I recently had an audition for a singing show, where they were interested in branding me as the “gamer chick”. Fair enough, I thought, whatever it takes to be able to sing on TV. When I mentioned that my boyfriend and I met 5 years ago playing World of Warcraft, the producer said “That is so incredibly geeky. I can see the gaming themed wedding now!” This isn’t something I haven’t heard before, but it got me thinking…
What is it about the tech/gaming culture that makes us seem like such outsiders and weirdos? If Ryan and I had met in a college tennis class, would someone make a comment about how our wedding would be tennis themed? Probably not. There is a stigma about gaming that has been perpetuated by people who don’t get that, believe it or not, we have other interests BESIDES gaming.
Two people in a relationship who happen to have met playing a video game isn’t really THAT odd. Especially since those same two people went to the same school and live less than an hour away from each other. The Internet has made the world an infinitely smaller place, and Ryan and I could have easily met on Facebook or some other social network rather than a video game. The fact that Ryan and I met on the same server, same faction, at a moment when he was about to go AFK was completely by chance is unique. But people aren’t interested in that part. They simply assume that we are LARPers who do nothing but play World of Warcraft all day and that THAT is our one common interest.
A love for video games is hardly something to build a relationship on, much less is having a love of tennis. Relationships do not work if they are based on one thing. This mentality that all gamers are basement dwellers is old and tired and yet it persists. I can only hope that it become less and less of a stigma as the gamer culture expands and becomes a more accepted part of the world of technology.
Notes
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