People who only play the occasional Nintendo game, or watch their friends, family, or significant others play video games, can’t grasp with vast spectrum of video game nerdom. These nerds range, in real life, from jocks to geeks, cheerleaders to the marching band and beyond. Video game nerdom can include a successful businessman, a South Korean model, or a Russian fencer named Nikolay Kovalev. My point being, video games are not unlike any hard core drug addiction. It knows no boundaries, it does not discriminate, and you may have video game nerds in your life, right now, without even knowing it. Sure, Kathy appears to be normal. She bathes every day, gets her exercise, works hard, and yet, maintains an online life as squad leader in Battlefield 2. Its 100% true and right under your nose.
There are different level’s of video game nerds (or “gamers” for short). Some are more casual, but get nerdwood for one particular game, or type of game. Some gamers are hard core and can rarely peel away to feed or relieve themselves. One gamer nerd enjoys sports or roleplaying games, while another can play a silly ‘solitairesque’ simple diversion for hours only to brush it off “its just a silly little game I play when I’m bored.” (We all know these people - I am one -> www.stuntdirtbike.com -> retarded)
And you can’t look at someone and know they’re a huge gamer nerd by the way they act or look. The dorkiest kid on the block could be into Magic Cards when you had him pegged as a huge gamer. Where I know some world-class athletes, who when they got out of college, played the same video game 12-15 hours per day. If you saw them on the beach you’d think, damn, they got their shit together and he must work out. Nope. He plays WoW 12 hours a day….no lie. You have your hip gamers who only play Madden and a few other sports games, and they aren’t “nerds” by the standard definition. They may coach football, play softball, drink beer with the guys, and oh yeah, they have a closet addiction to a football video game that leads to family neglect and irresponsibility. You would never call them “nerd”, but they play more video games than most “nerds”.
Video games, in general, have transcended their nerdy, dorky stereotype. Celebrities are playing Wii and PSP, retirees are playing Wii golf or Wii Bowling, or Eve Online, and children are now playing with their favorite Disney Princess. You can make money playing games now; either professionally, or within the game itself like Second life where people use real money to buy virtual real estate – Anshe Chung makes 6 figures as a virtual real estate and marketing mogul! There are even proclaimed "Gay" gamers. Things have changed man.
It’s a multi-billion dollar industry now rivaling Movies and TV. And with that, you have billions spent on marketing and advertising which socializes individuals to a more acceptable place in society, as a gamer nerd. And it’s only going to get better, or worse, depending on how you look at it.
So now let’s classify these gamer nerds, identify their habits, and figure out who they may be in your life
….next time…
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