Topic: Are video games cool now?

Growing up in the ’90s, I was cautious about bringing up video games with other kids. Plenty of us played, but talking about it at school could get you labeled a nerd. It was like watching Pokémon or Dragon Ball Z—lots of kids did it, but you had to pretend you didn’t.

These days, social norms feel much more accepting. Rappers reference Naruto, PS5s are in living rooms instead of basements, and I have no problem telling my wife I’m playing Elden Ring for a few hours.

Do you think gaming and “nerd culture” have become more mainstream, or is it just about growing up and becoming more confident?

@allhailsanta growing up in the 80s/90s I never felt it wasn't cool to talk about video games... maybe that was because all my friends played games too it wasn't a problem at all. Now in my 40s, some of my peers fell out of gaming in their 20s or 30s, so for them they probably haven't witnessed how grown up games can be these days. It's weird, I would say it is very much mainstream now, but still doesn't get talked about in the same way as movies/music.

Either way, we all have to be proud of what we love or find interesting and ignore those that disagree!

@antdickens
Very true. Many of my friends have stopped playing consoles but still have random games on their phones. Thanks to YouTube and the internet, though, there seems to be much more appreciation for games as an art form. The issue, I think, is that you still see news anchors on TV saying things like, "Apparently, there's this video game called Fortnite that's making a lot of money?! What the heck, a video game??"—despite being 30 years old and fully aware of what video games are.

@allhailsanta yeah, the way it’s portrayed in mainstream media (esp news) is really weird. It’s not changed in 30 years.

What once was considered 'nerd culture' has become massively mainstream. Just look at Marvel movies. They're as mainstream as they come, and yet comic books were once considered the purview of geeky teenage boys.

As part of that shift, I think gaming has become far, far more mainstream than it was in decades past. It's partly generational, I think. Most millennials grew up with some form of gaming or another and in this age group it's totally normal to have some level of gaming as part of your mix of home entertainment/home hobbies, along with the usual movies and TV.

With that said, even as a millennial, I still find myself reluctant to bring up or discuss gaming with people I don't know all that well. Partly that's because a lot of my gaming time is spent playing old ball fan translated retro games rather than something I'm probably going to be able to connect with a random coworker/friend of a friend over easily. And partly it's probably that yeah, it did have a bit more of a stigma in the 2000s and I got in the habit of not readily bringing it up.

@wakkawak I’ve felt that awkwardness when hearing grown adults comfortably relate their streaming favorites and habits to others but then talking about their gaming takes on a more reserved and sheepish tone. It’s so weird but ya, that attached stigma is still out there

Yes definitely. In some ways its annoying because prices have skyrocketed because of how popular retro gaming is now. Retro game collecting has become an insanely unaffordable hobby due to all the demand.

In other ways its great because there is so much going on in the retro scene, new consoles, hardware and games are being released left, right and center. I feel like anyone who didn't grow up with retro games aren't true gamers. I feel like they are just copy cats and Johnny come latelys. I was into video games way before they were considered cool or mainstream. Those people shouldn't be allowed to buy retro games as they drive up the price of everything and they are just copying us who were playing these games from day 1.

Of course this is just how I feel, I know it's a flawed opinion.

The good side is we have cool stuff like the ModRetro Chromatic and homebrew games like Cronela's Mansion coming out. Then there are endless hardware gadgets and devices to help you get the best picture and game experience out of our retro video games. You gotta take the good with the bad but I think I preferred it when video games strictly relegated to people labelled as anti-social nerds. I was happy with people thinking that and leaving me alone to collect and play my games. But I gotta get with the times and roll with the punches as progress only goes forward. So I created my own Retro Video Game website to get the most out of this situation.

Part of the reason I believe gaming has become "more accepted" (due to a lack of better words) is because we, the generation that grew up gaming in the 80s, 90s and early 2000s, are now the adults and parents that know what they entail.