.......

You, Mr. Bradshaw. I find you to be quite a card. I like your rants. I don't agree, but its nice to hear planned out and well written rants instead of caps fueled raging.

I tip my hat to you.

I rarely watch video blogs... just don't usually have the time... but frankly you seem way too hung up on the label and definition of a gamer.

You also seem to perceive it as something negative.. it's not. It's simply a hobby. You refer several times to women seeing it as a negative - and I rather suspect that you must be unmarried. Women perceive most hobbies as negative. Women are still raised to some extent without the concept of guiltless leisure time. The idea of spending time and money on any activity that they don't understand will make their eyes roll. Think I like that my husband rebuilds cars?... and has his friends over, out in the garage, talking about engines and crap. I tolerate it. Think women like that their man is out golfing all the time... or watches sports and ignores them (and that stuff has to be scheduled around their sports games on TV?) Anybody who doesn't share the hobby and passion will look bored and perceive the hobby negatively if they don't understand it. That's just the way it is. Gamers love to talk to other gamers. Golfers love to talk to other golfers. People that restore old cars love to talk to others that do the same. Everybody else will get bored.

Gaming is a hobby... not much different from any other hobby. No need to get hung up on labels... it's a self-identification thing. If someone claims they're a "gamer" who are you to argue with them? It's just really not that big a deal.

So your answer is to shun those people you percieve to be "vidiots" because they game way too much? Der Fuhrer has spoken! Seriously though, people are ALWAYS going to attach stigma to something they do not or will not try to understand.

Case in point. I used to be a wrestling fan. It really wasn't something for a long time I was proud to be because the stigma is is that wrestling fans were just drunken rednecks. Emphasis though on rednecks and stupidity. It's the way the media addressed the fans, looking down on it as silly entertainment for the lowest of the low on the inbred totem pole and no matter how many wrestlers went on to talk shows and interviews and talked about their passion and the love for the fans, the media still attached that stigma to wrestling fans. Hell it still does.

But that's the point, it's a perception that no matter how much you struggle against it, will live on in the minds of the people who don't care enough to change their opinion. Do instead of "calling out" these section of gamers which by the way should ONLY be done when they do something publicly that reflects badly on gamers, you should learn what most of this site learned a long time ago. It matters not how little or much you play games, if someone really loves and plays games alot, it's not up to you to make judgements or single them out.

... but any hobby that becomes an addiction is an issue... not just gaming. Why single out gamers specifically.

I can agree that gaming to the point of harm, is a bad thing. Social skills, world awareness, personal and global activism, self respect and respect for others: all very good things, to put it lightly.

Its good for us to understand your definition of gamer. Label or not, its a broad enough term that can skew the value of your message, and one that can really bog down any actual message you're trying to get across. Its great to get to a common understanding with a group and to be able to get at the meat of a good discussion. Its a rare gift in one's life, I think.

Its rare among communities built around hobbies, too. There's always a common ground for any given thing that people can unite around (Everyone loves Nintendo games), but there's always a portion of a community that can't agree with what even seems like the most basic of statements (Mario games are actually garbage).

So much time is spent (not just on your blog, but others) hashing out definition against a strong opinion. Your strong opinion has a great message behind it: don't let a thing of just interest impede a thing of necessity. To see that, I know, is incredibly frustrating. More so when you see it in yourself. (Why am I still paying off consumer credit card debt?!?)

I think what's bothered me most about you and people that have played the same line here at Destructoid as you (Better to have an excess of social skill, gaming is your complete waste of time), is where you're laying your flag.

TBH, I can't rightly vouch for Dtoid as a community lately: I'm all sorts of absentee up in this piece. :) But at least a while ago, Destructoid was one of the few communities that had an excess of social skill, awareness and well tempered nerdiness. There's plenty of bright folk here that love games HARD, but are not so starry eyed as to eat Gamer Grub unironically.

Yet, what I get from you, at least in most passing and even some well examined looks at your "work" here, is that you've come to save the populace from itself and bring unto it enlightened discourse and uplifting.

I'm saying you're preaching to the choir, dawg.

You know how many husbands, wives, committed boyfriends, dedicated family members, studying lawyers, active and bright students, and all around "good people" are here? How many NARP have happened, and how many charities and podcasts have popped up from the Dtoid ranks?

Pasted against that...it just seems like you're asking for water and ignoring the fountain behind you.

Thanks for sharing, though. I'm willing to stop ignoring your stuff outright thanks to this video. It does succeed in giving you some context that you were lacking, at least speaking for my perceptions.

So, what do you like about games again? :)