Why Do People Hate A Hobby?

Hey bombers

I haven't really posted anything before but i have a question thats been on my mind for awhile recently. Why do people hate video games as a hobby or for entertainment?

I just recently saw an interview with Hugh Jackman talking about his child and how he was very proud of them and that they "didn't play video games" and was interested in acting and so forth. I also know of several people who view others that play video games as ridiculous and when my sisters daughter wanted an xbox 360 for her birthday she said she didn't "believe" in getting her a video game console as a gift. I understand that there are people who dont like or understand video games, but I fail to see what benefits they get out of looking down on something soneone else likes.

Anyway I thought maybe some of you guys could help ne understand why certain people feel this way about a hobby.

On a sidenote the hugh jackman interview was on a recent episode of the ellen show if anyone is interested.

Some people view it as a waste of time and a "childish" hobby that does nothing to improve you as a person. Which is close-minded of course, but it is what it is.

Because they're hypocrites. Almost no one uses their free time for hobbies that are completely productive, or hobbies that do a lot to better themselves as human beings, so it's hypocritical to judge others for the same.

Movies, TV programs, watching sports, reading, music, etc. All gigantic wastes of time, other than the enjoyment they bring you, and having something in common to share with others.

Not too long ago I had a conversation with one of my friends who thought that video games were a complete waste of time and childish. This is shortly after she spent an entire weekend marathon watching a series on Netflix. Somehow that was OK.

@mike: that's just someone who is close-minded. They seem completely blinded to the fact that staring at a screen doing nothing for 8hours is less beneficial for you than interacting with a screen for 8hours. One promotes dexterity and mental sharpness and the other doesn't.

I'm not sure what's difficult to understand about it. There are almost no benefits from playing video games and a lot of people play them excessively.

@yesiamaduck: Yeah I agree...I thought that kind of went without saying which is why I didn't go into a big thing explaining it.

Damned RC plane enthusiasts, always flying their replica aircraft around outside, rather than just buying and flying real planes, or watching movies that prominently feature airplanes. What a waste of time that is. Wait, they also watch Youtube videos of other people flying toy planes? I can't even process this lunacy, anyway, gotta cut this message short as I have a model train enthusiast gathering to get too.

Because they're close minded idiots.

Like with everything any human does, moderation is key and if you aren't harming yourself or anyone else there is nothing wrong with what you're doing.

EDIT: Just watched the Hugh Jackman interview, I don't think he particularly said it with any malice or dislike of video games it was just more to accentuate that his kid is very outdoorsy and outgoing. Australian's are also generally extroverted, into the outdoors and physical activity (yes this is a generalization.)

Yea, just the other day some guy was yelling at me for driving around my robotic rc car. The obscenties I heard... Geez. Didn't know it bothered anyone so much.

Video-games are an easy scapegoat when a parent is trying to figure out why their kids are indifferent to the things they want them to do. I stopped playing golf as a kid because I liked video-games better. It's not because video-games sapped my brain, it's because golf's boring, man.

Its still seen as a "kids thing" by a lot of people ,and others just dont see it as productive in any way (as if that matters). It all really just comes down to personal taste.

The way I see it, time you enjoyed wasting isn't wasted time.

I think Sony pretty much validated people's negative opinion of games when they branded their PS4 campaign with the slogan "Join the war against reality!".

The stereotype is that gamers are man-children who spend a great deal of time doing something that has no value. The fact of the matter is... in many cases they are right.

I personally believe that video games have benefit, but I also only play video games that I feel HAVE benefit. Call them "healthy games", if we must.

But there are developers out there, a great many of them, who sit around conspiring about how to addict gamers to video games the same way businesses in Vegas try to addict people to slot machines. They want people to pay for that next hit of dopamine to hit their brains.

Video games are about THE least profitable activity in existence. But, as a nerd, I feel that same way about Sports. Part of the reason I took up video games to begin with is because following sports seemed so pointless.

Totally.

I wish games put more effort into being educational.

I've always wanted to make a Jpg-styled game where the magic system was based off of music theory. Not only would that make sense in a spiritual sort of way, by the end of the game, instead of learning some stupid complicated system that has no value outside of the game, you would come away with an actual understanding of something that has value.

Because there's a stigma to it. Hugh Jackman doesn't want his kids playing video games, yet he is very much involved in making Hollywood film which parallels itself with games. They are both entertainment. If one over indulges in either, both can become troublesome, but they are otherwise harmless in moderation.

This is just like the alcohol/weed dichotomy. Alcohol has been part of western culture for a long time, so no one bats an eye when people very publicly joke about their drunken shenanigans, but since weed didn't really become part of the culture until the 1950s—and because Mexican immigrants used to smoke it, it still carries a stigma. Realistically, both are perfectly fine to use in moderation.

I just have to say, it's funny seeing "Wolverine" criticizing Hugh Jackman. However--despite my "they're hypocrites" rant above--I'm alright with him saying that, if it was shorthand for "I'm thankful my kids enjoyed outdoor play more than indoor play." Games and television and reading might be fun, but they're no substitute for exercise, especially for growing children.

I wouldn't be able to judge without seeing the interview myself, but I don't really care enough to watch it.

@spaceinsomniac: While I generally agree with you that I'd rather kids were outside playing and getting exercise, I disagree about the reading part. Computer games, and more so TV, offer very little benefits outside of pure entertainment but reading from an early age improves speech and comprehension skills and enhances your vocabulary. These are benefits that will help you throughout your life. It also does wonders for a child's imagination and helps them to be more interesting and interested.

As much as I love computer games (and I've been playing them for 30 years), if I had a kid I'd be happy if all they wanted to do was read and play outside. Games are great and can be educational (Civ and Alpha Centauri for example) but they can also be very consuming. Sure, people who binge watch some shite on netflix for 12 hours and then give you grief for playing games are fucking idiots but don't fall into the trap of being blind to some of the issues with our hobby.

Agreed. I was thinking of non-gamers criticizing gamers when I wrote that. I wasn't thinking about Huge Jackman's kids or reading in the sense of child development. Reading is super important for kids.

They are all wrong, video games trigger the mind and sharpen the reflexes. When I 100% The Witness I will apply for a job as Rocket Scientist at NASA.

Or at least I'll put in on my resume.. :p

At their worst, video games are a huge time investment that produce very little real world benefits. To many people, this is reason enough to harbour animosity towards video games.

"Games are for children" is something that this industry has a hard time shaking off. The Leigh Alexanders, Patrick Klepeks and Austin Walkers of the world spend so much time preaching to the core demographic with articles that cover a whole range of interesting and esoteric angles, when I think they should be using this energy to punch outside of the gaming bubble. Most adults honestly have no idea how complex videogames have become and just how moving and thought provoking they can be - from triple A blockbusters to tiny indies. That's because there is very little exposure outside of your typical sales oriented marketing. People just don't know.

I agree and disagree with this.

I think part of the reason games get the reputation for being childish is BECAUSE of the Leigh Alexanders, Patrick Klepeks and Austin Walkers.

I think these types of gaming "journalists" are so often SO in love with gaming that they tend to fall in love with some of the most minor "victories" of the medium.

Before "nerd" became a badge of coolness and a social phenomenon, a "nerd" was basically someone who had an interest in something that was well beyond what was considered "normal". Normal people went to movies, studied for school, or enjoyed music. Nerds were the people who knew everything about movies, who starred in them, who made them, etc. Nerds studied not just for school, but things outside of school. They read the encyclopedia for fun. Etc.

When you go up to Joe Average and breathlessly try to tell him about how you spent the last 5 hours playing a videogame as an 8 year old girl and now you self-discovered how to love yourself, they are going to look at you funny. That's never going to change. The level of interest you have in the medium is not a level of interest that most people are EVER going to have in the medium.

Games constantly try to compare themselves to the movie industry (for some reason), but Joe Average doesn't go watch subtitled French films about a girl's summer long journey to understand herself any more than they want to see that in gaming.

I disagree, perhaps, a little. I think video games are worse than movies in terms of potentially destructive entertainment because movies do not promote the idea of actually accomplishing something.

I mean, Microsoft ushered in the era of something literally called "Achievements". The concept of "achievements" is that you have DONE something. I feel like MMOs are to blame, but games have been moving more and more toward creating an idea that the things you are doing in the game, while never ending, are actually counting for something. That construct, the idea that you are completing things within the game, is potentially dangerous to some people.

People are inherently judgemental of other people. I know I am. Look at train spotters. How sad is that. They spend their time watching trains. Or adult colouring books. Colouring books are for kids, why are adult colouring books popular all of a sudden? Or what about someone who takes photos of serial numbers on manhole covers. Why would you do that? That's such a waste of time.

And you know what is really dumb? What is the real waste of time? Me being judgemental of other people doing things that they like. If someone likes train spotting, or adult colouring books, or manhole covers, who the fuck am I to judge. They like doing what they like and that's fine. People should be free to enjoy doing whatever they want without assholes like me judging them.

I'm trying to be better about that stuff. If someone is doing something and it doesn't effect me in any way, I'm trying not to be judgemental of them and let them do their thing. It's not always easy because being judgemental is deeply engrained in society and everyone does it, but I'm trying.

But, to some extent, being "judgmental" is important to society. We live in an insane time where people have an abject hatred of wisdom and experience. The idea is, "don't you tell me what to do". But never listening to anyone, and rejecting input from anyone who isn't supporting your own personal outlook and agenda are the practices of a fool.

I mean, I'm as guilty as anyone of buying into the infantilized concept of a young adult. I'm 34 and I still read comic books, play video games, watch cartoons etc. But it was a few years ago that I really started to grow disenchanted with the culture. It was one thing when I was the kid in the back of the bus never taking things too seriously and in no rush to become an "grown up". But in the past few years, it's like one looks around at the back of the bus and you realize EVERYONE is in the back of the bus. At a certain point, one asks... "Hey, who's driving this bus?"

I absolutely believe that people can play games AND be successful businessmen, AND be politically engaged, AND have meaningful relationships. But that's not easy to do.

Being judgmental is NATURAL. I mean, look at morbidly obese people. Morbidly obese people are pathetic. I don't mean this as an insult, I mean this in the literal definition of the word. When one's size becomes a hinderance to mobility, a human onlooker is overcome with a visceral emotion of either pity or revulsion at that person's pathetic state. It's like seeing a heroin addict or someone starving. If you are a believer in evolutionary psychology, one might say that we get those feelings as a means of promoting survival of our species as a group. We don't like, and have a hard time ignoring, those who are pathetic.

But because there is no objective "right way to live", we often see people being pathetic who, in reality, are not. But that emotion is still there, and still true. I think it's beneficial for our society to be "judgmental" about morbid obesity. Even though there are campaigns out there saying, "Healthy at any size!", both our natural sense of reason and modern medicine would tell you that's not the case.

I think there is also some value in being judgmental of gamers who take gaming too seriously or lack perspective on life. I think it's fine for us to be "judgmental" of some guy who plays MMOs until he dies. That person is pathetic. Our society needs to recognize and promote, without being mean and with a focus on improving the quality of life of people, that it is unacceptable behavior.

@mattyftm: Good for you man, it's a hard thing to get over. I've been trying to move past being judgmental myself. It's so easy to look at someone else and think their things are stupid whereas mine are great. All hobbies are pretty much the same, people do them to relax and enjoy themselves, it doesn't matter if it's building little ships in big bottles or watching football or playing games. They are usually all equally pointless and equally rewarding for the people who like them. Oh, and adult colouring books are fucking awesome, wanna fight about it! ;)

@mike: Look at the self control you have. I lack that. I would've torn her down for being a presumptuous hypocrite. The only thing worse than judgmental people, are judgmental hypocrites.

@mattyftm Good you're trying to do better. I am a very free person and I rarely judge others for something I don't do or like. It's one reason why listening to the Bombcast can sometimes be very difficult for me. I remember words like 'assholes', 'dicks' and 'idiots' being used to describe people that sway a little bit from the socially accepted norm. 'One wheel cycling? You're supposed to have 2 wheels on it you asshole!'

I just don't get that attitude. In all honesty, if you think like that, you deserve a good 'hey, fuck you buddy'. Let people be who they want and let them do whatever the fuck they want to do as long as it doesn't actually harm anyone else. I always felt that stuff just seems close minded, but I guess now I'm judging.

Passive entertainment consumption is a wasteful activity that should be replaced by creativity, exercise, and mindfulness. Boredom is a good thing, and being forever distracted prevents us from the exploration required to achieve personal growth.

Hugh Jackman cowardly singled out video-games because he did not want to offend the idiots watching the interview by saying "entertainment".

@bananasfoster: I wasn't suggesting that games writers put as much zeal into editorials aimed at an outside audience as that would most certainly turn most people from their existing mild indifference to full out disdain. Rather I thought they should find approachable ways to pen articles that might bring the world of gaming as you and I know it, even a fraction of that world, a little closer to the average adult that would otherwise not give the subject matter a second thought.

It's no secret that a large part of games writing is coming up with an interesting angle. There isn't much news to actually cover in depth and the legwork by nature of how the industry works is non existent. This is why we get so many existential pieces devoted to niche ideas and concepts somehow contorted out of games that aren't really saying all that much on their own. You need to write about something - a man s'gotta eat. But if instead they could write for The Times or the New Yorker or somewhere more mainstream about this "fun new hobby" or how "Gabby winds down with a controller in hand" after a long day at the office - without mentioning how Gabby unwinds for 12 hrs straight at a time - maybe it would let the "normal" "grown ups" out there start to get more comfortable with the idea that their peers might enjoy a game just as easily as a Netflix Marathon.

There are just always haters

When someone that can be considered an outsider learns that one plays games on computer or console, they automatically think it's done every moment of life not spent eating or sleeping.

Netflixing for that amount of time is what a lot of these people do, while still keeping that image of gaming. I'm in the modern day dating circuits and in my part of the country a man associated with gaming is bad, a woman associated with gaming is considered great, having mobile netflix on a 4G connection so that you can seriously waste away is considered a standard of normalcy that you would be weird to not be part in along with always having netflix running in the background. Netflix & chill memes hit here hard.

Screw that and screw "I'm happy my daughters aren't playing games on computer/handheld/console no matter how disciplined they are with their consumption of that immensely popular and safe entertainment medium" too.

It has to do with a number of different things that mainly stem from prejudice. There are stereotypes that gamers are anti-social losers. Gamergate also didn't help with the way people view gamers.

Making fun of gamers also gives people the moral high ground and justifies their ignorance about them. If games are rightfully recognized as entertainment and art, some knowledge of them can be required to build up one's image in a social group. If they are man toys, one is not obliged and even discouraged from having knowledge of them. Take music, for example: it's better to claim that you don't listen to modern music because it's bad than to admit that you just don't know about it. It's similar with games - 'I don't play games because I'm too cool' is easier to say than 'I don't know anything about a whole art medium'.

Then there's the people who are just too old and can't keep up with change, and their ignorance of the modern world is dressed up as a choice, a cynical refusal to engage with 'that thing'.

The best solution? Just stop caring about the opinion of people who don't know what they're talking about. That's the most healthy approach. 20 years ago the discussion whether games are more than toys might've been a real dilemma; now it's just as much a fact as the notion that TV shows can be more than brain junk food. Just sit back, relax, let the old people die off, let the people who are passionate about games grow to teach their children and grandchildren about their hobby, and in 3-4 generations games will be regarded on a level similar to what movies are today.

I agree with what you are saying. Positive games press really is far and few between when you step outside of the niche. But I think that all of that will simply shift with time.

You still hear the fallacious comments within the gaming press and audience that "the average gamer is in their late 30s", but really that means "The gamers who play the games I like are in their late 30s". In reality, EVERYONE plays games now. That's why the industry has grown so much and continues to grow. It's anecdotal, sure, but I was at a lunch meeting with a friend of mine at a local pizza place recently. The table across from us had 4 or 5 blue collar workers in their 30's on their lunch hour. What were they talking about? Sports? Sex? Work? No.. they were talking about Xbox Live and what games they were playing. It was the most up front reminder that EVERYONE plays games now.

I don't think any real conversation is necessary to win people over to gaming. I think the only battles now will be to pull people into their particular niche of gaming.

@bananasfoster: I would only contend how widespread gaming is among the 30+ demographic. A few years ago I worked in an office full of people my age and younger (I was about 27 at the time) and absolutely none of those guys played games and thought it was childish or a waste of money. They were either into sports or going out to bars. That was really eye opening to have someone that's 24 look at you like you're a child because I said I like to play games on my time off.

I haven't seen the interview, so I don't know context. If he was just stating a fact, then there isn't really anything wrong with what he said. On the other hand, if he meant it as in he was glad that his child didn't play video games, then I would find that kind of ironic considering what Hugh Jackman does for a living.

When I say "now EVERYone plays games" I really meant that people younger than you and I play games. I work with youth and there is an interesting phenomena that occurs. I'm 34 and at my age, nobody played games or talked about games when I was growing up. Or, at least, outside of elementary school. But even just a few years younger, acceptance of games is more widespread. When you go a few years younger than that, gaming becomes commonplace. I honestly think Pokemon had a lot to do with it. So many kids, boys and girls, grew up playing and engaging with pokemon that it was considered normal and natural. While girls of my age would say "ick" to a controller, girls of a few years younger at the very least know how to work a d-pad and buttons.

But with the kids I work with who are in high school, gaming is absolutely like breathing to them. Every kid, football player or math club kid, hangs out on Xbox live. The way kids used to just talk on the phone at night, these kids get in Halo deathmatches and just talk. I was shocked that the entire local football team was as into League of Legends as they were the NFL.

What do you mean by least profitable?

Unless you turn your hobby into a business of some kind, then no hobby has a monetary profit associated with it. The only "profit" you could measure is your enjoyment of that hobby.

He probably isn't talking about monetary profit, but just hobbies with real world tangible benefits. There are definitely plenty of productive hobbies with realistic benefits. The most obvious example would be anything fitness related. Any fitness related hobbies have very real benefits to your health. Whether it be running, lifting weights or playing sports, it definitely has a very important benefit.

I would argue that gaming has benefits too. For example, social interactions via games can be important in developing social skills and stuff like that. Not to mention that games can teach you things and broaden your mind. It can certainly have more tangible benefits than watching TV does, depending on what you're watching and what you're playing.

Because they are insecure. Who gives a shit what other people are into? I may bust peoples chops about what they are into but it's all good fun.

I think people often have the notion that if you play video games then it's all you do, that you're a "gamer". You might like reading or cooking, but you don't automatically get labelled a reader or a foodie. They also judge gaming as a hobby as being a waste of time, even though the things we do recreationally often aren't about betterment, they're about relaxing and not worrying about the realities of work and self improvement.

The fun blend of stigmas associated with games certainly doesn't help. You've got people that think games haven't evolved since 1981 and picture people obsessively playing The Pac Mans and screaming about high scores all day long, people who focus on the MK/Night Trap controversy and Jack Thompson era and use the term "murder simulator" without irony, people who think that if you play games, then that's literally all you do (because, you know, nobody can enjoy multiple things)...

Thankfully, as surprisingly common as this still is, it's far less so than it used to be. "Killer video game!!1!" news stories have fallen out of vogue as every moral panic eventually does, the rise of mobile and Facebook gaming has shown a lot of people that you can play a game without devoting your very existence to it, and "nerdy" pastimes are becoming mainstream in general.

People as a whole, generally hate things they don't understand or aren't a part of.

I'm 26 y/o and I've been playing videogames since I was 4 on an old Sega Masters system my dad had. I'm pretty 'hardcore' into gaming. I also played basketball for 16 years, football for 12, raced motocross for 10. I also played Magic for years and I've read comic my entire life(still do) etc. I learned very quickly in life that I was going to do things that make me happy.

I literally do not give a shit what the general stigma or consensus is on a particular thing I enjoy doing. I don't require validation for what I enjoy doing and neither should anyone else, as long as it doesn't harm anyone.

Not all profit is monetary. If you're hobby is knitting, at the end of knitting, you have a scarf. If your hobby is carpentry, at the end of the process you have a stool. If your hobby is running, at the end of the run you are theoretically more healthy and more in shape. If your hobby is fishing, theoretically, at the end of the day you have dinner.

Videogames are problematic because they oftentimes create no real world benefit.

"Neither does watching Football all day, Sunday"

I totally agree.

I'm not saying I am beyond this. I still like to play mind rotting games as much as anyone, but I do try to stick to games that I feel have SOME profitable result.

I feel like it's rather like food. Some games are brain food. Some games are full of empty calories.

Totally. And I think it goes without saying that parents should at least take some interest in their kids' hobbies. I wouldn't have any problem with my kids playing games as a hobby, but I would also be very worried if all they were doing was playing League of Legends or DotA for six hours a day and not doing anything else.

@hunkulese: problem is people are specifically judging of it when there are quite a few other "hobbies" (for lack of a better word) that could be considered equally as wasteful. Also kind of a weird judgement to have of games at a place like this, and not one I particularly agree with personally.

@ichthy: Gabe from Penny Arcade put up a really interesting article with regards to parenting and video games a while ago. He did a talk to his kids school's PTA, and then wrote about it afterwards. His answer to the question about screen time directly links in to what you're talking about. https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2015/04/08/i-spoke-at-our-pta-about-games

The people who look down at other peoples hobbies always grow old and bored. So many adults have no interests what so ever. Just sit there, watching the news and getting salty as fuck.

The world would be infinitely better if people embraced gaming.

The medium is still very young. It's only now that we have adults who grew up with video games in their homes and/or in their friend's homes. Almost everyone, at some point, grew up with a console or PC with which they played games.

Video games are finally transitioning to an accepted entertainment medium and not as a toy or a novelty.

Who doesn't like Holly Hobby?

Tell me who they are and I will beat them up!

Look at those boots and that patchwork dress, it is just adorable! What is not to like?