A Particular Annoyance

Thanks for taking a look at my page, it's been a while since I've posted on this blog, and I hope to start posting with a sense of regularity. When I first started this blog, I was trying to create a review column out of thin air. After one review, I gave up, and didn't come back for three years. But, now I'm back and I'd like to share my views on the world of gaming today, and just my view in general.

Today I've got a topic which is of a particular irritation for me. I hope not to be ranting too much in my later posts, but today's has hit a little close to home.

Recently I asked a woman out on a date. During that date, while we were getting to know each other over a cup of coffee, I asked if she enjoyed playing video games, and I was met with an astonished, and very disgusted stare. "Video games? I'm not a kid anymore. Grow up." And she left.

It's been more and more apparent that you still can't call yourself a "Gamer" without some sort of social pariah status being attached to the label. As stated in David Wong's article over at Cracked, 5 Reasons It's Still Not Cool To Admit You're A Gamer, there's still that stereotype of the "lonely virgin" sitting in our rooms, playing our "little games."

But that's really not the most accurate portrayal of gamers today. The typical gamer is not just a sixteen year old boy who has all the social graces of a rabid wolverine who's high on angel dust. On average, the gaming age has raised significantly to the 25 - 40 age group.

I'm twenty-seven years old, and I feel like that I'm still being treated like I've the emotional maturity of a seventeen year old. The most successful, recent games that I can think of (Mass Effect 2 and God of War 3, for example) include scenes of sexual nature. Yes, Mass Effect 2 does have censored nudity, but the point remains that there's a central plot toward a romance that culminates in a very pervasive sexual scene.

God of War 3 is even worse than this, at least BioWare had the decorum to censor the scene. God of War 3 doesn't even bother. (WARNING: STRONG sexual content and a lot of nudity.)

Yes, I know I'm making the same point that David Wong makes in his article, but the point remains the same. We've been put down as disgusting perverts who like nothing more than to watch a pair of women so overcome with their sexual desires that they just attack one another. (Yes, that happens almost exactly as I described in the above video.)

While I can have a puerile, dirty mind on occasion, I'd like to think I can shake the "lonely gamer" and the "social pariah with an almost paralyzing fixation on boobs" status.

There's also the fact that a lot of the games have, at best, a plot from a late 80's action movie: Man against a sea of faceless adversaries. A wind-up toy with guns. Load him up and watch him kill. It's almost disturbing that we can't have a decent story in video games. While it isn't the most paramount thing, I'd like to think I can enjoy a story and still be a gamer.

Even the critically hailed Alan Wake still can't seem to shake this shtick. The titular character faces a sea of "taken" people, killing everything in his path in order to rescue his wife. Yes, it plays out like a movie, and that's progress, but it's still not enough.

My whole point? We've grown up, why can't video games do the same?