You know what my problem is?
My problem, you see, is the part of my brain which is supposed to say "NO. YOU DO NOT NEED ONE OF THOSE." when confronted by the opportunity to buy a leopard-print cowboy hat for three dollars, instead screams "YES YES YES OH MY GOD, YES!".

So, yeah, now I have a leopard print cowboy hat. >.<;;

A man motivated by self-interest will at some point in his life do something that is for the good of society, whether that is his aim or not, simply as a byproduct of his own self-interest; for, in order to be maximally successful in any arena, a man must have the approval, or even the adulation, of his society.

I just realized what has happened to the gaming community, in terms of the rampant asshat-ism that seems to dominate the culture (in my opinion).

Back in the 80's and early 90's, gaming in and by itself was not only a niche market to the well off, but it was still marginalized to the geeks and shut ins who shunned outside for an activity that was based in the markets flights of fancy. Cool kids would rather go to the park and socialize, or play some sports. I wanted to put on a suit of armor and hurl magic doom to a poorly drawn dragon.

But in the mid 90's, I feel the gaming industries realized it couldn't survive on just us. I mean, the sports section of gaming was paltry compared to the plethora of other genres. And I feel that was by and large for the reason of those who wanted to play sports... were out playing sports. We were just too small and specialized in our own individual geekdom to have a wide spread success with us. What was great for me wasn't good for the geek two buildings down. So, they expanded.

There were commercials during this time for a new game system (I have to believe it was PS), where the commercial first showed the responses to a situation by a nintendo player and a sega player. The Nintendo player was a timid little geek who were weren't supposed to identify with. The Sega player was a frustrated angry nerd who we were supposed to feel free to mock. but the new console representation was a cool kid like we were told we wanted to be like all through the 90's. With a leather jacket and sunglasses and everything. In my memory, this was the first time that the video game marketing not only acknowledged that video gaming was dominated by the 'less desirables' of our culture, but they used this fact to belittle and shame us into desiring to play the new 'cool' system so we would be cool as well.

Slowly and surely, as we wondered why game play started to take a backseat to graphics and boobs, a new voice in our ranks came out. But we mistakenly assumed that since it was the net, they were just being vocal and frustrated since this was their first chance to remake themselves into a dominant form of geek or nerd, like our own shared Bullied experience taught us to act to get respect. I'm starting to think that isn't the case. Sure, a few people must have done it... but even in this day and age, where games have been accepted more or less as a plausible past-time and the banning of bullying happens daily (not entirely successful, but I do remember being picked on by teachers and adults for my geeky ways, and that just can't happen now without someone losing a job), where does all this vile and stupidity come from? How does it keep cropping up?

I think we need to look at the very answer of the banning of bullying and the embrace of the 'cool kids'. Essentially, the gaming market has created the last oasis of the bully. While still somewhat of a fringe market, it's also a market that isn't watched as closely as say Facebook to make sure everyone is treated ok. And that makes for a prime breeding ground for the asshat. Add to the fact that you don't even need to be physically intimidating, just have better reaction to moving a joystick and pressing a button... and then just be louder than everyone else. Boom. Bullies are now a dime a dozen.

Then they go to the forums and still throw up their dismissive threatening antics and we have the mess we have now. A mess where sexism, racism, and just asshatism is not only accepted, but it's one of the most vocal parts of our culture. I understand the gaming market had to expand their base to survive, but I think I'd rather the days where Alphas wouldn't be caught dead near a controller for fear of being called a geek like it used to be.

"We don’t reach the mountaintop from the mountaintop. We start at the bottom and climb up. Blood is involved."

Thank you for saying it with such clarity, Sugar.