When I took up running about a year ago, I was so proud of finishing my first five-kilometre run. To people who regularly run marathons and ultramarathons, that's not a huge distance at all.
But rather than disparaging me, those athletes all cheered me on. Not only did they tell me that I'd done a good job - despite taking 45 minutes to run that 5km - but they encouraged me to do more.
They recommended upcoming races, gave me training tips, and offered to come running with me despite the fact that I was comparatively pretty useless.
All of that support was, and still is, immensely encouraging, and made me feel included - which then made me feel like I could do more. If gamers want to be taken seriously, they should be more like runners, and encourage newbies rather than look down their noses at them.
But there seems to be an ingrained defensiveness within the gaming community, as if it's a hobby that needs to be protected from outsiders. And as more outsiders decide that they want in, so-called 'real' gamers - the ones who have been playing for years and don't like the idea of others damaging their gamer-hipster cred - add more qualifications. As if there's some 'true gamer' card you get after you spend your 100th hour on Battlefield.
Even games that were previously staples of the true, elite gamer are now considered too casual. If you only play Mario Kart and Super Mario Bros, you're not a real gamer. If you play Street Fighter by mashing the buttons - let's be real, most people do that - you're not a real gamer. It seems absurd.
I strongly suspect that if we tried to meet everyone's requirements for a true, elite gamer, none of us would make it. Some people claim that if you've never played classic 80s arcade games then you're illegitimate. Others might argue you have to have the twitch-reflexes that playing Counter Strike requires. And if you enjoy anything from casual game developer PopCap, you're instantly on the outs.
Why do we, as a community, try so hard to keep people out of the clubhouse? I usually find myself quite excited if someone wants to call themselves a gamer, regardless of what they play. They might have spent 500 hours playing The Sims, and that's okay - in part because The Sims is still great, and in part because knowing that they play it means that I can recommend a host of other games they might enjoy.
While you should still respect their choice to play a casual game, simply being encouraging, rather than disparaging, could mean that they take on more challenging, in-depth games. It's not actually that much of a leap to go from playing a simulator to playing an RPG or MMO - I know, because I made that leap myself once.
Ultimately, isn't having more people to share your passion with a good thing?
I'm operating under the assumption here that most adult gamers would prefer their hobby wasn't looked down on. Mere minutes before beginning to write this column, I saw an article that referred to men who play video games with their mates as 'man-children', as if you can't play video games and hold down a job and pay your own bills.
If gamers want video games to be seen as a legitimate hobby in the same vein as film or TV, the exclusionary culture has to stop. Don't want to be seen as a man-child (or woman-child, as the case may be)? Well, don't be childish. Learn to share your clubhouse and everyone will be better off.
* Post your thoughts about gaming elitism below.
