Are gamers "nicer" people?

[The Mehster]

Well, most of my friends who are nerds/'hardcore' gamers are kinda on the weird side, though that's obvious. I do have a friend who has a very acute temper, but I don't usually think of him as a dick, even if he's into polygamy. Blah blah blah.

TL;DR
Yes, I do think most gamers of my caliber are nicer, although that's because we're mature.

 

[PureIrony]

Its my philosophy that everyone is a dick sometimes, and everyone has a trigger that just turns them into a raging cock. If you're a gamer, and that trigger is game-related, and you have to deal with that trigger on a regular basis, you're going to be a dick sometimes.

I know this sounds like a justification for allowing people to act like asshats, but
a) I also believe that how we handle out personal security being violated is important, and if we are responsible, mature people, we can deal with that trigger without resorting to flaming
b)really, I'm just trying to be fair. Lets face it, we've all had our moments where we were not stellar people.

 

[arnoldthebird]

There are good one's and there are bad one's, from the dickish pre-pubescent children to PC elitist's, the gaming community has it's fair share of ass holes. Same as every other place

 

[Dreamer of Theaters]

Epic speech right there about tolerance and acceptance.
And I know this is gonna surprise some people, but honestly, I have hardly met that many dicks on 360 chat. Mostly, people don't like to speak over the mic as you would think. I have only ever met one or two dickheads on Halo or COD once in a blue moon, but they didn't even really ruin the game. Either I muted them or vice versa.

That said, I find it incredibly hard to maintain any sort of friendship over the 360. And it's not because people are assholes. It's because people are either anti-social and like playing on their own (single player or not chatting over multiplayer) or they just don't feel like making friends, and would rather play with their actual friends. (people they know, or exceptions) The so-called "friends list" FOR ME is just really a list of people who thought you were being a nice person at the time. It's only a "friends list" when I know those people in real life.

Of course, this could be considered a little biased as my social skills aren't exactly on the level of "a people person who makes friends easy."

 

[Don Reba]

On average, gamers are same as normal people, but if you look closer, you will see that they cleanly split into two groups: the PC gamers, who are, truly, Gods among men and cannot be faulted, and console gamers, who are all corpse-humpers and griefers.

Or that's what I heard, in any case.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

Are gamers nicer people? Hardly. Coming from the female perspective, both me and my sister have repeatedly been called, among othe things, *****, whore and slut (and that's ignoring the non-PG13 insults that are far more common) while playing games on the internet or in internet cafés. We've been "propositioned" for intercourse, offered to perform fellatio and asked to undress and take pictures. Gamers we've played with have firmly requested that we prepare their meals or insinuated that we should return to the kitchen. Other gamers have suggested that they would have intercourse with us against our will and yet others have hinted that several members of a specific ethnic group would coerce us into involountary groupsex. Many others have also made assumptions about my sexuality, my weight, my looks and occasionally all three at the same time.

If this really is your idea of what makes a nice person, then I would hate to see what kind of abusive enviroment you've grown up in.

 

[Techno Squidgy]

I rather doubt it.

If gamers/nerds really are nicer people on average then it's only because they lack the requisite self-confidence to be dicks.

I laughed, then realised that this is true, then laughed again.

On Topic:
I don't think that gamers are innately nicer people. I know plenty who are absolute tossers, some of which are actually my friends. I believe that Zhukov here was right in saying that it's because gamers usually lack the confidence or are to afraid of social situations to behave how they want to.

Off Topic:
I also hate the term nerd. Whenever I hear it I just get mental images of basement dwellers and the stereo-typical WoW addict. People that are flat-out obsessed with whatever.

I consider myself a geek. Some semblance of normality but with a healthy interest in Sciencey and fantasy things.

 

[Jandau]

Nope.

There might be a perception of gamers as being "nice" because most "true" gamers are nerds and nerds generally get picked on all the way to adulthood (and maybe even beyond) meaning they never get a chance to become true douchebags. However, as nerdishness is slowly becoming socially acceptable, it's becoming readily apparent that there are plenty of arseholes among even the hardcore gamers. Heck, ESPECIALLY among hardcore gamers. This is especially apparent on the internet, where the lack of physical power and/or social skills isn't a factor that can really hold someone back. If gamers were "nicer" you would find hardly any trolls on gaming message boards and comment sections. Is that the case in your experience? I'm going to guess that the answer is "NO!" or maybe "FUCK NO!".

Gaming doesn't make you nice just as it doesn't make you violent. You are what you are and gaming isn't going to change that one way or another.

 

[Gabanuka]

Every game on every platform ever will have a massive amount of cunts in it.
And before ya'll start going "what about PC gaming?" just go look at the MOAB scene.

MOBA players aren't the only bad PC gamers. Speaking as one we do have a tendency to be elitist dicks.


OT: (generalising) I think its just because gamers are generally nerds and very few nerds are confident enough to be douchebags unless its online or towards other nerds.

I consider myself a geek. Some semblance of normality but with a healthy interest in Sciencey and fantasy things.

Weird. I see geek as the stereotypical one and nerd as the normal person with an intrest in all the stereotypical things.

 

[TheCrazyAu55ie]

you make a point but i've seen some pretty assholeish pc gamers that are worse then 360 gamers

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Sociopathic is a bit much, but we tend to be bitter and self centered. Example: "You are suffering from a bad bug in Skyrim? I hadn't experienced it. You must be lying or have a bad machine. Skyrim is a great game, so shut up." Also, we are defensive. Really, really defensive.

I would call it more arrogant and selfish. Seeing as a lot of topics (specially lately) with the "if i do not like it , it shouldn't exist" attitude that seems to be the normal way of thinking. Sick and tired of having to explain the world does not revolve around that 1 person and that other people have other tastes(aka getting really tired of defending my own personal taste).

Honestly i prefer the anime/manga community i am in, if they do not like a series/genre they explain why and ignore it further, much less crap being spewed about their taste being the correct one. Also liking stuff/genres that is not really aimed at your demographic isn't scorned (something that still happens in a gamer community).

Add arrogant to the list. God help you if you play shooters and frequent this site.

Are gamers nicer people? Hardly. Coming from the female perspective, both me and my sister have repeatedly been called, among othe things, *****, whore and slut (and that's ignoring the non-PG13 insults that are far more common) while playing games on the internet or in internet cafés. We've been "propositioned" for intercourse, offered to perform fellatio and asked to undress and take pictures. Gamers we've played with have firmly requested that we prepare their meals or insinuated that we should return to the kitchen. Other gamers have suggested that they would have intercourse with us against our will and yet others have hinted that several members of a specific ethnic group would coerce us into involountary groupsex. Many others have also made assumptions about my sexuality, my weight, my looks and occasionally all three at the same time.

If this really is your idea of what makes a nice person, then I would hate to see what kind of abusive enviroment you've grown up in.

Also this. To add to it, blatant misogyny pops up whenever sexism or any issues involving women about games appears on this site and the internet as a whole.

 

[PatrickXD]

By your definition, I'm a gamer and I hang out with mostly gamer friends. My experience comes from a representative of 16 to 18 years of age and in school. I can't help but admit that most of my friends would not help out a person being mugged. They're a bit callous, no open minded and ignorant of what they talk about. They talk shit but never back it up when confronted.
I have a couple of friends, and I include myself here, that would do their best to help out someone. I'm not perfect, and I might not jump in and start fighting without a care for myself, but I would at least call the police and dra attention to the scene, and have done on one occasion.
Unfortunately for the most part the 'nicest' guys I know are people who play games, primarily CoD and Fifa, and go out drinking and clubbing etc. Not chavs, but certainly not 'nerds' either.

 

[sifffffff]

Nice idea OP and I wish it were true. Just spend five minutes browsing these forums and you'll see several examples of gamers not being nice people.

 

[Xaio30]

Being a "gamer" is far from the deciding factor of how a person acts.

 

[Blow_Pop]

I've found that there are just as many abrasive arseholes that play games as there are that don't.

Pretty much this. It really just depends on where you are looking for nicer people. You get about a 50/50. Some people are honestly nicer but because they are shy and everyone around is being an arse and they are afraid of standing up for themselves/what they believe in they pretend to not be nice mostly as a defence mechanism to keep their heads down. Your example you gave, most people won't step into a mugging due to lack of physical strength/confidence. Doesn't mean they aren't nice just means they either don't want to be badly hurt or don't think they can help much due to the other person being able to overpower them. I wouldn't step in during a mugging but I would call the police and get a damn good description of the guy if not a photo.......and I'd get a decent distance away before making the call....

 

[Kyle1527]

-snip-

Let's not over analyse things.

You could have just put "No, gamers aren't nicer people" instead of writing me a novel about how I'm wrong. By the way, when I typed "people they don't like" that was a mistake. I meant to put people they have never met before, and if you have ever played on Call of Duties online multiplayer (especially on a console) and go into the Search and Destroy playlist you will see what I mean.

Look, I am in High School, whether or not this is relevant I have most people in my High School on Facebook and it turns out I know most of them. I'm not going to post the exact number of people I know on my Facebook because people are either going to think I'm lying or trying to look cool but it's pretty high, and I know these people, they aren't exactly the nicest people at all. I'm pretty sure my 90% statistic is correct, you wouldn't know because you don't go to my high school.

 

[JayElleBee]

In my experience, gamers are wonderful people...

...provided I'm playing the same games as them on the same platforms.