Now ok for non-nerds to play games, just FYI

by Vladimir Cole { Sep 15th 2006 at 2:28PM }

Oh, glorious day! We nerds no longer need to hide our hobbies for fear of social shame, because UPenn's college paper has just informed us that it is now acceptable for non-nerds to play video games.

The first witness the paper trots out to prove that it's ok for non-nerds to play games? Engineering student Jonathan Lehr.

And the first quote that the paper chose to show that games have overcome the stigma of antisocial behavior sometimes displayed by gamers of yore? Lehr again, yelling to his gaming buddies, "Who's player one? 'Cause I just [expletive] you up."

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Derbeste @ Sep 15th 2006 2:34PM

Somehow...I still don't feel cool.

Foxstar @ Sep 15th 2006 2:40PM

If I cared about being cool, I'd be dead from smoking or broke from clubbing.

Video games stopped being nerd heaven back in the late 80's with the NES, why are people just -now- coming to understand this?

Slippy @ Sep 15th 2006 2:40PM

That was one of the worst online articles I have ever cast eyes upon. Forget the 1-2 sentences per paragraph, how about incorrectly spelling a source's name from one sentence to the next (Panzer -> Palzer).

I think that guy just spent a night with the bong and Rez before he wrote that piece.

jharr @ Sep 15th 2006 2:40PM

I saw a huge change in people playing together while I was in High School. When Halo came out people started organizing video game parties something that I hadn't done much of before. It became more and more mainstream for people to get together with 16 guys and play Halo. Now at many Colleges there are tournaments that are constantly going on. If you go to some of these competitions there are a lot more people than nerds that you would normally associate with video games.

Shikoku88Henro @ Sep 15th 2006 2:44PM

I love how dropping the F-Bomb means that an activity isn't just for nerds. It's now socially acceptable for everyone, even people who are XTREME!!

Let's get some freakin' Mountain Dew

Derbeste @ Sep 15th 2006 2:43PM

"When Halo came out people started organizing video game parties something that I hadn't done much of before."

Most probably because your too young to remember when Counter Strike first came out.....or Quake 3....or Unreal Tournament....or Mario kart......

Jake C. @ Sep 15th 2006 2:45PM

Vlad,

I don't appreciate the use of italics like you're trying to suggest something... Engineering students aren't THAT bad. :)

Vader582 @ Sep 15th 2006 2:53PM

That college newspaper article was written by some frat guy who has a complex about playing games and not being cool. Next week he'll write an article claiming that roofies is now "cool" to use too. :eyeroll:

jharr @ Sep 15th 2006 2:53PM

"Most probably because your too young to remember when Counter Strike first came out.....or Quake 3....or Unreal Tournament....or Mario kart......"

Halo came out in 2001. Of course I remember all of those games. I used to get together with friends and play Mario Kart, Golden Eye, etc. I guess it just seemed to me that it wasn't as big of an event as it became when Halo came out. Maybe that was just the case where I'm from.

KilgoreTrout XL @ Sep 15th 2006 2:56PM

Ok, I give up. Which game makes you hold down "B" to aim?

Matt @ Sep 15th 2006 3:29PM

I agree with Jake C. Most Engineering majors I know are most certainly not nerds.

Judd @ Sep 15th 2006 3:11PM

"It's now socially acceptable for everyone, even people who are XTREME!!

Let's get some freakin' Mountain Dew"

Give that man a star.

Tired of the Zealots @ Sep 15th 2006 3:13PM

Based on the recent passionate and idiotic debate over the Wii price here at Joystiq, I think we nerds (and bloggers) should all be locked up. And given a serious spanking.

Matt @ Sep 15th 2006 3:25PM

UPenn students wrote this article? So nerds are now deciding what is and is not, nerdy?

Anyone who goes to a school in the north, a school that is that prestigious, and/or who has attended a video game party, wtf that is, probably should be making these decisions.

Tired of the Zealots @ Sep 15th 2006 3:42PM

How can you pick out an extroverted engineer? When you meet him, he looks down at your feet instead of his own.

Just a little light-hearted ribbing!

Anticrawl @ Sep 15th 2006 3:42PM

""When Halo came out people started organizing video game parties something that I hadn't done much of before."

Most probably because your too young to remember when Counter Strike first came out.....or Quake 3....or Unreal Tournament....or Mario kart......"

I guess people are still that oblivious to how video games appealed to audiences back in the day. When NES was king gaming wasn't just for hardcore nerds, everyone in the family played. I remember having groups of people to play Contra & Snake Rattle n Roll on NES, then with the Sega Genesis and SNES we had 6-20 playing mortal combat etc. Everyone did this when I was younger. Half of the people or more who came had never gamed before or didn't own a system.

Then with the n64 it was pretty insane with Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, and the ps2 for Blitz (highly popular social game, bigger than any other football game at the time). In any case this article is terrible.

I mean seriously look at this quote, ”But to some, gaming still carries with it the stigma of antisocial behavior and wasted hours.” That line alone tells you to stop what you are doing, get out a lighter and put it to the corner of the paper. Time enjoyed is not time wasted, Samuel Dangremond is a fine example of the degrading intelligence among our people in the US.

“"This is a pure case of the amateur against the video-game nerd," Herndon said, attempting to account for his loss to Kovalcik, an offensive lineman on the football team.” – This is the same kind of statement you’d expect from someone who uses racial slurs and stereotypes.

As a gamer I found this line hilarious and I hope you will too – “Kovalcik responded with a phrase familiar to the console gamer: "Just hold down B!"” I love how he says THE console gamer and not just a gamer. People who aren’t up to date on pop culture or “cultural phenomenon” shouldn’t be allowed to write articles about it.

*goes to vomit*
Anticrawl

Anticrawl @ Sep 15th 2006 3:45PM

Heh I laughed *16, and I'm an engineer myself.

Anticrawl

mandarin @ Sep 15th 2006 3:49PM

Who wrote this crap?

GhaleonQ @ Sep 15th 2006 3:51PM

While the University Of Pennsylvania is hardly rife with talented athletes (despite the massive drop in admissions standards for them), this article doesn't make any sense.

What stigma has ever been associated with playing Madden, Halo, and the Rareware first-person shooter games? I don't recall anyone being beaten with baseball bats for having Pac-Man fever in the 1980's, either. Those mentioned aren't "gamers" anymore than I'm a sports fanatic for following the NHL and various soccer leagues. Once the captain of the lacrosse team, teary-eyed, relates to his teammates how he cried when Edgar's and Sabin's past is revealed, video games will truly have become acceptable.