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Post by JDarkside on May 11, 2016 21:19:20 GMT -5
Nobody got their ass kicked for liking videogames.
Hell, I was bullied a lot, but my bullies liked most of the games I did, they just picked on me because I was socially awkward and thus an easy target. I openly loved anime as a kid and, amazingly, this never got me any shit. I should note most everyone unironically liked Kingdom Hearts in my school.
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Post by GamerL on May 11, 2016 21:31:48 GMT -5
Stuff like comic books and the like used to be seen as "kid stuff" and it was no big deal if you liked Spider Man or whatever as a little kid, but if you were a teenager in high school and still liked comics then there were some who saw it as their duty to beat some sense into you until you liked "normal" teenage boy interests like underage drinking, unprotected sex and concussion causing football.
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Post by Scylla on May 11, 2016 21:40:34 GMT -5
I was talking about the 80s/90s, yeah. Washington state, in my case.
I just have a hard time trying to reconcile the idea of kids being beat up for liking games with the fact that these systems were so ubiquitous, and even specifically marketed at kids and teenagers. Not saying that it didn't happen anywhere, just that it probably wasn't that common. At my elementary school, you would've been more likely to be seen as uncool if you DIDN'T have an NES and had no clue about Mario and such.
I mean, I get that nerdy interests as a collective can work against you, like if everything you like seems to not line up with the mainstream. If every kid on the playground is talking about Mario 3 while you got a Master System and are playing Phantasy Star, I could see you getting some shit.
But at the same time, I think a lot of victims of bullying probably don't want to accept the reality of why they were bullied. It's more comfortable to blame the games or comics or whatever than to consider that, on top of nerdy interests, you may have also been socially awkward, or you may have had a physical characteristic that made you a target, or anything that may have caught the attention of bullies rather than your hobbies. Not that any of these are things to be ashamed of or that the bullies were at all justified in doing what they did. Just that there's a lot more at play in matters of bullying than marking off a checklist of unacceptable hobbies.
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Post by JDarkside on May 11, 2016 21:58:42 GMT -5
I was talking about the 80s/90s, yeah. Washington state, in my case. I just have a hard time trying to reconcile the idea of kids being beat up for liking games with the fact that these systems were so ubiquitous, and even specifically marketed at kids and teenagers. Not saying that it didn't happen anywhere, just that it probably wasn't that common. At my elementary school, you would've been more likely to be seen as uncool if you DIDN'T have an NES and had no clue about Mario and such. I mean, I get that nerdy interests as a collective can work against you, like if everything you like seems to not line up with the mainstream. If every kid on the playground is talking about Mario 3 while you got a Master System and are playing Phantasy Star, I could see you getting some shit. But at the same time, I think a lot of victims of bullying probably don't want to accept the reality of why they were bullied. It's more comfortable to blame the games or comics or whatever than to consider that, on top of nerdy interests, you may have also been socially awkward, or you may have had a physical characteristic that made you a target, or anything that may have caught the attention of bullies rather than your hobbies. Not that any of these are things to be ashamed of or that the bullies were at all justified in doing what they did. Just that there's a lot more at play in matters of bullying than marking off a checklist of unacceptable hobbies. Pretty much. Not fitting into the fold was mainly based on how one acted, not what they liked. That was just icing on the cake. Most bullying is also emotional and not physical.
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2016 22:02:24 GMT -5
I was talking about the 80s/90s, yeah. Washington state, in my case. I just have a hard time trying to reconcile the idea of kids being beat up for liking games with the fact that these systems were so ubiquitous, and even specifically marketed at kids and teenagers. Not saying that it didn't happen anywhere, just that it probably wasn't that common. At my elementary school, you would've been more likely to be seen as uncool if you DIDN'T have an NES and had no clue about Mario and such. I mean, I get that nerdy interests as a collective can work against you, like if everything you like seems to not line up with the mainstream. If every kid on the playground is talking about Mario 3 while you got a Master System and are playing Phantasy Star, I could see you getting some shit. But at the same time, I think a lot of victims of bullying probably don't want to accept the reality of why they were bullied. It's more comfortable to blame the games or comics or whatever than to consider that, on top of nerdy interests, you may have also been socially awkward, or you may have had a physical characteristic that made you a target, or anything that may have caught the attention of bullies rather than your hobbies. Not that any of these are things to be ashamed of or that the bullies were at all justified in doing what they did. Just that there's a lot more at play in matters of bullying than marking off a checklist of unacceptable hobbies. Well when the bullies are saying "fuck your games friendgot" while punching you in the gut, it kind of sends a message.
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Post by vetus on May 11, 2016 22:08:06 GMT -5
Strangely enough, although I have been bullied all the time at school I have never been bullied at high school for liking Pokemon. They only made fun of me for that 2-3 times but seeing how cool I was about it they fed up and never mocked me again for liking Pokemon.
And generally I have never been bullied for liking video games, quite the contrary: from the few times that bullies weren't bothering me, we would talk about video games since they were also playing video games even in a casual level.
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2016 22:55:05 GMT -5
It's interesting to hear people say that they never really saw any widespread bullying based on interests. My wife also says that the school she went to was bully-free, which I find as hard to believe as Scylla does the inverse. It just seems that different areas had different types of people.
Where I grew up, video games became the realm of children after middle school / junior high. Sure, there were guys playing NBA Jam and Mortal Kombat in maybe 9th grade, but even that was a bit of a stretch for most of them. As far as I could tell, by the time I hit the 10th grade (1996), I was the only person openly admitting to playing video games anymore. Everyone else had moved on to something else by then.
Comic books were treated much the same way, and nobody was even into manga or anime at the time, since there was no easy way to get stuff like that where we were.
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Post by Scylla on May 11, 2016 23:35:09 GMT -5
Oh, I definitely saw plenty of bullying in my time from kindergarten through 12th grade, and was the target of it myself at times (most notably my 6th grade year, in which it was basically a daily thing). I just never saw bullying that had anything to do with video games or really any specific "nerdy" hobby. There were definitely people who I'm sure were viewed as "nerds" in a disparaging way, but that was a result of the general persona they gave off, rather than anybody knowing or caring about their specific interests. Honestly, most bullying I saw was in relation to appearance. Kids who were overweight, kids who didn't have cool clothes, stuff like that.
That's really weird to hear that even high school boys were rejecting video games in your area. I mean, who did they think Mature-rated games were for? That even those were for little kids? I mean, the mid to late 90s were all about games like Twisted Metal, Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, Metal Gear Solid, Tony Hawk, etc. that were all heavily targeted at high school boys.
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2016 23:54:58 GMT -5
Yeah, it was really weird. They were mostly into sports out there. You put your toys and games away as a teenager and started making an effort to attract girls. That mostly amounted to getting a car and drinking and getting high. I remember a guy I went to school with calling me up the fall after graduation and asking what good games were on the PlayStation, as he had decided to give gaming another try. It took everything I had to not reach through the phone and snap his neck. Oh, it's okay to like them now? NOW? After I've been ridiculed over liking them for the past six years, and nobody ever said or did anything to defend me?
But I'm not bitter.
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Post by The Great Klaid on May 12, 2016 2:19:42 GMT -5
Eh, see I went to school on the cusp of this everybody's into this shit. So all of my classmates played video games. But, I still got shit because I played Final Fantasy and Street Fighter. And Jesus Christ the dirty looks I got when I'd run into classmates in the bigger towns while I was looking at Magic cards.
So really, I think a lot of it is still pretty unacceptable. I mean not even the people I hang out with dig my love for games like Advanced Squad Leader. Warhammer is a hard sell for a lot of people. Even D&D turns people off. I think someone mentioned it. But, really mainstream pop culture digs the easy part of nerd culture. It's easy to buy a Mario shirt. It's easy to watch a movie. It's easy to watch television. And you know what, that doesn't even bug me. But, and don't get the wrong idea from this, but I think to call yourself a nerd you have to put effort into something. I don't believe in immediately dismissing somebody with fake geek. But I mean, you know, anyone can watch The Avengers. It takes my sister to have every Nick Fury comic book. And be able to tell you everything you never wanted to know. With being able to grab the book to cite herself.
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Post by GamerL on May 12, 2016 5:44:19 GMT -5
Another thing to remember is being a nerd is not simply "I like certain things" it can also mean being socially awkward, shy around girls etc, none of which is considered cool. Especially when we're talking extreme examples, Justin Sevakis once wrote in an Anime News Network article about an encounter at a small con he had circa the early 00's where he interacted with a nerd that thought nothing of casually picking his nose while talking at length about Saber Marionette J, now how many "geek chic" types would be utterly repulsed by a fella like that? That's really weird to hear that even high school boys were rejecting video games in your area. I mean, who did they think Mature-rated games were for? That even those were for little kids? I mean, the mid to late 90s were all about games like Twisted Metal, Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, Metal Gear Solid, Tony Hawk, etc. that were all heavily targeted at high school boys. If i had to wager I guess I'd say bullying over video games was probably not too common (though it did happen as Jason X says), I think the majority of nerd bullying probably most recently happened in the 70's/80's over stuff like comic books, sci fi novels, Star Trek and D&D.
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Post by Discoalucard on May 12, 2016 8:44:54 GMT -5
I remember one dickbag used to be pick on me when I was a freshman because I read Star Wars books during lunch time. This was definitely in the era where games and all of that stuff were for kids/losers.
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2016 11:27:29 GMT -5
I remember one dickbag used to be pick on me when I was a freshman because I read Star Wars books during lunch time. This was definitely in the era where games and all of that stuff were for kids/losers. Are we talking "Shadows of the Empire" here, or more "Courtship of Princess Leia"? I probably should have had my ass kicked for reading the entire Boba Fett trilogy.
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Post by vetus on May 12, 2016 12:16:05 GMT -5
What I personally hate isn't chads that suddenly they started liking what they previously mocked you for but vise versa: I hate people which previously they were incredibly obnoxious for their geek tastes and you should try really hard to convince them doing something together less geeky for a change like going out for a walk and suddenly they tossed away their geek past to get accepted by the cool kids and now they mock you for still being a geek.
Also I find it very stupid when even today some teenagers think that video games are only for kids despite the fact that some of the most popular, mainstream games are mature FPS and that many adults of both genders often play games at their smartphones at public transportation. The most recent example was few months ago at a chat room with people of many, different ages gather and one teenage girl called me a pedophile (and she meant it) just because I asked if anyone else plays games at their smartphones. Cuz yeah: pedophiles are ignorant enough to reveal their real age instead of pretending to be little kids! Fortunately the rest of the chat room disagreed with her ridiculous reasoning. Then again I shouldn't be surprised, seeing that many people even today truly believe that Talking Angela is a pedophile tool.
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Post by Discoalucard on May 12, 2016 12:51:48 GMT -5
Are we talking "Shadows of the Empire" here, or more "Courtship of Princess Leia"? I probably should have had my ass kicked for reading the entire Boba Fett trilogy. Thrawn trilogy, i.e. some of the only good-ish EU stuff.
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