Monday, February 05, 2007

Next Time Consider Your Demographic

I was flipping through channels just now and came across a show on new video games. They were blathering on about voting for the best game of the year. I have no problem with gamers voting on which game is their favorite of the year. I have no interest, but equally a lot people have no interest in the things like the NHL All-Star game which I vote for every season. They vote their thing, I vote mine. So it was not the fact that the hosts of this particular show were trying to galvanize the vote which caught my interest. But rather it was the way they were going about it. They were trying to make jokes about fucked up voting practices in Florida and Ohio, and how people would be able to decide the best game of the year unless the Supreme Court decided to make the choice for them. Now I picked up on these references to (relatively) recent elections and all the shit that surrounded them. But my first thought was to question how many gamers would actually get them as well. Of course, I'm not saying that all gamers are idiots or anything of that sort, but I have noticed a correlation between excessive game play and a being oblivious to the outside world. Wouldn't it make more sense to pick a reference more directly related to interests of their specific demographic? Of course, I have no idea that other reference might be as I'm not a gamer myself, but I'm sure there must be something for fitting. I mean, it's kind of like trying to convince yuppie-larva to buy the latest MP3 player by talking about classical music on wax cylinders. Yeah, on some level it makes sense, but let's face it, how many yuppie-larva are going to even know that music used to come on things called "wax cylinders"?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are you calling me oblivious to the outside world?

RogueHistorian said...

Please note the parts of this sentence I have emphasized: "I'm NOT saying that all gamers are idiots or anything of that sort, but I have noticed a CORRELATION between excessive game play and a being oblivious to the outside world."

Clearly, I'm not saying that being a gamer causes people to be oblivious. I'm just noting the fact that the two traits are often seen in the same people.

And besides, you know me! And you know I've never accused you of being oblivious. Crazy? Yes. Oblivious? No.

Anonymous said...

Haha! There's an outside world? You and your correlations!! And yes I am crazy! Have a good day :-)

Journey said...

I don't know if I'd go with you on this one. Some gamers certainly are that level of oblivious, but they're a sterotype--like the computer geek with the pocket protector. Sterotypes get that way for a reason, but for every computer geek with the pocket protector, there's one like me. A hell of a lot of gamers I know are very well educated and politically interested and/or active.

On the other hand, it's easier to see in some of the more liberal, east-coast communities than it is in, say, AZ.