Just thought I’d share something I thought was pretty interesting. I have a mother in law who is… well let’s just say she’s a stereotypical older mom who doesn’t own a computer, just an iPad. During the pandemic, she started getting into Nintendo games and bought herself a Switch. Fast forward a few years later and she’s interested in getting a Steam Deck, since one of her “mom groups” told her about some pandemic inspired games, similar to Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing that are only available on Steam.
When it comes down to it, she doesn’t care about her computer, she just wants to play computer games in a way that’s easy and accessible for her. We’ll be getting her a Steam Deck for her birthday, which in my opinion is just super neat. Even PC gaming is becoming extremely accessible, and it’s a fantastic time to be a gamer.
Post: Uses the word normies in a positive sense and literally says it’s great that gaming is more accessible
Fediverse: Is this a neckbeard?
It’s amazing that a non-slur single word can get y’all so fucking bent out of shape. It was worth a double take, but not shitting on the entire post. It’s literally a post about a non-traditional gamer / not-power-user / etc person finding a sense of community and fun because of the rise of handhelds. Is shutting down that discussion over one word worth more than seeing the good in recent trends?
I hope we continue to see more good handhelds get made - I’d personally love a Steam Deck, but seeing Valve get some good competition would be good for the technology (not you, Apple / Meta). Maybe I’m just too old, but I’d love to see slide-out keyboards again…
I’m glad that somebody said it. Lemmy is becoming quite a shit show in this regard. These FOSS enthusiasts and Linux master race people are really starting to deter me from the platform.
I love FOSS software! I love Linux! I hate people telling other people how to think or what to spend their time with. Most of the people in this thread can fuck right off.
Post: Uses the word normies in a positive sense and literally says it’s great that gaming is more accessible
Fediverse: Is this a neckbeard?
The reaction is a bit more like
“B-B-B-BUT THE CONNOTATIONS!!! Bro you just LITERALLY used a word that has PROBLEMATIC CONNOTATIONS because it’s ALSO USED by PEOPLE I DON’T LIKE, and that makes you GUILTY BY ASSOCIATION!!! I am PROUD of how I combine purity testing and code switching into a DEFINITELY accurate litmus test, because I think I’m a character from Dune!! I don’t know what the FUCK ‘context’ is but it SOUNDS like something the ALT-RIGHT would care about!!!”
If I ever caught myself taking an obvious self-effacing remark seriously, I would be so ashamed. Anyone coming into this thread with hurt feelings about the word “normies” is a huge dork and needs go outside.
I would really appreciate if we stopped doing the “if you disagree with my opinion you’re an [insult] and also must be out of touch with reality so I will say you need to go outside” thing. It’s really exhausting. This is Beehaw, the be(e) nice server and I’m kind of getting sick of seeing this kind of snark on a server where the expectation is people being nice to each other.
I was skeptical at “normies” but the overall tone of the post is inclusive, so I’m not the target of your rant because I figured it out. I was able to figure it out because I’m terminally online and have the experience with online posts to know that some people use it as a pejorative and some people use it as a self-deprecating catch-all for people who aren’t too into their hobby.
I also have autism and some people with the condition aren’t as good as me at putting together the connotations of words AND the overall post to figure out the poster’s intentions. And some people aren’t terminally online and have less exposure to seeing this word used. They’ve likely overwhelmingly seen it used as a pejorative, and end up very skeptical of this post. I don’t like the idea that people like me, or that people who might have reasonably arrived at a different conclusion about this, are being told that they’re huge dorks who need to go outside.
Really starting to feel like Beehaw is just like any other online space. I see the same amount of snark and negative assumptions of people who didn’t see something the commenter’s/poster’s way. Sure, it’s free of bigotry, but all the spaces I occupied were already bigotry-free. Even back when I was on Reddit, because in the small subreddits I looked at the few bigots were downvoted to hell and had their comments hidden. (I’m aware that not everyone was lucky enough to only be interested in topics that had easily accessible bigotry-free areas so Beehaw still serves a useful purpose for them.)
Hi, please remember to Be(e) nice. I also think it’s a little silly to get in a huge flap about the headline of this article, but I’d ask that you also remember to be kind to other users.
I don’t love the pejorative “normies”.
It’s cringe af and totally reinforces the “gamer” stereotype. We can do better.
IMO it’s up there with calling people npcs
NPC’s is worse to be honest. It’s generally used to attack people’s social/political values and call them “sheeple” without using the term. Normie is gross but it’s mainly just dismissive and having too high an opinion of one’s own taste/interests.
Ultimately it’s cringe as hell to say either lol
Normie is gross but it’s mainly just dismissive and having too high an opinion of one’s own taste/interests.
Really? I always thought it was supposed to be self deprecating, like saying “people who aren’t fucking weirdos like myself”
I can see how it probably started that way, but once incels co-opt a term it makes it harder to use
Since when has normies been an incel thing?
really “normie” is a normie term now, ever since Wednesday on Netflix became a pop culture phenomenon. I’ve heard people in real life use this term
it’s way up there with using ‘cringe’ unironically
Meh cringe can be effective as a descriptor, but it’s cringe to call people cringe as a personal attack. I’ve described situations as very “cringe-inducing.”
Cringe is a thing, but it’s way too common that people use their own self-consciousness as an excuse to try to shame people who are just enjoying themselves on their own corner.
Most definitely. I’m more distinguishing it from calling someone an NPC, which has no valid use  other than to dismiss or denigrate.
“We can do better” or worse “X do better” is more cringe.
It’s just everyone judging everyone like they are worthless. Maybe people want to be part of the group maybe they have an identity with hardcore gamers. They don’t need to do better that’s their right.
it’s definitely a weird term but in more than a few contexts (mostly very online contexts) i’ve found it to be the only suitable terminology because there’s just nothing else which most of the people i talk to will “get” otherwise–it’d be nice to have something a little bit less embarrassing to work with, to be honest lol
there’s just nothing else which most of the people i talk to will “get”
The group here may be different from most of the people you talk to.
Try:
“the average person”
Or (mostly joking) “allistic”?
“average person” i’m afraid lacks a certain it factor–probably the ironic steeping in terminally online culture implied by even speaking it–that’s implied by using normie. i find in many of these circumstances it just seems out of place also. in a semantic sense i’m not sure “average person” maps to “normal person” either, which is another thing
Wow.
I cant even right now with this thread. There is nothing wrong with “normie.”
Me either. I’m a “normie,” I guess, and it feels unwelcoming and condescending.
Since when is “normies” a problem?
Since everybody in this thread got themselves into a big fucking tizzy about it because they have no actual problems. People for many years now have used it to jokingly put down their hobby obsession, e.g. “normies don’t glue green foam to toothpicks to make trees for their model trains like I do”, and while some people are huge wierdos who use it as a perjorative, the fact that they exist doesn’t matter and refusal to consider context is idiotic.
Maybe don’t call them normies.
Would you prefer ‘filthy casuals’?
“Peasants.”
but you have to spit the ‘p’.
That’s what I call anyone with anything less than a 3070/6700XT, not just the technologically illiterate
I feel personally attacked
If it makes you feel any better, it took effort to lean into my Master Race side that hard 😂
First off: normies?
Second, you’re absolutely right. Steam did a great job with the whole Steam Deck Verified thing. It ensures that the game “just works”, which is something that can’t always be said of PC games. It makes sense, given the near uniform hardware of the Deck, of course, but it’s still important for reaching the console and/or casual gamer markets.
And let’s face it, the Deck is just convenient as hell. It’s the mobile gaming solution I’ve wanted for decades.
Edit: swypo
I would also like to bitch at you for talking in terms of “normies”. Gross.
All sorts of hobbies use the term to describe people who aren’t fully into something but have a passing interest, it’s a pretty standard phrase.
How is it gross?
The implied derision.
Not seeing it in this context. If anything it is self deriding. Still a stretch.
normies is cringe. reminds me of way back when it started to become more socially acceptable to be nerdy and people got mad about it
You’re probably too young to remember when computers were a huge pia to use. Your MIL probably knows more about PCs than you do if she worked in an office in the 80s and 90s.
It’s also changing how normies think of Linux.
Also it basically doubled the % of linux users at Steam.
Normies don’t think about Linux. You don’t even need to see Linux if you use a Steam Deck.
When some Microsoft simp makes unfounded claims about how you can’t game on Linux, we now only need to point at the Steam Deck.
