Were you ever embarrassed to admit you played games?

Honestly, when I was younger I did feel there was a stigma attached to games, especially in regards to girls.

However, as I'm now an adult I find nobody actually gives a shit, and that the people who did give a shit, weren't the people you want to hang out with anyways.

So... did you ever conceal, or hide the fact (or just be embarrassed to admit you played games). If you did...why? Why did you back then believe video games had this stigma attached to them?

Nope, I've always been honest about my gaming life.  
So much honesty that it now pays the bills and that I would rather sit at home with a few friends and play games rather than go to some party where the music is the  same music that was popular 12 years ago. 

Nope, i'm a nerd and i'm damn proud of it.

Nope, it's just another hobby of mine.

When I was in middle school, I was hesitant to admit this sort of thing. Late in my junior year of high school, going into my senior year, I developed pride for my hobby. It started with open conversations about Final Fantasy with a geek friend in a class. At first, I was ashamed, but eventually stopped caring. This grew. I remember when I went to GameStop at lunchtime to pick up The Burning Crusade, and showing it off to class mates. To make things better, I learned that a whole bunch of my acquaintances played WoW and other RPGs.

I'd developed enough confidence in the eight grade to not care. You don't need to be "proud" of it.

I mostly just embraced it. The crowd of people I fell in with all enjoyed the same things, and there wasn't a shortage of us. Sure, we were geeks. That was never a problem, though.

I remember the conversations about when they were going to make a Half-Life 2 (and how excited I was when Blue Shift got announced). *sniff* I wonder what we'd have been saying about Half-Life 3?

Used to be, during school and such.
 
But around high school I said fuck it and embraced it.
I don't care what they think anymore.

No i always promoted it as great way to have some fun.

Fight the power!

I do not remember playing any games I would be embarrassed to tell others about.

Not at all as far as I am concerned its up there with sports as one of the best hobbys to have, might not get that much exercise but wheres the fun in that.

Nope.

No. However one of my friends was a bit too proud of our games playing, as he let slip to a teacher that we shared about how we skipped a lot of class to play Halo 2 during our senior year. I'm seriously amazed that there wasn't some kind of truancy penalty and summer school or something necessary with the number of absences I had.

In high school, I was like "Yeah, I don't play them as much as I used to..." So I never outright denied it, but I did kind of try to hide it in high school.

Now? I don't care. I hear a lot of people around college bringing up Modern Warfare or Skyrim like the most normal thing ever. Video games are around campus and pretty well acknowledged, and even if they weren't I wouldn't be ashamed of it.

actually no. never video games.

whats embarrassing about video games? even a decade ago it was never embarrassing to play games. well maybe its why i was never that popular in school lol. but i saw it as something everyone did, which is pretty much the truth. i cant even think of anyone i know under the age of 35 that doesn't play at least some games.

now i'd never tell anyone i played D&D and shit, cus well you tell people that and they think you're a creepy weirdo :(

Don't recall, but as an adult I tend to not mention it unless it comes up. It's not from being ashamed, it's just that you never know when you will get one of those people that blame all the worlds problems on video games and I don't want to start arguing with someone that I'm going to have to work with about why they are idiots who don't know what they are talking about.

Probably whenever I was around an attractive girl in high school

I just told a girl I played video games a few minutes ago and she was fine with it as long as I didn't play all the time which of course I don't. And this from a girl who knows nothing about video games. I don't think it is that big of a deal. Everyone has different interests.

I was picked on by others because I like to play video games, so I think the question answers itself. It wasn't until later I realized that those fucking hypocrites were just jealous.

Nope.

I was interested in games quite young, but my love of games wouldn't have blossomed into what it is now if it wasn't for meeting people who liked games as well.

I remember during freshmen year in high school I admitted openly during class that I played Counter-Strike a lot. A kid made fun of me and the whole class laughed. It was very awkward and it put me off.

Now-a-days I don't talk about games to strangers unless it's brought up.

No, playing games is perfectly normal.

Not really, but a certain older professor used to joke around about my game playing habits...and some classmates...have to, kill them, all.

No because fuck them if they think negatively of me as a result of something as innocuous as playing video games.

Not to admit that I play video games, no. But I'm usually embarassed to admit the extent to which I like video games and know about them, unless I'm around friends who share the same passion.

Fuck no. Why would I be embarrassed about something that does great things for life love and the american way. JUSTICE

Yeah, because playing games is totally something to be ashamed of.

Nope, if people really care that much they need to get their heads out of their ass.

Used to get bullied and had the link cables yanked out of our gameboys when trading pokemon, fuck those guys though. Think widespread acceptance for me was when I bought Vice City on break and upon returning even the girls in the class wanted to know what was what.

I don't remember ever being embarrassed. I'm open to saying that I actively play video games. It's just another hobby of mine, and I'm not just one of those gamers that spends hours on hours everyday in front of the TV/monitor. Nothing to be ashamed of here.

I don't really talk about them to most of the people I know, since I don't know a lot of people that play video games. That said, I'm not embarrassed. I just don't want to bore people with something they don't care about. Anyone I know well knows that I have a degree in CS: Computer Game Design, so they can probably connect the dots there.

I did get snubbed pretty hard after telling a girl at a bar that I was a software developer a couple weeks ago, which I found kind of funny. I didn't realize that sort of cliche was a real thing.

@FritzDude said:

I was picked on by others because I like to play video games, so I think the question answers itself. It wasn't until later I realized that those fucking hypocrites were just jealous.

Jealous of what?

Nope, never. I see no reason to hide it from people.

I'm so not embarrassed that I play games, that I wear COG Tags so everyone knows.

Certainly! I got an odd look by some fellow "gamers" at the local Gamestop when I bought a DBZ game. The guy behind the counter was really nice and we had a small conversation about games even though he admitted he never liked DBZ or anime in general.

It's the difference between people acting like their in high school and acting like adults. In high school I was scared to say I wanted to play Kingdom Hearts, now I have roommates and friends who have a recommend it.

Uhh, being a video game enthusiast has always been one of the defining characteristics of my personality, ever since I first played a Sega Genesis when I was a little kid. So no, I can't say that I've ever felt uncomfortable with the fact that I play video games.
 
Edit: Also, nobody ever picked on me or gave me shit for it. I don't know why they would.

Once I reached college I realized that absolutely nobody gave a shit if I played games or not, but before then I didn't actively broadcast my hobby of playing a ton of games.

I was only embarrassed when they caught me with my pants down playing Carmen Sandiego. And only because I was caught....getting the clues wrong.

Yeah, I was until I got over the fear that I might just be some loser, and I might be unable to see that videogames are just fucking bullshit nerdy pandering baby toys.

Nowadays I'm like 20 and I have a pretty confident awareness of what I'm into. Yes there are videogames that only fucking crazy people are into, but I'm not SCARED I might be one of them.

I DO have to tell people I make videogames for a living, and I have to over-compensate on making sure they also know I make money doing it. Otherwise people just think you're a cock who is unemployed and likes to fuck about.

Never. People need to pursue their own interests and disregard what others think.

Never...

If someone doesn't like it, whatever, screw them.

But I also don't force talking about it to people who have no interest.

I remember that happening at a bar after work and it was just awkward, the bozo talking to the person with no interest just didn't realize they could give a shit less.

Just created some awkward moments.

Anyway, games are nothing to be ashamed of.

If someone is going to judge you on something like that it's probably someone I'd rather not be talking to anyway.

When was the last time someone was made fun of or judged for loving movies? Or reading books?

If I'm excited about a game coming out (eh em, Diablo III) I'll tell anyone I feel like telling though, hah.

I actually got multiple people in my old office to buy 360s just due to my excitement over certain titles being released.

That's the only time I'll bombard any "non-believers" with that sort of information when they sense somethings up due to me acting like a kid on Christmas.

: )

Yes, back in my mmorpg days.

My first answer to the get to know you question of: "So what do you do for fun?" I always give without delay is "Videogames" I've been playing them since I could remember and I'll play them until I can't remember what I had for breakfast. I'll never be embarrassed about it.

I understand why some people would be hesitant though. The media doesn't paint a flattering picture of us.

No, because I used to do the majority of my gaming at a LAN center, so there was no real way of hiding it.

a little, because some people were like o my little brother plays that game.

not really since i found that i had a lot of video game loving friends

Kinnnnd of, but not really.

I bit during middle school. But then I stopped giving a shit in high school because I realized no one care ether.