Orochinagi: The King of Fighters

Gamers get a pretty bad rep out there today, they’re often portrayed as lazy, overweight, pimply, virgins, socially-awkward, ignorant, yahoos, rednecks, oops, I think I’m going in the wrong direction. It bothers me ever so slightly that I used to be offended by these labels thinking, “That’s not me in the slightest”. Today, I look in the mirror and I still have the luxury of saying, “That’s not me in the slightest”, though I suppose I’m not much of a gamer anymore by any means.

I do however, have a predilection for gaming news and henceforth stumbled upon this little gem at the Giant Bomb forums.

http://www.giantbomb.com/forums/off-top … ss/240469/ wow

It’s either the most clever troll post ever, or a paradigm on why voters have to be screened on education. A Giant Bomb forum member by the name of “Wolverine” (oh clever), travels to France and is disgusted by their socialist/capitalist hybrid system. He recognizes the injustice placed upon the hard-working-rich-capitalist-elite when a hobo is allowed to the top of the Eiffel Tower for free when he had to pay an “x” number of Euros. Oh the humanity, I suppose it never occurred to him that the transient merely slipped his way through security or that the staff figured that letting him up would be better than causing a big stink. Little did they know there was observant American there with his steel-trap mind and cunning lingual skills ready to return home and blog about it at his favorite gaming forum. Someone could argue, “Oh Foxy, but this sample size is too small! Not all gamers are ignorant overweight republicans who spew capitalist rhetoric when they’re trolling forums!” Maybe they’re right, but I’ve seen better political debates happening at my local McDonald’s than I have reading gaming forums. Even Kotaku, who actually screens their posters are liable to have some of the most mind-rotting and soul-destroying threads on economics and god forbid, women.

So, when I wake up tomorrow, I’m going to look in the mirror before I go to work and tell myself, “I’m not a gamer”.

The irony in all of this is Wolverine is Canadian, and Canada probably embraces the socialist aspect of its political system far more than most of the Westernized nations out there. “I don’t read comics, I don’t read comics, I don’t read comics….”

Afterthoughts:

This was originally posted in the blog section of the Orochinagi forums, and the most popular response was, “What constitutes a gamer?”

When it comes to disparaging labels, the individual is rarely in the position to make his or her own. As far as I’m concerned, a gamer is whatever the media or general public thinks a “gamer” is. If an old man playing bejeweled just happens to be a murderous pedophile and is later caught in a highly publicized police sting resulting in gamers now being considered murderous pedophiles, then they are. It matters little what you think of yourself when you’re playing Street Fighter IV in an arcade and everyone walking outside who saw the “news story” glances in and thinks, “pedophile.”

I’m sure my original motivation for even writing this post was to somehow distance myself from my own gaming vice only to realize that it’s probably a futile endevour.