I just don’t think it’s that deep for me. Gaming is a fun hobby I enjoy and I don’t really give much thought to what others are up to. It’s not toxic positivity, it’s realizing that it’s not my problem. I have my own problems to deal with that are more pressing.
And this is also coming off weird, as if I don't have my own problems to deal with. However I'm passionate about gaming and I just don't see why I should lose my passion and be told to shut up and keep my head down even about the thing I adore most?
Problems are one thing, a hobby is antoehr.
If you don't care that much, sure, that's ok and I'm by no means saying you should care more than you do, but we have a problem when you're trying to placate people with a passion who do care.
Why would you do that? If you don't care why would you tell someone who cares to let it go if that's their passion and it means to them a lot?
I suppose a tourist wants to conflate opinion with knowledge, and the people defending them are anxious about seeming dictatorial.
Rather than admit degrees of insight, they would rather flatten the problem into safe banalities. It becomes a culture in which nobody can really say anything of substance.
Perhaps this critique has broader application
And this is also coming off weird, as if I don't have my own problems to deal with. However I'm passionate about gaming and I just don't see why I should lose my passion and be told to shut up and keep my head down even about the thing I adore most?
Problems are one thing, a hobby is antoehr.
If you don't care that much, sure, that's ok and I'm by no means saying you should care more than you do, but we have a problem when you're trying to placate people with a passion who do care.
Why would you do that? If you don't care why would you tell someone who cares to let it go if that's their passion and it means to them a lot?
Video games are a huge trend these days. It’s a business thing, and in some ways even a political one. So everybody wants to be in. Even though just yesterday they hated video games, consoles, personal computers, and all that “nerdy” stuff in general.
Just think about the “average” gamer portrait in let's say 1986, 1996, 2006, 2016 and finally in 2026. They’re all pretty different people. In 1986 you could get beaten up for being a geek and playing videogames. In 2026 you’re a loser (and geek) if you don’t have a "Super Maria" tattoo on your belly and don’t show it off on your TikTok. And you don't have to save the princess in the meantime.
I’m old enough to have seen the same thing happen with heavy metal. You ask a guy wearing a jacket with Iron Maiden, Laaz Rockit, Anthrax, Manowar, Mekong Delta, Iron Angel patches what his favorite band is, and he replies... Bad Boys Blue. I don't know what they're called these days, but back then they were called “posers”.
On the other hand, social media algorithms in last 15 years or so are fueling the development of a subculture of “addicted to likes attentionwhores” like never before. Are video games popular right now? Cool, I want to be popular too, so I’ll get into “vidya gaemz.” And then we have these 20-something talking heads (no, not that band) telling us how they stood in all night line for a PS1 on release (for those who joined us recently, this refers to 1994–1995, depending on the region. And now we have 2026). Dude, you weren’t even born back then. Who are you trying to fool with your lies? :) And this crazy stuff is getting tens and hundreds of thousands of likes and followers. And there's nothing you can do about it because...
Next, another problem is that decades of enforced political correctness have raised more than one generation of snowflakes or whatever they're called these days, that can’t handle being told anything unpleasant and unflattering. All you have to do is point out a mistake to one of them, and you’ll get a mountain of hatred and accusations of every trendy sin in return. You can't tell the truth. You have to flatter people. It's always been that way, but over the last 10-15 years, it's reached unprecedented levels. А web of circlejerking mutual lies that many people, everyone who grew up within this system/culture, sincerely believe in.
And next, you’ll get banned from the platform because these days, platforms aren’t run by core enthusiasts like in 2006. They’re run by businesses. Businesses want to make money off their audience, but who are they going to milk if all the visible users (the most loud ones who show up in business analysts’ statistics) leave?
And some random dude who's about 25 now will keep telling everyone how he suffered while waiting in line all night for PS1, all while farming likes and followers :) And it is he who will shape the new reality.
Video games are a huge trend these days. It’s a business thing, and in some ways even a political one. So everybody wants to be in. Even though just yesterday they hated video games, consoles, personal computers, and all that “nerdy” stuff in general.
Just think about the “average” gamer portrait in let's say 1986, 1996, 2006, 2016 and finally in 2026. They’re all pretty different people. In 1986 you could get beaten up for being a geek and playing videogames. In 2026 you’re a loser (and geek) if you don’t have a "Super Maria" tattoo on your belly and don’t show it off on your TikTok. And you don't have to save the princess in the meantime.
I’m old enough to have seen the same thing happen with heavy metal. You ask a guy wearing a jacket with Iron Maiden, Laaz Rockit, Anthrax, Manowar, Mekong Delta, Iron Angel patches what his favorite band is, and he replies... Bad Boys Blue. I don't know what they're called these days, but back then they were called “posers”.
On the other hand, social media algorithms in last 15 years or so are fueling the development of a subculture of “addicted to likes attentionwhores” like never before. Are video games popular right now? Cool, I want to be popular too, so I’ll get into “vidya gaemz.” And then we have these 20-something talking heads (no, not that band) telling us how they stood in all night line for a PS1 on release (for those who joined us recently, this refers to 1994–1995, depending on the region. And now we have 2026). Dude, you weren’t even born back then. Who are you trying to fool with your lies? :) And this crazy stuff is getting tens and hundreds of thousands of likes and followers. And there's nothing you can do about it because...
Next, another problem is that decades of enforced political correctness have raised more than one generation of snowflakes or whatever they're called these days, that can’t handle being told anything unpleasant and unflattering. All you have to do is point out a mistake to one of them, and you’ll get a mountain of hatred and accusations of every trendy sin in return. You can't tell the truth. You have to flatter people. It's always been that way, but over the last 10-15 years, it's reached unprecedented levels. А web of circlejerking mutual lies that many people, everyone who grew up within this system/culture, sincerely believe in.
And next, you’ll get banned from the platform because these days, platforms aren’t run by core enthusiasts like in 2006. They’re run by businesses. Businesses want to make money off their audience, but who are they going to milk if all the visible users (the most loud ones who show up in business analysts’ statistics) leave?
And some random dude who's about 25 now will keep telling everyone how he suffered while waiting in line all night for PS1, all while farming likes and followers :) And it is he who will shape the new reality.
yeah, that's totally fine and I'm ok with that. As long as you don't try to shut me down when I tell a 16:9 person they're playing in the wrong aspect ratio I'm good.
There's nothing more fun than minding your own business and enjoying something, then having someone come tell you that you're not enjoying it properly.
It's not about changing people so much as not letting false information take over, why let flase info take over when you can say how things are and if people want to listen cool, if not they won't listen either way but at least I don't feel elf hate for bowing my head down and keeping to myself. Nothing suffocates me more in life than not speaking up.
Even if I change nothing, if I feel like speaking up I do so, if not I don't.
But having someone else tell me "don't get upset, keep to yourself" outright makes me want to tear the world apart, it's suffocating and draining emotionally, people trying to keep you down is the worst.
okay yeah i never meant keep it to yourself nor did i ever said that in the last comment.
you clearly did not wanna think about what i was trying to point out.
Gaming is more accepted more than it ever has today. Doom scrolling on tiktok, manosphere or the redpill, blackpill nonsense is where you'll believe it's not.
This is a topic that usually frustrates and angers people a great deal whenever I bring it up, but it's something I keep noticing more and more and it just makes me aware of how disrespected our hobby is.
I come from GameFAQs(before it was hell) and LUElinks, a gaming culture with very knowledgeable people, places where people who knew TRUE gaming gathered at one point.
As the years went on both places lost their passion for gaming one way or another and many who knew a lot about gaming left or got banned for political reasons, myself included.
Old gaming forums were largely abandoned and gaming as a whole grew too big and tourists whose only exposure to gaming is popular AAA gaming and some retro stuff they played as kids joined gaming circles. I'm not saying everyone needs encyclopedic knowledge on gaming, but we're now at a point where you're expected to turn a blind eye to people's constant basic mistakes and maintain toxic positivity without correcting anyone and without pointing out the wrong things they say. If you dare correct them, you are considered the bad guy. At the same time, if you go into a forum, group or community about some other form of entertainment such as sports, movies, music, books and so on and start spouting out nonsense, if you get corrected that's ok, but gaming? No let people "enjoy games however they want"
So what are some examples of this?
One thing we often see in retro gaming circles is people, IMO often tourists, who found a retro gaming system, popped the most popular gaming ever inside and are happily playing the thing at 16:9. Nobody allowed to correct or comment on it either, people will fight you if you do this. People notice nothing, they don't notice or are bothered by the stretched image, they don't care and if you dare comment on it, you are suddenly the evil gatekeeper who doesn't allow people to enjoy video games the way they want to. This gets even worse when people sell custom made arcades with 16:9 screens and ask over 1000 euros for them, if I dare correct them or point out they're asking over 1000 euros for mere pandora boxes all hell breaks loose, this is especially common in Macedonian facebook gaming groups because Macedonians, at large are willingly ignorant about gaming despite everything always being available and affordable here.(topic for another time)
Then we have genre mixing, this one is more understandable, but when you correct people, boy oh boy, you've committed the ultimate crime.
For example, often run 'n gun games are being listed as shmups by people.
what's your favorite shoot 'em up? Contra....it gets better, often even FPS games make the cut...DOOM, GoldenEye.....(someone recently said their favorite SNES Shoot em up was GoldenEye in a facebook retro gaming group...why not right?)
I correct them and invite the ire of the person who made the mistake and a bunch of others too.
As time goes on, gaming history is forgotten, gaming genres are being mixed up, people refuse to get informed and if corrected you are the problem.
Not long ago, again on a Macedonian gaming group some lady said that DOOM was the first ever PC Game. I asked "What about all the ones before it?" and a slew of moderators and white knights descended on me saying I was exceptionally aggressive and rude.
yet if I was in a soccer group, because these people are all obsessed with soccer and said something wrong about their favorite sport, I'd get corrected or made fun of.
Even the lady herself said I wasn't being rude because while joking about her lack of knowledge I did provide info too.
Something is wrong
gaming is being pushed aside, people are expected to be accepting of everyone's ignorance and never react in any way shape or form, never correct anyone either in a "gamer" way the way we've always done, but even if you're polite, even if you just point out the mistakes people get upset, angry.
And don't even get me started on the big game COLLECTORS most of whom are posers, tourists, when asked about their favorite games or what they played growing up, they'll list 5-6 popular titles and never even bother to dive deeper into retro gaming all while hoarding games left and right from people who might actually want to play them.
Post automatically merged:
I forgot to give one more example, a local "collector" recently bought a Colecovision, complete with a few games and all. Other than his usual "I play them for an hour then they're to be displayed on a shelf" his explanation to me of the Collecovision was "it's an interesting little console, it's like the ones you like, the Atari"
He had no conept, no grasp of what the ColecoVision was, had zero interest in reading anything about it, he randomly bought it on ebay because he could.
This guy has spent thousands upon thousands of euros on retro gaming and consoles in the past few months and his knowledge on gaming is no better than when he started.
Me and my friend struggled to explain what RPGs are to him a few months ago and he still stared at us blankly at the end.
Nothing "nerdy" is respected by normies, they may take an interest in an aspect of it in the short term but never really invest in it and it's just another phase in terms of interests, I was like this with things normies are obsessed with constantly talking about for a bit between 17-24 or so, then I returned to my books, games and science driven research for autoimmune issues I have, which worked out for me as I no longer have any of these issues after putting them into remission.
Some of us are built to "specialise", and we don't really have hobbies, more so restricted interests that we delve into a bit too much for normies, we also mentally tire easily from constant interactions with people, true introverts if you will (though this is contentious as being energised by constant social interaction isn't introverted vs extroverted, but instead it's how much you internalise vs externalise but that is way beyond the scope of a normies vs nerds conversation). Ironically, politics, sports and basic gossip tends to be the norm for the vast majority of people due to a lack of a fully developed internal sense of self, so they latch on too much to short hands for a sense of self, this is literally the majority of team based sports fans psychological profile. Now we live in a day and age where, on the internet, many, many people really, really wants to push how "special" they are and bait and bully people all day.
I belive we coin the phrase now for getting sick of all this sh*t as:
"I'm tired, boss"
Ask a "normie", even a relatively nerdy person that still has a drive to be a normie to degree for social reasons, why they like something, like really like something, ask them to break that down into when they started liking something, why it is that they like it etc., and usually, they break and give a generic response or worse get hostile and defensive. It is the thing gives them dopamine right now when they indulge in said activity, that's it. Nothing deep is going on. Many Gen-xers and older millenials are liek this about only music for some reason, I don't know why, it's a weird egenrational outlier. It's why they're so obnoxiously gatekeepy about music. Which is Ironic as the rules of music are all that needs to be followed to make a song "good", not what inspired the lyrical themes or the backstory of the artist. Framing is powerful and they don't realise this
"Bro, this is the story behind the album", all of sudden an okay album is very deep and thought provoking etc.
I spent way too long thinking about the why's and what's of too many things, and I can't say the why's and what's of the average person was worth my time. I understand them now at least.
Tourists and larpers will always be a thing. Being bothered by them is waste of mental energy, we can always just ignore thigs.
Kind of reminds me of literature and theater circles. Don't even get me started on vinyl...
The unwashed masses will get in on anything and either turn it into 'professional' tryhard hell, or into a hyper-casual social thing that completely loses sight of the initial point of interest.
It's too late for this now, but just snatch up what few interesting people you find and get out of there.
I'd argue people have always been ignorant of this hobby and that's fine. Around a decade ago I bought up a bunch of ntsc consoles and video games that sold cheaply in euro-land because 'it won't run on my console, something's wrong with it'. This one time I found almost fully pristine copies of ntsc Final Fantasy 8 and 9, as well as Silent Hill 1 and Metal Gear Solid 1 locally for next to nothing. (As a man of culture you will immediately know the utility of ntsc copies of some of those games; also, they had hardly been used because they didn't run on local hardware lol)
Local CRT tvs also come cheap, so I'm a happy camper. You should make good use of that while Macedonia is still like that. There are places where prices reached collector-levels and the people with the most cash to throw around are uncultured nouveau-riche swine.
'Feels less responsive than I remember and the graphics look horrible. Just look at how little it used to take for us to be entertained...'
Gaming is more accepted more than it ever has today. Doom scrolling on tiktok, manosphere or the redpill, blackpill nonsense is where you'll believe it's not.
yes, more people play games than ever but the weird tribal stuff is still there for some groups of people, the rise of the "PC game bro" coincided with this, and suddenly the word peasant is being used. So while more people do play games across, PC, phones and consoles, there's ironically more division too.
I don't like tourists as much as everyone else, but I also think that caring about how other people play games is a total waste of time and energy. Sometimes the best thing you can do is just log off of social media and do something you enjoy doing, you know? I've been in situations where people played PS1/2 games in stretched 16:9 many times, and at some point realized that if I like paying in original resolution and aspect ratio, it doesn't mean everyone else does or should. Most of the time they're aware that the game is stretched but keep it that way because most viewers would prefer that over black bars on the sides. Its just the way it is.
Same goes for gaming history. Anyone who's interested will research the topic or watch a video on YT about it, but getting angry at people who don't care about that stuff (because they are probably obsessed with something else) is just pointless at best. It all sounds like you had some bad experiences on the internet and desided that everyone is a dumb tourist, based on the ones who stick out from the crowd. Which is amplified by social media and dudes who parrot that "gaming is dead, or whatever". So again, sounds like a "chonically online" issue to me. And I say that as someone who is living on the internet all day every day.
As for the collecting and jacked up prices, yeah that sucks, no doubt. But I also understand that a lot of people just see it as a business: they see the demand and opportunity to make money, -- and more importantly, -- that many others already doing it, so they jump on the train too. Its just human nature and we can't change it, its everywhere.
oh man.. your right.. but I try to be "agreeable" most of the time cuz Im on someone else's turf and I respect what they do.. plus Im old and forget stuff sometimes.. but I 100% agree... plus Ive met really cool people here.. edit- oh man, I got here after everyone left a huge amount of responses.. oh well.. I hope everything is cool for us ( hiding that Im the largest asshole on earth)... naw, Im kidding, but yeah Ive had cool people here seem to know alot, compared to every where else "gaming" online ive been..
Nothing "nerdy" is respected by normies, they may take an interest in an aspect of it in the short term but never really invest in it and it's just another phase in terms of interests, I was like this with things normies are obsessed with constantly talking about for a bit between 17-24 or so, then I returned to my books, games and science driven research for autoimmune issues I have, which worked out for me as I no longer have any of these issues after putting them into remission.
Some of us are built to "specialise", and we don't really have hobbies, more so restricted interests that we delve into a bit too much for normies, we also mentally tire easily from constant interactions with people, true introverts if you will (though this is contentious as being energised by constant social interaction isn't introverted vs extroverted, but instead it's how much you internalise vs externalise but that is way beyond the scope of a normies vs nerds conversation). Ironically, politics, sports and basic gossip tends to be the norm for the vast majority of people due to a lack of a fully developed internal sense of self, so they latch on too much to short hands for a sense of self, this is literally the majority of team based sports fans psychological profile. Now we live in a day and age where, on the internet, many, many people really, really wants to push how "special" they are and bait and bully people all day.
I belive we coin the phrase now for getting sick of all this sh*t as:
"I'm tired, boss"
Ask a "normie", even a relatively nerdy person that still has a drive to be a normie to degree for social reasons, why they like something, like really like something, ask them to break that down into when they started liking something, why it is that they like it etc., and usually, they break and give a generic response or worse get hostile and defensive. It is the thing gives them dopamine right now when they indulge in said activity, that's it. Nothing deep is going on. Many Gen-xers and older millenials are liek this about only music for some reason, I don't know why, it's a weird egenrational outlier. It's why they're so obnoxiously gatekeepy about music. Which is Ironic as the rules of music are all that needs to be followed to make a song "good", not what inspired the lyrical themes or the backstory of the artist. Framing is powerful and they don't realise this
"Bro, this is the story behind the album", all of sudden an okay album is very deep and thought provoking etc.
I spent way too long thinking about the why's and what's of too many things, and I can't say the why's and what's of the average person was worth my time. I understand them now at least.
Tourists and larpers will always be a thing. Being bothered by them is waste of mental energy, we can always just ignore thigs.
I feel more exhausted when I don't point things out.
I feel like the more you ignore things, the more false info gets spread and it costs me less energy to correct someone or point them in the right direction than to lie to myself that I'm ok with whatever thing I see wrong.
I don't like tourists as much as everyone else, but I also think that caring about how other people play games is a total waste of time and energy. Sometimes the best thing you can do is just log off of social media and do something you enjoy doing, you know? I've been in situations where people played PS1/2 games in stretched 16:9 many times, and at some point realized that if I like paying in original resolution and aspect ratio, it doesn't mean everyone else does or should. Most of the time they're aware that the game is stretched but keep it that way because most viewers would prefer that over black bars on the sides. Its just the way it is.
Same goes for gaming history. Anyone who's interested will research the topic or watch a video on YT about it, but getting angry at people who don't care about that stuff (because they are probably obsessed with something else) is just pointless at best. It all sounds like you had some bad experiences on the internet and desided that everyone is a dumb tourist, based on the ones who stick out from the crowd. Which is amplified by social media and dudes who parrot that "gaming is dead, or whatever". So again, sounds like a "chonically online" issue to me. And I say that as someone who is living on the internet all day every day.
As for the collecting and jacked up prices, yeah that sucks, no doubt. But I also understand that a lot of people just see it as a business: they see the demand and opportunity to make money, -- and more importantly, -- that many others already doing it, so they jump on the train too. Its just human nature and we can't change it, its everywhere.
It's not that big a deal to point out "hey you're not supposed to play this at 16:9, it looks all stretched and wrong, you can go to your TV's or emulator's settings and make it look right in most cases. Why is pointing this out so wrong and why is ignoring it the accepted option?
It's not as if we're in another field we would be ignored if we do or say fundamentally wrong things, so why are we putting gaming down as a hobby by choosing to just ignore what I can easily correct, after that whether the person chooses to listen to me or not is their choice.
I feel this forum is one of the last bastions of true gaming on the internet, so maybe not.
And even if it does, that's normal for a gaming forum, we fight, we talk, that's how it's always been
People who do the "why do you care" act are usually one of three things:
A) Intellectual cowards, whom would rather avoid conflict at all costs..
B) Those who are perfectly happy with the takeover that is occurring, but is otherwise not personally involved..
C) The very people who are pushing and/or encouraging the takeover, and are actively trying to gaslight you into feeling bad for caring in the first place..
Especially in cases of the third type, the accusation disguised as a (bad faith) question can just as easily be reversed upon them. "Why do I care? Well, you seem to care about it an awful lot; why is that?"
I could elaborate with with IRL examples, but that would befoul Forum Rule #4..
It's not that big a deal to point out "hey you're not supposed to play this at 16:9, it looks all stretched and wrong, you can go to your TV's or emulator's settings and make it look right in most cases. Why is pointing this out so wrong and why is ignoring it the accepted option?
People who do the "why do you care" act are usually one of three things:
A) Intellectual cowards, whom would rather avoid conflict at all costs..
B) Those who are perfectly happy with the takeover that is occurring, but is otherwise not personally involved..
C) The very people who are pushing and/or encouraging the takeover, and are actively trying to gaslight you into feeling bad for caring in the first place..
Especially in cases of the third type, the accusation disguised as a (bad faith) question can just as easily be reversed upon them. "Why do I care? Well, you seem to care about it an awful lot; why is that?"
Do you imagine that being passionate and caring about your hobbies somehow locks you out of life stuff?
Let's see what all I do in life because even tho I know this is the default go-to internet insult
- I'm a legally blind illustrator, granted I haven't done much illustration since 2024 due to severe eyestrain and physical burnout(not mental burnout if I could I'd draw forever)
I used to get BULLIED over my love for gaming at a time when it still wasn't "socially acceptable" to broadcast that your afternoon may involve shooting demons in the face with the Super Shotgun.
The switch from offline (private, casual, deeply personal) to online (communal, massive, update-your-AOL-status-with) gaming opened a lot of doors, but it also allowed for certain elements to entrench themselves with as if they had been the keepers of the flame all-along.
Gaming has come a long way and it's mostly been great, but tell me of any ride that hasn't either been hijacked or had a bandwagon hitched to it.
*SIGHS* It's almost like a mandatory thing for any hobby that grows into the mainstream.
and I'm still in purgatory and technoMF got BANNED because the mods think we're the same person.
Pretty sure the mods here can confirm we're not as he has an account on here as well
it's literal insanity over there
nevermind that I keep getting suspended for months on end randomly for Transophobia I've LITERALLY NEVER posted on the boards because it all stems from LUElinks and the mods there are literally in cahoots with Kiffe and no kiffe doesn't live rent free in my head this is real as psychotic as it makes me sound :D
and I'm still in purgatory and technoMF got BANNED because the mods think we're the same person.
Pretty sure the mods here can confirm we're not as he has an account on here as well
it's literal insanity over there
nevermind that I keep getting suspended for months on end randomly for Transophobia I've LITERALLY NEVER posted on the boards because it all stems from LUElinks and the mods there are literally in cahoots with Kiffe and no kiffe doesn't live rent free in my head this is real as psychotic as it makes me sound :D
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
