Poll: are you a "secret" gamer or "public" gamer?

[Techno Squidgy]

There is a time and a place for every conversation topic. I don't hide the fact I play games, neither do I shout it in peoples faces. Amongst me and my friends most of the conversation revolves around fairly hippie topics. Lots of talk about free love, self-expression and expanding the mind. So naturally gaming comes into this at certain points.

 

[BENZOOKA]

Most people don't really give a shit if you play or not. I'm not ranting about Companion Cube to a person who barely plays slot machines as it is, but to a friend who plays the same games; sure.

On the original post... You can't be serious with that facebook friends thing... That's just... I'm out of words.

 

[Xcelsior]

Talking about facebook friends only serves to remind me of the South Park episode 'You have 0 friends'. Its such an arbitrary figure why does the fact that he has less facebook friends than you make him have less of a social life? Out of those 250 or people how many of them do you actually converse with on a regular basis? For all you know he could be in better contact with a portion of those 100 than you are with your 250.

OT: I don't hide the fact that I play a shit load of games I embrace it, It's a part of who I am. I can have periods where I don't want to play but they're usually around exam periods and when there isn't much out to play, during that time I'll find other stuff to do. That in mind I know when to bring it into conversation and when to keep it out.

 

[Closet Superhero]

It's not something I gush about when meeting people for the first time. I'll mention it in 'the list', i.e. the 'so, what do you do in your spare time' one and see whether they follow it up. It has nothing to do with shame; it's a matter of determining if the other person gives a damn before boring them. That's a general principle for socialising, and it applies to a variety of subjects apart from gaming, e.g. politics, your job, your favourite sport.

 

[PurplePlatypus]

I think you have screwed priorities and you where a bit of an ares to your actual friend.

 

[ZeroMachine]

*looks back in the thread*


AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! I had a huge freakin' essay to post in here and the site crashed on me and it didn't post >.< Dammit...

Alright, let me try to do it again, in a more summed up way.

Quality over quantity. You should care less about how many friends you have, and more about how good your friends are.

I am an open gamer. So open, in fact, that it's gotten to the point where most of my gamer and non-gamer friends alike see me as a bit of a visionary, and ALL of them have been pushing me to find a job in the industry (which I've now started to try).

Also, the amount of Facebook friends you have mean jack shit. I have 361. I only actively talk to about 25 of them, and I check up and talk to about 20-30 others on occasion. And remember- I'm also a major nerd, and I'm open about it.

You're in high school. That's obvious. That means that there will be some people that, upon learning of your epic gaming ways, will shun you. Does that really matter? Is gaming really that taboo in your school? Do your open gaming friends get the shit beaten out of them every day or something?

You're eventually going to be forced into making a choice between your friends that support your hobby and those that don't. Look at who your better friends are when that time comes. And I mean really LOOK at it. But also look at yourself- would you really want to give up gaming just to keep up the image of the "popular guy" even though that status won't serve you in the real world at all? Hell, once you graduate from high school, your social status there will be completely defunct.

(This public service post brought to you buy a man who just went through the shittiest three months of his life, questioned who his real friends were, and came out the other side with a brighter view on life.)

 

[Andalusa]

Well, the one that fits the best is the I don't care if people know. But I'm not old.... so I'm not going to vote.
I don't keep my gaming habits a secret, I don't shout it out loud. I do talk about games/gaming quite openly in conversation. I couldn't care less if people knew or not.

 

[suitepee7]

being a gamer is a huge part of my life, so its part of me. obviously there is more to me, but its still important. a lot of my friends are also gamers, but if somebody from the outside wants to judge me for playing games, i would simply try to explain that its not all nerdy, but if they refuse logic then i want nothing to do with them.

 

[dex-dex]

My close friends know that I love games but many believe that I am more the type to be into anime.
not really sure why.

 

[Brainpalm]

I'm pretty open about my gaming. I game quite a lot,(after school and whatnot) and everyone of my friends knows this. Most of my friends are also gamers themselves who I game with often. I find I don't talk about games all that much, unless I'm speaking to one of my friends who plays games.

Also OP, if you have friends who would think less of you because you game, they aren't your friends. And facebook friends don't count, facebook is not socialising.

 

[ZeroMachine]

I'm fairly popular, but I don't mince words. So if someone tries to tell me that I'm a loser for liking gaming, I'll happily mock the shit out of them. I do not give a fuck about what some uneducated piece of trailer trash thinks about my hobbies. I'm better than them, and I'll gladly tell them so.

I'm in a pretty bitter mood today, if you couldn't tell.

I don't see that as bitter, I see that as epicly proud. I'd be the same way, and I'm not a bitter person unless I'm in the worst of moods.

 

[Levi93]

I dont talk about games to people who I don't play games with.

I also find it quite Ammusing that your relating popularity with amount of friend on facebook, I mean I aint a very popular person and I had over 400+ friends at one point (until I deleted everyone I hated or never speak to) I mean sure there gotta be some correlation but its not gonna be a very strong correlation between the two.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

I don't deny that i play games at all, i'll talk about any and every game i play to all my friends.

however, if i am meeting someone new i generally don't say i still play pokemon and whatnot..(i've learned that the hard way, i felt ambitious and the girl shut me down, but oh well)..

and if you are judging your popularity based on how many friends you have..thats wrong, and i would never do that to a friend of mine, if we are having a full fledged convo then we are, and him yelling it across the room/stadium/gym/etc.. isn't going to stop it.

 

[jpoon]

Too old to be bothered by this, if someone doesn't like my gaming activities, fuck 'em!

I don't go around talking about it much unless the topic somehow comes up, so I don't really know how public that would make it.

 

[llew]

pretty much, but gaming is more of a boredom killer for me than anything, all my friends live 3-5 miles away in any direction so by the time we've all finished with work/school we are all too tired to organise meeting up until the weekend so we just chat and have fun online (i should also mention that 5 or 6 of them play rugby twice a week so that makes it even less plausible for us too meet at any time other than the weekend)

 

[freakydan]

I'm a DJ, and have mentioned on the air that I play video games. Hell, another DJ and I did some crosstalk when I got my PS3. So, yeah, I'm pretty public in my gaming habits.

 

[Sun Flash]

While I don't have them linked to my facebook account, everyone I'm friends with knows I play games. If I introduce myself to someone and they ask what I do in my spare time, I mention I play videogames. It's not my go to subject for conversation starters at any rate.

That said,not many of my friends play videogames, even CoD. So I don't get to talk about it much, purely for the sake of the conversation.

Also when OP put Sc2, I immediately thought of Soul Calibur 2. hmm.

 

[Outright Villainy]

Op, your post hurt my brain.

Right in the brain.

To me, this question is akin to asking "are you proud of the fact you watch films?"

Why would I have to make a big deal to people over what my hobbies are either way? I've had many discussions in public with my friends about games, and if someone thinks there's something wrong with playing games, I'd openly laugh in their face.