So you’ve decided to not be totally disgusted by my promotion of holier than thou attitudes to silly and fun hobbies. Good for you! Throwing the shackles of decency and respect is the first step to being a video game snob. You’re now on your way to pop culture enlightenment beyond your wildest imagination and an opportunity to impress people, make your self worth rise and possibly get a job at a University in the year 2020 when video game culture studies will become part of the curriculum. Better dust off that blazer with the elbow patches!

Now however we’ll need to go into classification. For you see a video game snob isn’t your typical video game “nerd” so to speak. Are video games a great concern to the video game snob? Absolutely, much like how any snob’s forte is important to them. But it’s less about obsession and more about the pursuit of knowledge, the unwavering need to be able to learn, tries and experience as much of the medium as humanly possible however the video game snob is concerned with a broad worldly view of the medium than his brethren. There will probably be a lot of confusion at to what your goal is to be on your journey so we’ll set up a few guidelines on what a video game snob is.

A video game snob is not a “hardcore gamer”

This might confuse you for a second because isn’t a hardcore gamer someone who is really into video games? Ask any linguist, the meaning of words can morph and change as popular use of them shift. At one point in time the word “gay’ was mostly used to indicate happiness for example, and emo music was not about eye liner and flippy hare but the post hardcore scene in Wahsington DC. Yes hardcore gamers and gamer snobs were probably one and the same maybe ten years ago but thanks to the internet and the opening discussion of video games hardcore gamers became those who only deal with Triple A title action games with M’s slapped on their cover. Despite being really into their medium they also have tunnel vision as to what makes a “true” gamer and thus reject the casual.

As I stated earlier Video Game Snobs strive to be wordly and thus are at the very least open to all systems, games and genres whether they are “hardcore” or “casual.” Hardcore gamers for example often slight the Wii for being a platform for “casual” gamers and killing “hardcore games” however a video game snob will flip this and state that it’s an avenue to spread the media and look at game design in a whole new light.

With definitions changed the video game snob is not a harccore gamer but rather a “well rounded” gamer, a person who can see the merits of the medium in all formats and judgments and opinions based on informed decision rather then general bias and principle on “what a game should be.”

A video game snob is not necessarily good at games

This may come surprising to most but there’s a reason for the above. To get really good, like professional gamer league good, at a video game takes practice and time. To focus on one game singularly is something the video game snob does NOT want to do. They’re too concerned with trying as many games possible to get to that level of greatness. A video game snob is generally better than most of the people in the world when it comes to games, having played so many a numbers of skills generally translate over and natural skill and ability can throw anyone over to a high skill level in a given game. However you might not see them winning any Halo tournaments anytime soon and that’s fine with them since it no way invalidates their opinions.

A Video Game Snob is not a fanboy

Unnecessary loyalties and bias are par for the course when discussing video games. “Fanboyism” is often labeled against people who say that so and so system is winning the war. A video game snob however hold no allegiances to anything, no system or genre or format a video game snob is willing to look into any avenue that can provide entertainment be it a PS3 or an iPhone.

That said a video game snob can mention anything factual about the state of video games and frame preferences in the form of opinion. For example you can always say the Wii is doing well, because by the numbers it is, but then state your preference for the PS3 as you enjoy some of the exclusive titles it nabbed up. In the end it’s all about knowing where the line between fact and opinion sit and to never cross it.

A Video Game Snob leads a well rounded life

While video games are a majaor part of the video game snob’s life it isn’t the be all and end all. The video game snob is also a reader, a viewer or TV and movies, a lover of music and goes out and socializes with people. He doesn’t have the unfortunate social hang ups his brethren seem to either have or feel need to perpetuate and discusses in an articulate manner.

The other pop culture elements are quite key to the video game snob as there’s nothing that can make you look smarter than cross referencing medium to show their relations to one another. Mentioning thing as in the obvious influence of Scarfaces final scenes as an inspiration to the final battle of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City for example shows that you’re an individual who can look beyond things and is extremely aware of the world they exist in.

We’ve gone over some basic classification this week but next time we’ll go into a little more depth of further subdivisions of the video game snob and what you’ll need to know to branch off into specifics.