Too cool for school

Who has the ‘right’ to call themselves a ‘gamer’ and who does not?

In my experience the title of ‘gamer’ is very similar to the title ‘indie kid’ which is attributed to those in a certain music-based subculture. Due to the fact that video gaming is a new area of academic study it is easiest to begin analysing the culture that surrounds it by finding parallels such as this amongst other already established areas of study.

For the purposes of attempting to be academic (until I get to tick the ‘Dr.’ box when filling out forms I don’t think I’ll be satisfied with calling myself a true academic – with a mindset such as this you can perhaps understand why the following discussion interests me) I’m going to call this phenomena ‘The Hipster Mentality’(I’ve come to notice that academics love to coin new phrases).

Within the hipster community this mentality presents itself in the loss of authenticity if one who calls themselves ‘indie’ (or more commonly is referred to by others as such) cannot present appropriately ‘indie’ responses to questions regarding their apparent expertise. For example if one claims to be ‘indie’ but cannot name the colour of socks Belle and Sebastian’s drummer wore at such-and-such concert then they are ousted as A FRAUD!

In my experience the same phenomena appears within hardcore gaming communities. There is a sense of elitism amongst those who consider themselves true gamers. Often they seem to believe that one must be well versed in every aspect of gaming in order to be given the title.

To be frank, this idea is just as ridiculous in the gaming world as it is in the indie world as we simply cannot expect one person to be quite that knowledgeable. This leads me to believe that these so called ‘hardcore gamers’ are simply employing the old saying ‘fake it until you make it’ in that they too are not as educated as they seem but are in the same constant fear of being ousted as their hipster counterparts.