The industry certainly gives gamers plenty to hate: profit-hungry console makers, unimaginative publishers, lazy journalists and stumping politicians are just a few of the bees in our collective bonnet. While legitimate beefs abound, many gamers opt instead to squabble over petty minutiae rather than join together to face down common enemies.
The snarky opinion is the cultural capital of the gaming community; it's the way we give our chosen activity relevance and context and prove that we're not just wasting our time (as so many parents and educators would have us believe). As a result, gamers enjoy arguments and flame wars as much as they enjoy games themselves.
Gamers are the most furiously opinionated hobbyists out there. When was the last time you read a four-page diatribe detailing the inferiority of Susan Bates' bamboo crochet hooks when compared to Herrschners' steel hooks? Never, because such a diatribe simply doesn't exist.Consider a few other hobbies: woodworking, knitting, martial arts. Spend 100 hours on any of these and you'll have something to show for your efforts: a chair, a sweater, the ability to kick stuff in half. Spend 100 hours playing Oblivion, and what do you have to show for it? A thousand points on your Gamerscore and a nuanced opinion on whether it's better to buy armor in Bruma or Skingraad. You may have been well entertained for 100 hours, but when the last Daedra is slain, what do you have to show for it? No chair, no sweater, no burly physique. You're left with your Gamerscore and your snarky opinions.
The snarky opinion is the cultural capital of the gaming community; it's the way we give our chosen activity relevance and context and prove that we're not just wasting our time (as so many parents and educators would have us believe). As a result, gamers enjoy arguments and flame wars as much as they enjoy games themselves.
