Quote from: JimBobOzNow I am gong to touch on a taboo subject. I am going to ask the question no-one is allowed to ask online: "How is it that you have so much time to be on these forums arguing with strangers?".

Because my job, which takes place almost entirely at a networked computer, contains two hours of work in an eight hour shift. There's nothing else I can do there, and no-one else in the building when I work. If I wasn't arguing with strangers on the internet, I'd just be looking at porno and people getting hurt on YouTube.

Quote from: JamesVYou know something the Geek Social Fallacies are shit because they take a series of behaviors that I've seen everybody engage in and then label them like they especially apply to geeks when I've seen no such thing.

They apply to any subculture, really.  But "geek" is the most applicable here, unless you'd like to suggest an alternative.

KoOS

Quote from: Christmas ApeIf I wasn't arguing with strangers on the internet, I'd just be looking at porno and people getting hurt on YouTube.

Of course, these things aren't mutually exclusive...

What?

KoOS

Quote from: King of Old SchoolBecause I'm a chronic procrastinator and I use forums like these, in part, as a distraction from real work I should be doing.  When I'm into my work, I post less often.

GET OUT OF MY MIND!  

(When did you learn telepathy?) :confused:

Quote from: David R... I have to say, I do find Jack's posts pretty interesting  - I was around lurking for the whole "not gaming" issue - and am always surprised to find out that some folks don't game, but still like to discuss gaming...even more weirder is when they make some interesting points (IMHO) about gaming.

I agree with all this. I'd say that the insights some people have into gaming, even though they don't game, simply come from the nature of the hobby - it's a voluntary social group activity. So anyone who has ever been voluntarily social with others is going to have some idea of what's up.

However, one thing... in general, when you read something that seems to be telling you something, you can have one of four basic reactions:

• Agreement
• Disagreement
• Indifference
• Incomprehension

With people who actually participate in an activity, when they write about it, you get mostly the first three reactions. When you read something by someone who doesn't participate in it, you often get the incomprehension. "What the fuck is he on about?" So for example if you read a webpage about physics by a physicist, and then go and look at the webpage of the Time Cube guy, well...

So yes, the non-gamers often have some very useful insights for us. But often we look at what they write and say, "what the fuck?"

Quote from: King of Old SchoolAs for the "gamer hate," the things I hate about many gamers I encounter are the same things I hate about many non-gamers I encounter -- it's just that, in the case of gamers, they directly impact my ability to enjoy gaming.

I think you've hit on a very important point here. You know how gamers are always saying that we get more freaks and losers in gaming than in other hobbies? I've never agreed with that, but couldn't really argue why. Maybe you've got it here - it's not that there are more freaks in gaming, it's just that because it's a social hobby, we notice their freakiness a lot more than if we were just working with them or whatever.