But to necromance a thread and come back to my real point: Fuck everyone that wants video games to "go back to how they used to be" and hate "casual gamers" and want to keep nerd culture super exclusive. Because, you know. You're doing this on the Internet. Do you remember the Internet before the WWW? Do you remember BBSes? Do you remember ARPAnet? Some of those people want us the fuck off their lawn. Because the WWW was a newcomer after small, but full-fledged communities grew on BBSes, back in the day.

Video games, same thing. If the NES is the oldest thing you remember, then you have exactly 0 leeway in this. You're some nub kid who showed up after a decade of personal computers. Hell. Even if you remember the Atari, that's pretty much the equivalent of the *casual* gamer you're deriding. Go to the Amiga, the Commodore 64, etc. where real "gaming" happened. Where you could program your own game and a semi-common way to distribute games *was to type the source code in yourself*. A non-zero number of people, even today, view *consoles at all* to be casual gaming. Wrap your head around that one. To them, people that console game are the equivalent of the people you bitch about. You memorized passwords and cheat codes? They figured out Zork and King's Quest almost 3 decades ago.

It's funny, perspective. Some people like something more because it makes them feel "special" being a part of an "exclusive" community, rather than entirely for the thing itself. Being elitist. Everyone wants to be special! But fuck being special. Wanting to be special is another form of wanting someone else to be less special. To be inferior. And that division of Superior and Inferior is why *every bad thing has ever happened*.

Besides. Why do you *want* less people interested in your hobby? Here's a funny idea to think about. Economy. Do you think the games you like would all be around, if consoles weren't to an extent subsidized by the super-big sellers? Your Halo, your Call of Duty, your *insert raged about game* etc? Consoles are paid for by software sales. Companies can afford to do riskier things if they're also making things that will sell gangbusters style.
Things live or die based on their community. And without new people, communities die. Without more money to expand. Without fresh, new ideas.
To bring this FULL CIRCLE, would you want the Protomen to stop gaining fans? Would you want them to be less popular? I mean. I love small concerts. Concerts where maybe 40 people know the band, because it feels intimate, where you can chat with the band afterwards. But I would *NEVER* wish The Protomen to be less popular to ensure that those keep happening. It scared me, somewhat, that MAGFest grows every year. But then talking with the people behind MAG, of course they want it to grow. Because then they can make it more awesome. So, I mean, I can understand the thought process. I really can. But then I realize it's stupid when logic kicks in.

And, hell. Here's to bring up my "cred" before that gets attacked. I've been gaming for about 18 years (since I was 4) and have been a computer nerd since about the same time. I fucking love that nerd culture is becoming a bit more mainstream. Yeah, of course, some people are cashing in on it. Which will happen to every thing ever. There's no way around it. But, you know. How do you tell when it's something being cashed in on vs someone legit being a bit of a nerd years ago?