From: "Rob Baxter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

> As a gamer who has worked in a gaming store I think I can mirror some
> sentiments others on the list may have by saying:
>
> What planet are you from?

    Nope.  You don't speak for me.  I personally agree with virtually
everything she said about the atmosphere and appearance of many gaming
stores and many game players.

> *My point is that many women grow up like I did.  We are taught to
> *avoid men who look like most gamers and avoid places that look like most
> *comic stores because if we don't we are going to get raped and pregnant
> *and uneducated and jobless and it will be all our fault.
>
> Hmmm, a very intelligent and qualified statement. Despite the obvious
social
> bias evident in your posting I can even find some ground to agree with you
> on. However a lot of the gamers ( such as myself ) on this board might
take
> this as a personal attack.

    Try not to take personal offense at a simple statement of fact.  She
said
was *taught* those things... she didn't say they were true.  In fact she
later goes on to state that she now knows these to be false.

> Your statements are akin to saying:
>
> "All Star Trek fans are maladjusted dorks with no social skills."
>
> or
>
> "Members of sororities are elitist snobs with a shallow world view"
>
> just not as direct.

    Not at all.  What she said was that, growing up, she was taught to be
wary of people who look, act, or smell a certain way.  Not really a bad way
to bring up a girl in the modern world, in my opinion, even if it does
instill some fear of people who are actually harmless.

> *  But for now the look and customer base of most gaming stores will make
> reaching new customers difficult.
>
> Ahhh yes, it's all about beauty isn't it? That's the reason I play games,
so
> people can percieve me as being cool and fashionable.

    A non sequiter.  She is saying that the appearance of a store affects
it's ability to garner new customers.  I don't think anyone can argue with
that point.  All else being equal, I would much rather go to a nice, clean
store with clean and helpful employees than a smelly, cluttered one with
unkempt and distracted employees.

> I AM a gamer. I play games twice a week. I have a beautiful girfriend
(also
> a gamer) that I treat like gold. I make in excess of $70,000 a year. I
bathe
> daily and after excercise, and brush my teeth more than once a day. I have
a
> University education. I have many friends who meet roughly the same
> demographic.

    She never said anything about *all* gamers, and she never said anything
about you specifically.  We're all individuals.  She was talking about the
atmosphere of game stores in general, and the teens and jobless
twenty-somethings that often hang out there.  It's not conducive to
attracting a broader base of customers.

    Try to be a little less thin-skinned, ok?



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