Ur game sux!

Despite what most non-gamers think, gamers aren’t a bunch of socially maladjusted slobs with no sense of hygiene or communication skills.   Most of the gamers I associate with are good folks who are friendly, outgoing, and dare I say normal.   But still it’s inevitable that any community has its own shining stars of asshattery.   One particular way this is embodied in the gaming community simply astounds me.   “Ur game sux!”

On some level all of us gamers are geeks, nerds, dorks, or whatever label you want to use.   We’re normal folks that if our hobbies became known could become subject to criticisms from our peers.   Geek Pride has been on the rise the last few years but there’s still a social stigma that forces many gamers to keep their status to themselves.

One would think that this sort of prejudice – either real or imagined – would encourage all of us gamers to band together regardless of the flavor of our geekdom but that doesn’t seem to be the case.   I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen criticisms of a game choice leveled as an insult to fellow gamers, or the number of times that the impersonal criticism of a specific game was taken personally by players of that game.

It’s not surprising that this behavior is most prevalent online where anonymity can cause people to forget they’re talking to fellow human beings but I’ve also seen it in person.   There it degrades into a personal snarkfest just as quickly as a forum discussion online and is no less demeaning.

While I was searching for how to describe this behavior I came across the Social Identity Theory that was put forth to describe “intergroup discrimination.”   In short, this theory consists of four simple elements (courtesy of wikipedia but emphasis mine):

• Categorization: We often put others (and ourselves) into categories. Labeling someone a Muslim, a Turk, or a soccer player are ways of saying other things about these people.
• Identification: We also associate with certain groups, which serves to bolster our self-esteem.
• Comparison: We compare our groups with other groups, seeing a favorable bias toward the group to which we belong.
• Psychological Distinctiveness: We desire our identity to be both distinct from and positively compared with other groups.

Even in my own limited experience I’ve seen situations which exemplify this type of behavior.   Some Magic players have complained about Yu-Gu-Oh players.   Some World of Darkness players have dismissed Dungeons and Dragons players as “not real roleplayers.”   Some Star Wars fans have criticized Star Trek aficionados as “too obsessive.”

I can say from experience it’s hard to avoid applying categories and thus assuming things about a person based on those categories.   Labeling is a very easy trap to fall into if you’re not careful, and we’ve all done it.   I’ve also had negative stereotypes directed towards me just because I was a part of certain groups, and it’s not a pleasant experience.

I think it’s important for us gamers to keep two things in mind:

• Our behavior is going to reflect on our peers
• We shouldn’t make assumptions about a group of people based on one person’s actions, and vice-versa

Really when you think about it, this just boils down to the goldern rule.   “Treat others as you want to be treated.”   Don’t make judgements of others that you wouldn’t want to be made about you.   Sometimes the simplest rules can be hard to follow.   Nobody’s perfect but we should still try to be good representatives of the collective gaming community.