Having grown up with games almost constantly being a part of my life, I feel as if I hold the hobby a bit close to the heart. For as long as I can remember I have been playing games. From my first life in Super Mario Bros. on some Christmas morning of my youth to pumping quarters into a MKII machine at a local skating rink, to earlier this morning where I was playing my friend in Super Street Fighter IV over the internet. 
 
Clearly, things have come a long way, even in the last 20 years. This has been made really apparent by the release of Blops. 
 
I was chatting with my 15-year-old cousin on Facebook earlier today, just saying hi or whatever. She is....well, she is what a typical 15-year-old girl is in America these days: meaning she is entirely submerged in whatever mainstream bullshit is popular these days. So I was really surprised when she told me she had been playing Black Ops all day yesterday.  
 
She doesn't play games.  
Yet she plays Black Ops, and for some reason this genuinely bothered me. 
 
It seems anytime anything from our little subculture (God, I hate that term) goes mainstream, I get put off by it. But why? 
 
Maybe it's because of the whole Activision thing, maybe it's because I've fallen to the "Cool Kid Syndrome" where anything people like I refuse to accept, or maybe it's just from growing up where if you played games all day you were a loser, and now the head cheerleader is headshotting fools in Headquarters and posting "jus p0wned n000bs in CoD. weeeeeeeeerd biatchs" on Facebook (this is not far from an exact quote, heartbreaking as it is).  
 
I feel very hypocritical in that I'm sure Black Ops is a great game, and I'm planning on picking it up with my next paycheck, but I can't shake this sense of... not wanting to become a part of that side of gaming. The same as the 12-year-old kids on Halo spouting racial slurs and the idiots fighting over which console is better than the other.  
 
But I will, because I want to play good games, even if it has to be with the other, more obnoxious side of the hobby.  

 
Tl,DR: People suck, but putting on good music and kicking back in your comfy chair to shoot fools is always a good time.

Having grown up with games almost constantly being a part of my life, I feel as if I hold the hobby a bit close to the heart. For as long as I can remember I have been playing games. From my first life in Super Mario Bros. on some Christmas morning of my youth to pumping quarters into a MKII machine at a local skating rink, to earlier this morning where I was playing my friend in Super Street Fighter IV over the internet. 
 
Clearly, things have come a long way, even in the last 20 years. This has been made really apparent by the release of Blops. 
 
I was chatting with my 15-year-old cousin on Facebook earlier today, just saying hi or whatever. She is....well, she is what a typical 15-year-old girl is in America these days: meaning she is entirely submerged in whatever mainstream bullshit is popular these days. So I was really surprised when she told me she had been playing Black Ops all day yesterday.  
 
She doesn't play games.  
Yet she plays Black Ops, and for some reason this genuinely bothered me. 
 
It seems anytime anything from our little subculture (God, I hate that term) goes mainstream, I get put off by it. But why? 
 
Maybe it's because of the whole Activision thing, maybe it's because I've fallen to the "Cool Kid Syndrome" where anything people like I refuse to accept, or maybe it's just from growing up where if you played games all day you were a loser, and now the head cheerleader is headshotting fools in Headquarters and posting "jus p0wned n000bs in CoD. weeeeeeeeerd biatchs" on Facebook (this is not far from an exact quote, heartbreaking as it is).  
 
I feel very hypocritical in that I'm sure Black Ops is a great game, and I'm planning on picking it up with my next paycheck, but I can't shake this sense of... not wanting to become a part of that side of gaming. The same as the 12-year-old kids on Halo spouting racial slurs and the idiots fighting over which console is better than the other.  
 
But I will, because I want to play good games, even if it has to be with the other, more obnoxious side of the hobby.  

 
Tl,DR: People suck, but putting on good music and kicking back in your comfy chair to shoot fools is always a good time.

I know what you mean.  I caved and picked up Black Ops last night and felt a little bit dirty.  Things have definitely changed.  It's not like in the '90s when Quake and UT ruled the roost but shooters back then were still very much in the niche gaming sub-culture.  There were no splashy TV ads featuring basketball stars and most people back then could barely get their dial-up Internet connection running.

CoD's demographic is a very particular one. By which I mean, it is a contemporary tale of war. Ina  nation like the United States, who is presently in one War and out the other, this means the soldier mentality is one a lot of young men and women are trying to emulate. Most of the mainstream appeal comes from the frat boys and bald chaps who think war is oh so cool. CoD is meant to appeal to people who have the ability to suggest something and be heard even if talking to someone out of their demographic. While I certainly agree that there is some disconcerting tones to the industry lately, with a very large portion of it coming from Activision, I think that the Call of Duty franchise is someone unique at the moment as far as it's mainstream appeal.

It's what happens when a specialised, niche hobby becomes big business. I personally don't plan on playing such games online because I dislike slumming with the racist, homophobic kids that have no respect for the hobby, who ruin it for everyone else. Besides the continuous hacking and glitching that marred the times I've tried to play online. There are so many good games from the past and excellent single-player experiences that it isn't necessary if you don't want to put up with it.

Play it on the PC like I do and you'll still feel special. Consoles have been idiot proofed for the masses so gaming PC's are still out of reach for the mouth breathers. Besides, the PC is like Jesus; eventually it will come back to it's former glory when you fuckers realize how bad shit has gone in console land.

Just be like me and become an Elitist. It's not so bad.

Gaming still hasn't gone mainstream. All COD shows is that large segments of society enjoy shooting people in the face and derive a lot of pleasure out of that, than say traversing a beautiful landscape in Prince of Persia. Don't be happy that COD is a mainstream phenomenon, be sad, for it's a sad reflection on where society is and where possibly videogames are going to be going down in the next decade.

I think it's probably better to enjoy higher-budget video games while not being considered a pariah, but that's just my opinion. If it weren't for a bigger audience, games wouldn't be half as great as they are today. And, if you don't like listening to potheads on XBLA or PSN, just use the in game mute button, or plug in a microphone and throw it across the room. Games can still be played for fun. 
 
Also, I find it funny that kids and teenagers are being blamed for all the problems with Live. Sure enough, they have almost nothing in the way of attention span or basic courtesy, but if I had five cents for every player 25 or older who pissed me off, I wouldn't need a job, just the latest Call of Duty title.

Personally I don't give a shite about what's popular or not. I liek it because I liek it.

 @extremeradical:

 I feel really weird and put-off by the way people perceive gaming and the community behind it as either a bunch of frat guys or 12-year-olds, without much in between. 

" Now that that gaming has entered the realm of popular culture, you gotta specialize! Is the simple fact that you play videogames no longer making you a unique individual? Then go play something off the wall; reject the main facets of gaming!   Me? Well I play SMT games, overly complex grand strategy games like Europa Universalis III and weird eastern bloc PC titles! When the members of the CoD corner in my class ask me what I play, they look at me funny! "

" Play it on the PC like I do and you'll still feel special. Consoles have been idiot proofed for the masses so gaming PC's are still out of reach for the mouth breathers. Besides, the PC is like Jesus; eventually it will come back to it's former glory when you fuckers realize how bad shit has gone in console land. "

Though i love me some console gaming..

It's natural psychology for someone who is part of a small community to want to hold on to it as such when it begins to expand and gather new followers.  Humans naturally cherish things that are only know or practiced by small groups of people.  It feels more intimate to us.

It's just way to easy to ignore the obnoxious commentary playing games online these days to miss out on good games...ie Blops.  And the more people who get sucked in and stop saying 'never', the more investment in video game development will be available, and hence, games keep evolving and getting better and better, and my hobby never stops being fun.  And to be clear, people from every walk of life and age group are playing these big titles nowadays...the crowd is more diverse than ever.  Gaming is heading for the mainstream in a steady progression, and that's a good thing for all us gamers imo.

I'm fed up of wanting to be on the fringe and liking things other people don't out of choice.  
 
Over the last few years I've genuinely grown up a bit: before, where I'd worry that my passion was catching on, and other people didn't really like it like I did, I now don't care. 
 
Cowboy Bebop is massive. Great: more people to talk about it with. Breaking Bad is a popular show. Fantastic: it'll get renewed for another season. 
 
Mass appeal needn't be a terrible thing. 
 
Catering to the lowest-common denominator should.

" Mass appeal needn't be a terrible thing.  Catering to the lowest-common denominator should. "

" It's natural psychology for someone who is part of a small community to want to hold on to it as such when it begins to expand and gather new followers.  Humans naturally cherish things that are only know or practiced by small groups of people.  It feels more intimate to us. "

I agree, but this is really a "problem" in lots of games.
I remember when WoW was nerdy as hell and no one knew what it is, but now you're a nerd if you never heard of it (how does that work exactly? I do not know, really!).
Same goes for any decently mainstream marketed title like Halo, God of War or any of the Call of Duties recently.
 
I try to not be part of those communities but that kinda means I have to not play some of my favorite games online...
Because getting camped across the level by a 12year old asking me to "TITS OR GTFO" is a nice way to spend 60 bucks innit?

It's not even the fact that so many people like it - it's that so many fucking people think they're hot shit just because they play "the culladitties and stuff, i'm such a gamerr nerd xDxD", and feel the need to mention it at every opportunity like they're some kind of special snowflake. It's like they're trying to go for the whole ironic "i like uncool stuff and am self-deprecating for the sake of drawing attention to myself", except every fucking person is doing it so they just look like tools - "hurr durr i like oxygen im such a person lololol xD gawddd O_o".

I kinda know what you mean about not wanting to be a part of that culture. I still haven't even played MW2, and I think that this feeling is at least partially responsible for that. I'm just kinda done with the whole online shooter thing and the crowd that comes with them, at least for now.

Yeah, it's especially weird in high school, where everyone is talking about Blops but if you mention that you play pretty much any other game, you're looked at kinda weird. Not as much as the past though, I suspect.

The only reason why I distance myself from the masses is usually because their lack of resolve when questioned about their adoption of popular things.  Most of the time, they cannot rationalise anything they do, and in the end, they show just how compulsive they can be.  
 
If I mention some niche game, they will hardly have the interest in at least looking into it, and will only pay attention to games that they hear from a lot of people, and buy it and get easily into the games that are simplified to hell(or as people like to call it, "accessible").  Their easiness to please and that they only gravitate towards "popular" games without even glancing at what else is out there, disappoints me really.
 
What I said is really more my own personal annoyances with the mainstream media, so take what I said here with a grain of salt.  I hope I at least make some sense though.