Jimquisition: Fake Nerd Girls

[Sheo_Dagana]

snip

Also, I like how your posts starts with you saying "women are getting into video games" like they weren't into them before recently. Clearly YOU didn't do any research on the matter.

Okay badly stated what I tried to say is I don't have anything against women gaming in general, just the ones that says their into gaming but really aren't, making us look like douches and idiots.

Also I have just as much against fake male gamers as female ones but the male ones aren't that rampant that its a problem.

But how? How do they make us look like idiots and douches? Are you saying that you have never once misrepresented yourself in order to fit in or sell a product? I pretend to be a nice guy at work so people will buy shit. I'm actually an asshole that hates them all.

Besides, what do you care if a woman calls herself a gamer, but only plays Farmville or whatever wild example you have in your head? I already pointed out that your earlier reasoning - how they didn't have to put up with being hazed in school - is invalid because not all of us were. If that's what you say makes 'us' (I hate that you lump us all together with you) idiots and douches, then speak for yourself, please.

 

[mrhateful]

snip

Its hard to explain why they are so offensive but I tried to give an example 2 posts up.

 

[zehydra]

When gamers wonder why we're not taken seriously? Why we're still held at a distance by the mainstream media?

Things like this.

Who are these "gamers" you speak of?

 

[BiscuitTrouser]

The analogy would be more fitting if the young black voters would be explicitly comparing themselves to the heroes of the Civil rights movement, abusing the fact that the significance of going to vote has changed, and they are not bravely fighting authority as the old man did.

The problem is not that young people are having a good life, but that they are belittling the memory of those who weren't as lucky as them.

Gaming is now a worldwide mainstream cultural phenomenon, with facebook games, iPhone apps, etc. That's good, I guess. Comic Book adaptations are being turned into blockbusters. That's pretty neutral to me, I don't care about comics anyways. Sci-fi shows are common, zombies are more mainstream than football, good for the artists, otherwise whatever.

I don't mind them loving their own, changed versions of these. But couldn't they enjoy them without ripping off the mannerisms and surface elements of that weird subculture of loners and freaks a few decades ago, who pursued "childish" hobbies, who obsessed over hated genres, whose entertainment often actually got BANNED, and who went the hard way to do the unusual, the freakish, the unacceptable?

The heros of old didnt fight for personal recognition or merit. They probably knew they would recieve none and many would bastardise their cause. The "heros of old" wouldnt mind becaue the fact that these people exist to do this proves their fight is won. Im VERY happy people can now use our mannerisms and surface elements without being persecuted. Im happy that the fruits of our labour went to make others happy. I dont mind that they "Rip us off" or that they enjoy the original without "Fighting the good fight". Just because they werent around, old enough or in the right place to "Fight the good fight" doesnt mean they arnt entitled to the original experience we fought so hard to just enjoy ourselves.

The old man should be proud his achievement gave people the ability to do these things without persecution. He shouldnt be bitter that people "Piggy back" on his glory but instead be proud his glory is something worth piggy backing onto. Sure he wont get any credit. But its damn satisfying to see a younger generation enjoy the things i did without the contempt. MAybe a few get them wrong. But thats ok. Because it doesnt hurt me when they do, i just ignore it, and when they get it right it makes me smile.

Of course young people belittle the achievements of those who earned them what they have now. Its what they do. How old were you when you realised and FULLY appreciated, i mean FULLY, how much you owed the veterans of world war 1 or 2. Can you ever REALLY appreciate them enough? The younger generation are really bad at this. Its in their nature. It was in ours too.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Wait... This is a thing? Really? I would think hot girls showing up at conventions would be a good thing whether their interest in the material was genuine or not. WTF Internet?

Well, its actually quite different when these girls show up at conventions, and then laugh at and mock the average congoer.

To put it simply, its more like the subculture where the "geek" has been subverted by the same individuals who used to beat them up in High School, or openly mock them, and no longer have a place in that group anymore. This is not just "girls" either. There are certainly many geeky women who are widely accepted among what could be construed as the more typical geek paradigm. Even these women are mocked by other women outside of that paradigm.

To put it simply, many people in this thread just don't know what the issue is or are misidentifying it, and Jim still has yet to make a salient point about pretty much anything.

Well I'm not sure I understand, but that's certainly different than just demanding geek credentials of hot girls that show up at conventions, which I would think would be a good thing.

Its not really much different from the bandwagon fan mentality in professional sports. The difference, is that if you have a replica of the fenway park scoreboard in your living room, you're seen as a diehard, and while maybe not accepted, you are at least respected. There's entire cultural outlets that cater to you. The cultural outlets that were previously just for the diehards of geek/nerd culture, are catering to a more casual group.

But isn't that an entirely different issue?

 

[Gilhelmi]

Hmm, although Jim s calling them out and ridiculing their outrage (those gamer who feel offended by fake-gaming-girls); I truly don't see the point. It is a non-issue coming from a non-entity causing no repercussions.

Repeating Jim's comments: is this a thing, Internet? Really?

It is an issue when a person (male type) goes up to the "Hot nerd girl in cosplay" and tries to call them "out" on it. Not only would it hurt the woman's feelings, but others who might be there for the first time, would say "gee, I really do not want to be associated with sexists. The stuff looks cool and all, but I'll pass".

That is the real danger, allowing the KKK (metaphorically) to be sexist and hurt My rep, Your rep, and all Geek cultures rep.

I do know people who look at gamers as sexist because of the whole http://kotaku.com/5889637/sexual-harassment-is-a-joke-to-these-fighting-game-fans thing. So ya, I will speak out against the stupid people, who make us all look bad.

 

[WouldYouKindly]

It's the matter of posers. I don't particularly care when it comes to video games, because it doesn't really matter. When it comes to music I do care. Mostly because posers create a market and a poor public image for what doesn't really have much of a public presence anyway. Why do you think emo became a thing?

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

snip

Its hard to explain why they are so offensive but I tried to give an example 2 posts up.

Yeah, none of which seemed to make sense to me. You acknowledge men can do the same thing, but only give examples about women. I'm not sure what you're hang up is, but it seems to go deeper than booth babes.

 

[mrhateful]

snip

Its hard to explain why they are so offensive but I tried to give an example 2 posts up.

Yeah, none of which seemed to make sense to me. You acknowledge men can do the same thing, but only give examples about women. I'm not sure what you're hang up is, but it seems to go deeper than booth babes.

Oh I have nothing against booth babes lol, they are hired for a job to show off a product.

 

[SaikyoKid]

Moar snips!

Truthfully, I did read the post but the content really did kind of confuse me for a bit. You say you like more of the female crowd joining in, I got that bit just fine. But then it got kinda weird with you saying, from what I understood at least, that you dislike posers because you have pent up rage about you being berated as a child for saying such things in public while they get lauded and praise for it? That's the point where I say grow up. We're adults now and no longer in grade school. If they want to flaunt something like that, even if it's fake, let 'em. They aren't making anyone look silly but themselves when people see they really don't know anything about what they claim to know. If people give you flack for actually being knowledgeable in a certain thing, then you probably shouldn't be associating yourself with those people anyways. Nobody can make you look like a douche or an idiot but yourself dude.

 

[Therumancer]

I rarely agree this much with him. Seriously, why would anyone get upset over a person being so desperate for your attention that she pretends to like what you do just to get attention? It seems like a strange thing to get upset over, but I don't know.

You, like Jim, miss the point entirely. It's not girls wanting to fit in or being "desperate for your attention" it's girls out to manipulate nerds, either for their own ends, or being paid to do so by someone else (like in the case of booth babes and the like).

I wrote a more detailed answer (phrased to aim it directly at Jim) earlier, but I imagine it was too long for a lot of people, and also not what they'd want to hear.

 

[Beautiful End]

Welp! Thank jeebuz for Jim!

Alright, I hate to be that person but...I am indeed a gamer girl and I HATE being called out by other guys who feel the need to constantly test my knowledge about videogames at all. It's rather insulting and annoying. And if I, let's say, don't know the name of the alien guy that tags along with Sheppard on his adventures then I am just an ignorant poser and should go back to the kitchen and prepare a sammich for all those true gamer boyz out there!

Sorry about the rant there but it's true. I work at GameStop and I constantly have to go through that.

On the other hand, I do hate it when a girl claims to be a gamer and they're not. There I am, thinking I actuall met another girl who likes games just as much as I do and could possibly have a conversation with her without the sound of someone burping or something (My gamer guy friends do that...) and...it's a lie.
It goes a little like this:

Me: "Oh, so you're buying Dragon age? I love that game!"
Girl: "Well, it's for my boyfriend. I play other kinds of games."
Me: "Oh, really? What kind of games do you like? I like most RPGs but I'll admit I'm into CoD a bit and I'm nostalgic about platformers. *Something something fan-like talk about games*
Girl: "Oh, I played Pac man when I was a kid. Now I play NeoPets! It's so cute! "

I don't know if that's what Jim was going for but it really sucks when someone claims to be a gamer and...they don't even know how to turn on a system. And that applies to both guys and girls. it's as if I claim to be a car enthusiast because I have a car and I like to wash it and I know it needs gas and then this guy walks up to me and talks to me about the engine and stuff like that in detail and he's all passionate about and then I just go ahead and say "Hey, I don't like cars that much! That's silly!".

Okay, so I digress. What I seriously doubt is a girl would pretend to be a hardcore gamer or a nerd to get it on with another guy. It just doesn't make sense. I cannot think of a single scenario whee that would work.

TL;DR: It sucks being called out by guys who doubt my gaming knowledge/authenticity (?) and I can see some girls taking advantage of that. But not that many.

 

[mrhateful]

Moar snips!

They aren't making anyone look silly but themselves when people see they really don't know anything about what they claim to know.

Your absolutely correct, the problem is when people don't do this.

 

[mrhateful]

Snip

Big respect to you, in all honestly I feel the most for you in all of this because your the one that has to deal with the actions of these stupid fake gamer girls.

I also think your example was really good for why its offensive because its like they are making fun of you for even thinking gaming is fun.

 

[OuroborosChoked]

A wild counter argument has appeared!

I'd say that women in the gaming community are often seen as a personification of this kind of culture shift. It's not necessarily their fault, but they're simply an easy target for people to take out their frustrations.

Words change. In the same breath as saying that nerd means something to be derided, but someone also needs to go through that sort of dirision to have pride in the name, well, that's hypocracy.

Nerd and geek culture have been commodified and is the popular thing right now. We should be revelling in it.

I was one of those who suffered through it, and it offends me that one must go through that to be accepted these days.

Specifically referring to the bolded part: why? No, really... why? Why should anyone revel in a bunch of strangers coming into their house acting like they own the place? It's one thing if I can go up to one of these supposed "fake nerd" girls, and we can actually hold a discussion about the Atari 2600's impact on modern gaming citing specific examples (or something similar)... if you can do that, you're a nerd in my book. The disconnect comes from when you go up to one of those "fake nerds" and they look at you like you are a nerd and don't know what the fuck you're talking about. Did you catch that? They want to take your hobby and make it into a slogan. They want your title... but they don't want to be like you. It's image over substance. I suppose in a world full of shallow people... who've never experienced people of real substance... one more shallow person isn't going to bother them.

And besides, most nerd girls I've known personally... REAL nerd girls... don't care much about their image. And ZERO gamers wear nothing but Nintendo-branded gear. NONE OF THEM.

For me, that's all it comes down to: if you know your shit, we're best friends. If you're just putting on a costume, GTFO.

It's like the guys says in the video about punks. To add to what he said, though: the original punks wore what they wore because that's all they could afford... or the shops that sold those kinds of clothes were punk-friendly (e.g. fetish shops). They didn't go out and buy "punk clothes" to advertise themselves as punks. It's just who they were.

Substance, people... recognize it? How about authenticity? Does anyone even know what that means anymore?

 

[Yopaz]

I rarely agree this much with him. Seriously, why would anyone get upset over a person being so desperate for your attention that she pretends to like what you do just to get attention? It seems like a strange thing to get upset over, but I don't know.

You, like Jim, miss the point entirely. It's not girls wanting to fit in or being "desperate for your attention" it's girls out to manipulate nerds, either for their own ends, or being paid to do so by someone else (like in the case of booth babes and the like).

I wrote a more detailed answer (phrased to aim it directly at Jim) earlier, but I imagine it was too long for a lot of people, and also not what they'd want to hear.

I'm sure this happens to you all the time so it's a really big deal, but having never seen someone I can't see this being widespread.

Of course manipulation of anyone is a problem, but are those who pretend to like games any different than any other kind of manipulation? Why is it specific focus on those who pretend to like games rather than those who manipulate in any other way?

Now if you say they are no different, explain why you draw a line separating those. Why is it fake nerd girls rather than manipulative behaviour in full that gets you riled up?

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

-snip!-

Yeah, I also work for GameStop and I see what you're talking about a lot. My girlfriend also works for the company and I see her getting quizzed all the time. It's pretty stupid, and sad, because I've seen more guys working for GameStop that know less about what they're talking about than gals. And yet there are guys that will walk straight past our female employees if they see there's a man available to help them. =/

 

[2xDouble]

I wouldn't really call it an "outrage", I just hate being lied to. Surely women do as well, do they not?

 

[UberNoodle]

I find it f**king hilarious that the gaming community be so inconsistent with its causes. 'Is feminism good' threads are a regular manifestation of boy-nerd intellectualism, and when criticism of booth babes occurred, a chorus of 'who cares? Let them do what they want; they are adults and scantily clad women rock!' erupted. And yet NOW, the community is oh so offended about supposedly 'fake nerds' and not just any fake nerds, but the attractive female ones.

Oh for Pete's sake! It looks like some kind of, 'she only didn't date me because she's a *****' rubbish. For starters, it's a witch hunt which forces innocent people to prove their nerdiness to a self appointed gatekeeper elite. Secondly, it's a pissing contest, anatomically really only a male thing, for nerdom, very similar to the old favorites like 'casual vs hardcore', the 'real fan vs new fan' and the 'elite vs newb'. All I can say is, grow the f**k up.

EDIT: Oh and people likening this to 'weeding out the posers', why is it girls getting the weeding but for a male, one's nerdiness is seldom called into question?

Oh and I hope that the guy who proposed at the end of this video is marrying a REAL nerd girl, not some fake one whose self esteem is so low that she has to slum it as a nerd to get any male attention. Or is she trying to gate crash an exclusive and elite party, by pulling the wool over the eyes of male nerds everywhere in some kind of malicious and Machiavellian gambit for a purpose only Satan could fathom?

 

[mrhateful]

snip

Its hard to explain why they are so offensive but I tried to give an example 2 posts up.

Yeah, none of which seemed to make sense to me. You acknowledge men can do the same thing, but only give examples about women. I'm not sure what you're hang up is, but it seems to go deeper than booth babes.

Okay someone posted a youtube video called "You're Not such a Nerd: Commodification of Nerd and Gamer Sub-culture", and it explained perfectly why it is so upsetting, so while I might not able to explain why, this video should at least help you.