Tag Archives: Unreal

There are some people – you, most likely, if you’re reading Medium Difficulty – who have taken up the work of analyzing, criticizing, and thinking about videogames. Doing it seriously, with intentions from academic to idealistic, and doing it in many cases for no compensation at all. These people, myself included, care deeply about games.

Other people really love games, too. For them, games are their identity, their social group – not their muse. Like someone wearing a band t-shirt, they wear a Lord of the Rings Online hoodie or dress up as Final Fantasy characters. They don’t care any less than us. Just in different ways.

These two groups aren’t quite the same, but not so different, too. Largely, they get along without a hitch, often overlapping – but I’ve heard my colleagues say things like, “Fucking nerds,” while here. It’s said ironically and warmly, sure, but the implication of superiority is still there. On the other hand, the fucking nerds seem to not really care about our presence here. The yellow media badges don’t attract the same attention that cosplay does. Continue reading →