble, who won a fight in Blades of Steel, the tracks we made in Excite Bike (the original user content based game way before LBP), or how frustrated we were with Maniac Mansion. Those were the days… the ‘salad days’ if you will



Then things changed, I was in high school and although I still played games, there were girls, my friends, a band to play in, and parties that competed for my free time; and soon games fell by the wayside. I took a short a short hiatus from gaming till after college when I picked up a PS2. Around this time the only gamers I really interacted with were at parties playing Bust-a-Move, getting owned in Goldeneye, or red-shelling my buddies between beers in Mario Kart 64. These again were some really good times with games and friends. This would all soon change…

A few years later I was a teaching high school, and then middle school. My students would tell me about how much fun they were having playing Gears of War, I saw the TV commercials with the haunting Donnie Darko version of Mad World, I was interested to say the least. Now that I had a real job and extra cash to throw around I picked up an XBOX 360. This was my first exposure to online gaming; it was fun, but the personal interactions were ‘interesting’ to say the least. I have not led a sheltered life by any means, but the effects of anonymity plus a microphone were astonishing. The amount of racism and jackweeds was beyond belief. What happened to gaming being fun? What happened to common courtesy? What happened to gamers being a carefree people? Instead of the lighthearted fun I remembered, the gaming general populace had seemingly become a jaded, angry, and racist version of Pinocchio’s Pleasure Island. My distaste for gamers began even though I myself was one.




As time went on I played more XBOX 360 games, picked up a Wii, and then a PS3. Soon I would search out gaming info like walkthroughs and cheats. I first found IGN, next I stumbled upon KOTAKU which I loved. My job soon blocked access to KOTAKU, and I found DESTRUCTOID. The speed of the news and info was great, and the humor was even better. Months after being a passive reader of DTOID, I decided to create an account and become an active member of the community. A comment here, a comment there, soon turned into me doing some community blogs. I would receive the common, “cool article” comment which is great and much appreciated. Sometimes I would get some great input, kudos, or constructive criticism. But recently I have encountered on the main blogs, and the C-blogs more and more ‘trolls’.



I don’t know if it’s the economy causing folks to lose their jobs and become idle and angry, or just the general direction US culture is moving, or a product of DTOID’s growing popularity bringing in more riff-raff along with the good. Maybe NIERO could give some data on new users signing up in the last 3 months or so to support or disprove that idea. Or maybe it’s that the more involved I get with the community the more I’m exposed to something that has always been there. Well, whatever the reason , the quantity of Jackweeds has increased IMO. This combined with the continued amount of turds floating around XBOX live and PSN has caused me to contemplate deleting my DTOID account, and playing only offline games.


After a week or so of weighing the matter I have come to my decision. It came to me in a flash, while reading today’s ‘25 Days of Giving’. I have decided that…

- Just because you’re loud, doesn’t mean you’re right.
- If people stop doing things they enjoy because of the bad things someone else MIGHT do, then it would be similar to never leaving your home because of terrorist threats.
- The joy that DTOID brings me is greater than the grief.
- There may always be unhappy trolls in the gaming community, but I have to focus on the ‘good guys’ who can have an intelligent conversation, and not find something to complain about every time.



I mentioned earlier that the inspiration came to me while reading today’s ‘25 Days of Giving’; and this is what came to me. I have decided to do more than talk about this issue, rather I will put my words into action. I am going to act in faith and goodwill towards my fellow gamers. There are some games I have been thinking about trading on GOOZEX, and while that would give me some points and tokens for some games I have wanted for a while, I feel compelled to give back to the DTOID community. My hope is that …

- Some deserving gamers will get some games that they will enjoy more than I currently am.
- Some DTOID members will be inspired to give in some capacity as well, whether it is here on DTOID, or in their own community.
- Lastly, maybe we as a DTOID community will make an effort not to be so quick to insult each other, but rather talk about the WHY’s and not get so easily offended by something so insignificant in the big picture of life. After all, other gamers are not the enemy, it’s the non gamers who look down on us.

Lastly I want to say thank you to the DTOID staff for providing a place where we gamers (naughty or nice) can come together and share something we all love…games.




Here is the link to the C-Blog where I will give away the games I mentioned above.

CONTEST LINK

I will post the games up for giveaway, and to decide who will get them state the name of the game you want, and then explain to me why you should be the one to get it in words or images. I will post the winners on Monday, Dec 14th. I will then PM the winners to get their mailing addresses. Don’t worry I will pay for the shipping.
Happy Holidays DTOID

***Ninja Vanish***