What I'm seeing in my neck of the woods is that gaming has become really mainstream and a socially accepted thing to do. There was a time in my family when having a video display in the living room was frowned upon, but now the consoles get to stay hooked up to the living room projector and get actively used during social gatherings, especially with the non traditional controllers like the Wii remote and the Guitar Hero instruments. There are some people who still think that "video games are for little kids" but they are a shrinking minority. I don't understand how can you maintain such a mentality with all the media exposure violence-themed video games have had in recent years, but that's just me.

I have a decent retro gaming console collection (including an arcade cabinet) and I haven't heard anything other than nice things from family, friends and acquaintances when they get to see it or hear about it. I'm particularly happy that even my youngest relatives have an appreciation for the retro stuff, probably being exposed through the likes of the Virtual Console they get to enjoy classics such as SMB3, so when they see the original Famicom cartridge and console in my collection they beg to get some gameplay on the good 'ol CRT. I believe that much like music and other forms of art, video games have become an important part of our culture so that their history and timeless classics are getting their due respect. 😀

On the other hand, my retro computing hobby is mainly seen as "hoarding obsolete junk", 😐 especially in this consumption-oriented, throw-away society of always wanting the latest and greatest regardless of need.

As for your second point, as years go by I find less and less time for gaming, so I find myself picking up older, simpler games without steep learning curves, or getting some replay value from stuff I already know. Surely I'd love to have the infinite time and patience for gaming I had when I was a kid, but I don't see the current state of affairs as a bad thing. For one, we've become used to instant gratification by having knowledge and entertainment just a click away, there's so much stuff to do nowadays and not enough hours in the day.

My mother used to get on my case about every video game my Father gave me, from Wolfenstein 3D and DOOM to even Mechwarrior 2 Mercenaries. (she thought I was signing up for something even though it was the singleplayer and we didn't even have internet)

She still does not like it (even though I'm 21) that I play Unreal 1 as a big dragon that kills things with it's bare hands because she thinks I'm giving in to Satan... My boyfriend on the other hand doesn't like me playing old things because of it being obsolete and that I should not be so avoidant on newer things all the time.

I think that gaming is much more mainstream, however I'm definitely still seeing gamers depicted as social misfits/cases of arrested development. Just off the top of my head, I can think of a few commercials in the last few years:

Gamefly had a commercial with several twenty-somethings screaming and carrying on because they rented games that sucked, to the point of one of the guys pitching his TV out the window.

There was another with a guy in his late 30s (can't think of the product or service) and he is playing Left 4 Dead (or something similar) and his parents come down to his room in the basement to ask him about something.

Those are the 2 worst I can think of, I could probably come up with more if I included movies and TV shows.

I honestly don't see gaming as being any worse than watching football or playing golf or whatever. You can easily spend an entire day golfing if you go out with 4 people and play 18 holes.

Apparently, I built my 486 PC to play Candy Crush and Angry Birds 🙁

At the end of the day, I really don't give a shit about what other people perceptions are on what I enjoy doing. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions.

Unfortunately a part of me still feels like I'm wasting my time playing around with my computers, and I think that's because that idea was subtly driven into me as a kid. My parents were pretty good about it and mostly encouraging, but I was gently pushed (by them and adults in general) to limit the time wasting (computer games) and do more sport, read more books, etc. I never made any money out of kicking a football - compared to 13 years solid work in I.T - but still the nagging thought remains that a computer hobby = waste of time.

Gaming is certainly more highly regarded than it used to be, but it's still trailing behind sport, books, and even TV as a "worthwhile" hobby I'd say. The media of course don't help with their beat-up of violent video games and the link to gun violence, etc.

With regard to fatherhood, I've found that vintage computing is very compatible; it's cheap, you don't have to leave the house (like fishing or golf for example), and best of all the kids are interested in it and can join in from a very young age. I'm the sort of guy who needs a project, and who would quickly wig out without regular "me time", so I'm so glad to have such a perfect relief valve.

leileilol wrote:

Apparently, I built my 486 PC to play Candy Crush and Angry Birds 🙁

You can play those on a 486? Dare I ask how? I thought those were mobile-only games.

I guess ultimately I don't care what someone else thinks all that much, I just think it is funny how some things get stigmatized and others don't.

I believe it's human nature for people to demonize/consider very bad anything that they don't quite understand or have much knowledge of snorg. I remember when my uncle got his Packard Bell Legend 486 in 1991; while most of my family members wanted to know about it, my mother and grandmother were very visibly upset by its very presence. When I was coming back with a flashlight to help my uncle connect the keyboard and mouse, my mother suddenly exclaimed in a loud voice "If you keep tinkering with that thing it will suck you right through the TV screen! You'll see!" and my grandmother went into a tirade about us doing the Devil's work. All I could do was shake my head in disbelief and continue helping my uncle while ignoring their complaints. Eventually they learned to accept computers as part of the household, but it took a lot of explaining and showing how they really worked 😒 . Gaming gets a similar bad rap, since most people don't see anything of value or use in it; they don't understand that is just another form of entertainment, a way to unwind and forget the bad times you had.

As far as gaming time is concerned, it does decrease significantly as you grow older and have more duties and/or responsibilities to take care of; sometimes it decreases so much that you wonder how you managed to finish a long, complex game like Unreal, Half-life or Diablo 2 (if at all). All you can really do is adjust to your new schedule accordingly and play as much as you can, whenever you can. It's not perfect, but it's better than nothing.

I learned long ago not to worry about other's peoples opinions. Just do what makes you happy.

You'll never please everyone, there will always be someone out there that is negative and critical. Tell them to take a long walk off a short pier. You'll never make those people happy so don't worry about them.

If you enjoy gaming or tinkering with PC's go ahead and do it. If someone has a go at you because gaming is bad or antisocial or whatever, thank them for sharing their bad, wrong opinion and move on.

I know a guy who spent big bucks building a home cinema, and when he gets home from work he just likes to sit around and watch Netflix - his wife joins in sometimes when she isn't busy looking after their kid. I have nothing against that (its a sweet setup and I love movies as much as the next guy) but I think gaming is a better hobby - you can meet people online and be sociable, unlike a movie where you generally sit in silence for the duration of the movie, and there are plenty of people that like to discuss games once you get off the computer as well. And even then, some people like their 'me time' and don't need any socialization. I deal with people every day at my job and I'm happy to not have to do that when I get home. I don't see gaming any worse than locking yourself in your shed and fiddling with old cars or engines or whatever (like my grandfather used to do) and I daresay its a much cheaper hobby.

My whole history of dealing with computer was history of fighting parents forbidding me to spend much time gaming. First PC they bought me back in 1995 was 486 DX4-100; it had a key-lock option that would turn off the keyboard. But I quickly learned 'Halt on all but keyboard errors' BIOS option, thus I could boot and use the mouse to navigate in Norton Commander and run some mouse-controlled games.

Allright, then they took away the power plug adapter (those times wall outlets in Russia had too narrow holes to accept an euro plug, thus a small adapter was needed). But I used an old power extender to build an unreliable yet working solution.

Okay, then they decided to take away the whole keyboard. But keyboards were already cheap enough, so that I saved some pocket money and bought myself another one. To conceal its existence from parents I made a hanging stash under my bed (actually a post packbox lid and two ropes). It was totally invisible from outside if you don't stick your head under the bed which no one except me ever did. No one ever found that stash.

But after parents bought a second apartment next to our existing one, they made a decision to lock the PC in an unused kitchen of that apartment, so that they won't need to carry the keyboard here and there and only use a key. Ok, when they were absent, I sneaked into the place where spare keys were and replaced that kitchen spare key with a similar one. Soon after I made three copies and hid them in a bathroom, putting them on a bolt sticking from inner side of bath tub's leg. Since the space under the bath tub was isolated, there were no way to notice the keys other than intentionally touching bath tub's leg from its inner side. Also eventually I hammered in a small nail into that screen from inner side and hung one key on it to reduce the risk of losing everything in the case someone finds my stash. These stashes were also never found, I suppose new owners of that apartment don't realise they have three spare kitchen keys under their bath tub...

Also there was a problem with CRT display heating up from usage, so it was possible to determine that PC was recently on by putting one's hand over that display's back side. After all, I learned to put a large tabletop fan over the display; this way no any heat was felt.

Despite my last two stashes were never found and my deception weren't laid bare, it was such a stress to always remember that I might be caught at any time. I learned to listen to any suspicious sound to predict if parents are coming. Jumped up hundreds of times in anxiety to look into the window for their car. This continued for nearly four years, after that I left the city to study in Moscow.

All this taught me a lesson about parents. They say they love you etc., but when it comes to making decisions, they always 'better know what's better for you' and in the end they don't give a flying fuck about your interests, wishes and feelings. Neither they ever forget to say that 'nothing will come out of you if you continue your gaming/musicwriting/etc.' You can't negotiate with them, only cheat them into believing you are that paragon of a human they want you to be and you have no desires other than studying, working, marrying, raising children and otherwise being a 'good social person'.

I do know that one thing computers have actually helped me with is being able to navigate unfamiliar territory (like getting lost in a new city). Hours of wandering around in RPGs and making maps helped strengthen this skill. I still get lost and still rely on GPS when going to somewhere new the first couple times, but if I do get lost I don't feel helpless. I sometimes think that if I had a virtual model of my hometown when I was growing up and spent as much time screwing around in it as I had playing RPGs, my parents could have dropped me off blindfolded and I would have found my way home, 🤣.

One thing that I think is interesting, and that gives me hope for the future, is that how easy it is with computers and the internet to find people with common interests from all parts of the globe (the flip side of this is you can insulate yourself with ONLY people that share exactly your views and ignore everything else) and actually get to know them as people instead of just an abstraction.

Just to give an example, when I was growing up towards the end of the Cold War era, Russia was the "big bad enemy" and there was that knowledge in the back of your mind that we had all these nukes constantly pointed at each other. And now I am reading this retro games board and here is Bristlehog and his childhood/early teen experience is not too far off my own (my parents never locked up the computer but they hid the power cable and keyboard a few times...I think they just wanted me to get some sunlight).
I know this is incredibly naive thinking on my part, but sometimes I wonder what sort of world we would have if all that money that was spent on finding better ways to kill each other had instead been spent on exploring the solar system. I'm almost sure we'd have colonies on the Moon and Mars by now.

snorg wrote:

Do any of you guys out there have to deal with friends/family looking down their nose at your hobby?

There seems to be this perception that gaming is not something you should be doing as an adult.

The irony of it, game contents have been more and more "mature" since the likes of Doom and Grand Theft Auto - at least children and teens are still able to play King's Quest, Sword of Samurai, or F-16 Combat Pilot without being exposed to blood and gore or simulated crimes. So if games are not for adult, while their contents are unsuitable for less mature audience, who's going to play them?

snorg wrote:

This isn't helped by commercials/movies/other media that portray gamers as overgrown man-children.

The funniest part is that unlike our fairer counterpart, we men are always man-children - regardless of what hobbies we're in. We men simply never grow up, we are kids with money. The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys. What will the media label 'man-children' next, audiophiles? Car enthusiasts?

What would the media consider 'mature' hobby? Golf? Haven't they ever heard about golf widow? 🤣

snorg wrote:

This isn't helped by commercials/movies/other media that portray gamers as overgrown man-children.

It also doesn't help when crazies who go on shooting sprees are found to have violent video games in their homes when they are arrested. The kneejerk reaction is OMG! Video games cause people to go crazy and kill people!!! Oh noes!!!! They don't take into account the possibility that the killer was already crazy before they started playing the games.

In my opinion it does not matter what other people think. In my opinion most people are like mindless sheep: they watch soaps / reality TV and only talk about celebrities, fashion and other superficial topics. They also obsess about "fitting in" and gossip about other people "not fitting in". That is a very sad way of life in my opinion.

DonutKing wrote:

I learned long ago not to worry about other's peoples opinions. Just do what makes you happy.

You'll never please everyone, there will always be someone out there that is negative and critical. Tell them to take a long walk off a short pier. You'll never make those people happy so don't worry about them.

bristlehog wrote:

All this taught me a lesson about parents. They say they love you etc., but when it comes to making decisions, they always 'better know what's better for you' and in the end they don't give a flying fuck about your interests, wishes and feelings. Neither they ever forget to say that 'nothing will come out of you if you continue your gaming/musicwriting/etc.' You can't negotiate with them, only cheat them into believing you are that paragon of a human they want you to be and you have no desires other than studying, working, marrying, raising children and otherwise being a 'good social person'.

That considered there is also to say that video gaming is not men-children thing, think of the bunch of people you see around looking they're doing something professional with their current generation phones (Android, iPhone, and that other Microsoft OS) and instead they're playing some easy gaming game.
Gaming has always been a social activity for me, meeting people at the local arcades, co-operative games at home, co-operating with friends at some mistery-solving adventure, discussing in person.

sliderider wrote:

It also doesn't help when crazies who go on shooting sprees are found to have violent video games in their homes when they are arrested. The kneejerk reaction is OMG! Video games cause people to go crazy and kill people!!! Oh noes!!!! They don't take into account the possibility that the killer was already crazy before they started playing the games.

Hear Matt Stone's comment about that in Bowling for Columbine.
When one is socially cut off and no one intervenes (family, institutions) and their hands are idle you never know how they might react.