Discrimination of the Month:
Gameism
People who hate those of a particular gender are considered sexist. People who show distaste towards those of a particular race are racists. What, then, are people who hate or show distaste towards people who play video games, or people who play a particular type of video game? The answer is quite simple — those people are gameists.
Some of you may scoff at the idea of such a thing as gameism, but think about this: There ARE people out there who look down upon people, and call them dorks or losers, because they play RPGs and the like, and only consider it socially acceptable to play “cool” games like Madden or Halo. Don’t even TRY to tell me this isn’t true, because I’ve experienced this first hand.
Now, the people make judgments about others and decide that they are lower or lesser than themselves based solely on the video games they are playing. Saying that isn’t an example of gameism is like saying the comment “I hate all white people” is not a racist comment. It is also true that some people look down on those who only play games like Madden and Halo, and refer to themselves as “gamers”. Although it may be widely agreed that these people are not “gamers”, it is still a form of gameism to look down on them for only playing those types of games (most “true” gamers who would look down on them would do so for their being close-minded, though, not because of their game choices).
The biggest example of gameism is something I’m sure most gamers have experienced. It, of course, is when someone ignorant to the world of video gaming sees someone playing ANY video game and automatically likens them to a child or considers them a loser. Many times the comments will go something like, “Oh.. hehehee.. tehee..tehehe.. you play teehehehehehhe video games hehehe?? Um.. like.. how old are you?” or even, “Stop playin’ those dern games! They make ya stupid! Get outside and play football or somethin’!”.
Anyway, I could go on all day giving examples and ranting about the subtle intricacies of gameism, but I’d better get to the point before I lose everyone that I haven’t already lost. Gameism exists. Call it anything you want, but there is no denying the fact that it is there, looming over the heads of all of us who play video games. If you or someone you know has experienced gameism in any way and and you want to relate the story to GameCola, feel free to send an e-mail our way. You could see your experience published in a future issue! (There is, for the record, a 100% chance of getting your experience published in GC if you send it in).
