Is gaming more acceptable now?

[miguk]

Like others said, it's a generational thing. Previous generations had a hatred for nerds; nerds were associated with computers; computers ran games; thus, people who played games were hated. We could speculate on why this happened. My guess is that Boomers and early Gen Xers that got too exposed to aerosolized tetraethyllead (which causes lowered cognition and increased aggression) during their early years (pre-ban on it in gasoline) ended up hating the people who still had their brains in good enough shape to go on to better careers in higher technology. Later generations born after the ban didn't have this issue, but had to slowly back off from the social stigma that was pushed on them.

On top of that, the improvements in computer technology in the 90s made it so people became a bit more open to games. I remember Final Fantasy VII changed a lot of people's minds, and by the time the Dreamcast launched, I saw inner city kids who were far from nerds gushing over it. Since then, everything nerd-related has moved towards the mainstream, with only a small portion of nerdom still being fringe by 2010. Really, at this point, I think the only nerd stuff that's still fringe is eroge; everything else is more or less common place.

animation has been around for a century and puppetry for at least half a millennium, but you'll never see either in a proper art gallery (at least, not without heavy pushback from professional critics).

I'm not so sure you go to many art galleries. Pop art has been on display since Andy Warhol popularized it. I've seen various references to animation in galleries, including animation itself in multimedia displays. (Note that Warhol himself painted Mickey Mouse and filmed Batman Dracula.) I've personally seen superheroes and action figures used in art. And newer generations of artists are playing around with pop culture more and more.

I'm glad I got to experience the 80's and 90's era of animation. Both Disney and anime studios were cooking in that era. Clearly it was produced through a lot of outsourced sweatshop work, but the results are far more pleasing than the modern batch of computer aided animation.

Don Bluth, Ralph Bakshi, Rankin/Bass, and TopCraft (now Ghibli) were all creating great films during the so-called "dark age of animation" of the 70s and 80s. Granted, they had plenty of garbage contemporaries, but that was mainly in TV animation. And their work helped usher in the animation renaissance of the 90s, especially Bakshi and TopCraft with all the animators they influenced. (Fun fact: Bakshi's Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures is often credited with massively improving TV animation, as multiple major animators of the 90s got their start on that series.)

 

[bjork]

Maybe I just lived in a bubble or a place where it wasn't frowned upon, but games were always a thing that was okay. There are always gonna be people who look down on anything, but someone's looking down on their chosen hobbies too. I think it's definitely more marketable now, and maybe that makes it more okay to some people? "Well if The Rizzler says he wants to fuck this Pokemon, pokemon must be cool" or whatever.

 

[Gorse]

Maybe I just lived in a bubble or a place where it wasn't frowned upon, but games were always a thing that was okay.

Yeah, I actually grew up in a time and place where everyone was OK with it, too. Obviously our mid-40s parents didn’t get it, but everyone I knew (girls included) was into at least some form of gaming, cartoons/anime, or other facet of nerd culture.

 

[Weebicon]

I pretty much lucked out being born into a family of gamers, from my mom knowing all the cool tricks in Super Mario Bros, to my dad playing every FPS game that released, to even my extended family having some kind of device for gaming. Like others have said I grew up having gaming normalized, the only time I'd ever seen gaming be frowned on was in movies and TV shows from the old days.

 

[AtlasM]

I never got any impression that gaming was frowned upon until I jumped into the International forums rabbit hole

My parents liked it when I play games, because that meant I was home and not who knows where, doing who knows what. Of course, there are limits, I still had to study and get good exam results to get new games. Regardless, I've always got the impression that gaming = reward = good.

It was honestly alien to me that some people looked down on it. Like, they're okay with movies and videos, they're okay with Fighting Fantasy game books, but not video games for fuck all reasons? It was blowing my mind lol

 

[lvl]

I just believe we have multiple of generations of gamers now. There are Grandfathers out there playing because they have been since the beginning. Props to the people who passed down the title Gamer.

Yes this is what is going to say. Most of the people, (mostly guys lol) i talk to that are my age (40s), they grew up gaming, nes, snes, sms, genesis, etc. Some own new generation consoles, others moved on to PC, they have less time, but play games when they can. My best friend became a father about 2 years ago, and he is always playing PS5 with the kid looking to the TV. The kid loves spiderman because of seeing the father playing it, for sure it will continue the legacy of gaming lol.

 

[YuriSukiSan]

There's very little that isn't a niché hobby anymore unless it involves something very time consuming, even traditional war gaming has become main stream. That attitude of lookling 'down' on different types of media I think is only really prevalent with certain groups of people nowadays, and it really depends on the culture of the people. Across most of the world it's not really a big issue anymore, just speaking about my own country it's frowned upon in some very rural parts of my own country but then that's by people who practice nothing but ultra traditionalist beliefs all day, every day.

 

[ThatsNotRich]

I find it interesting and not too shocking that you use the word grandfathers. I grew up in the 80's where gaming was not only pretty much a taboo but it was only something that only the boys that weren't jocks did. Of course that wasn't strictly true, arcades basically were alternative culture at that time, but its strange how locked in each generation is about gaming. Female gamers in my generation were extremely rare and, barring candy crush, they still are today.

I enjoyed your response. My uncle brought me in and I am truly appreciative of his knowledge at the time.
I think using the term grand I may have been exaggerating, but getting my point across at the same time. Some early gamers got lucky and found the right one and now have grandkids or are on the way for sure.

 

[spectresfrommercury]

unfortunately.

 

[Jeanfranc]

unfortunately.

Yep, gaming had to become mainstream for it to be "acceptable" as a hobby, so yeah, not cool

 

[Yousef]

I accept gaming yeah

 

[antii]

Yea it’s a lot more accepted now like anime and gaming had a big boom in 2020 I remember when everyone was like guys anime is so cool now. I was like bro it’s always been cool you just refused to watch it . Plus people know play vast amounts of games there’s something out there for someone to play

Post automatically merged: Jan 15, 2025

unfortunately.

Ur so real for this

 

[Somnia]

I'm 29 and I don't think it was ever taboo or weird to bring up video games. Kids would play video games at birthday parties, go to Chuck E Cheese to play games for tickets and talk about them with each other at school. From the sporty kids to the outcasts, everyone played games to some extent. Same with most people I know from across the US within a similar age range.

In high school I kinda mingled with every social group to some degree even if "my people" were still primarily the nerd/otaku type. None of us ever really got bullied for it though and I'd talk with jocks about Forza, CoD or Halo all the time.

 

[antii]

I'm 29 and I don't think it was ever taboo to bring up video games. Kids would play video games at birthday parties, go to Chuck E Cheese to play games for tickets and talk about them with each other at school. From the sporty kids to the outcasts, everyone played games to some extent. Same with most people I know from across the US within a similar age range.

Damn I guess maybe like it was different in the 90s cause the late 2000s 2010s it was seen as weird atleast where I was from growing up in the city there was a select few of us that were into it but you were seen as weird if you didn’t play sports and read manga and watched anime

 

[Phantasy Violence]

Ironically, now rock music is the boring, crusty old medium that kids have moved away from! I wonder if that will ever happen to video games when something new comes along.

Man, I turned on the old rock radio station I used to listen to as a teen and the ads and generic "dj banter" were out of control. The music was also garbage, everything sounded like Imagine Dragons, but I guess that's always the case when you get older and age out of certain music styles.

 

[Auriiya]

Being a gamer in the 80s 90s hanging out playing games smoking weed was like being a hippie in the 60s 70s smoking weed and playing music etc. For example small niche groups then growing to it's recreational or normal then main stream accepted. Now it's grown to where it's in nearly every household games like weed has a lot of names and flavors and everyone has their own favorite. Haha long story short now matter the label placed to describe or how people judged those they seen that the label fit. It became a time of your life you never forget.

 

[VampireLord1024]

Do you think gaming and “nerd culture” have become more mainstream

I'd say yes.

 

[χKai]

Growing up in the ’90s, I was cautious about bringing up video games with other kids. Plenty of us played, but talking about it at school could get you labeled a nerd. It was like watching Pokémon or Dragon Ball Z—lots of kids did it, but you had to pretend you didn’t.

These days, social norms feel much more accepting. Rappers reference Naruto, PS5s are in living rooms instead of basements, and I have no problem telling my wife I’m playing Elden Ring for a few hours.

Do you think gaming and “nerd culture” have become more mainstream, or is it just about growing up and becoming more confident?

The genre itself grew up and became more confident.

 

[zilbert25]

100% more acceptible and everyone games's all ages , male and female. Good time to be alive

 

[Stingy Perry]

Saying gaming is acceptable is an understatement. Gaming has become a hundred million if not billion dollar industry which is second to the movie industry.

 

[revolve]

I think it's a generational thing. I also grew up in the 90s and gaming was pretty normal among my peers even back in elementary school. I used to see a lot of kids playing pokemon or digimon in the playground, either using physical cards or portable devices. PS1/PS2 was huge and it was a common after school activity besides sports. It was not only boys, a girl I knew was a big fan of DDR and a jrpg that uses music (don't remember the title).

For adults it was an entirely different matter tho. They didn't understand gaming at all and really despised it. I remember teachers and parents viewed gaming as a wasteful activity and often went out of their way to prevent kids from playing. For example I got sega mega drive and PS 2 as a hand me down from a relative, but I only got to play them during long holidays and my parents often complained and urged me to play outside.

Eventually the kids become parents and because they understand gaming (they're often gamers themselves) so they aren't as strict as the previous generation, I think. I mean they do know some negative aspects of gaming but they tend to have a more neutral perspective, viewing gaming as any other pastime activity such as watching movies.

 

[adamthekaiju]

I think video games, anime, etc are more acceptable these days. However, I think there is a "normal meter" for them. Your typical bro gamer and anime watcher are acceptable. But when you dip into the geek pool, you get looked at a little weird. Just because they like some of the hobbies you like doesn't mean they will like you.

 

[Iracunda]

Not just gaming, but it feels like a lot of "nerd" culture became cool. Does anyone remember in the 2010's where it was cool to dress up like a stereotypical nerd? (Thick framed glasses, button up shirts tucked in with a bowtie.) Eventually that got labeled as hipster, but there was a good 3 some years where people were just calling themselves nerds because they watched the Avengers or their older siblings had a ps3 or something.

 

[Anonicus]

It's kinda funny thinking back on it but.
Back in the 2000's when I was growing up in school, A lot of kids really liked games but what type of games you liked depends if you are cool or not. A good example is how a bunch of kids in my classes liked Halo or Call of Duty but used to enjoy Pokemon. I grew up with Pokemon but it became something that some kids made fun of me for liking and going like "Oh my little brother likes that" trying to imply that it's something for kids and that I'm playing games that are too kiddie.

Though these days, Gaming is like, Very well accepted. Even more Fantasy type games like Elden Ring are being played by cool dudes who work out a lot. Even Anime is also a lot more mainstream which in a way I kinda wished that wasn't since people wanna bitch and moan about things in Anime a lot.

 

[AnonymousCookieMonster]

Gaming was always acceptable. Been around for thousands of years, one of the earliest instances being Chess.

Is being geeky and nerdy gaming acceptable? Depends on your point of view. But arcades have made billions of dollars with people putting in quarters by the loads in the 70's, 80's and 90's so i would say yes.

Is it acceptable to go running around cosplaying as Mario or other characters? I don't see why not... Japan does it all the time...