I wish everyone had a taste for classic rock and roll, blues, and folk music with deep meaning. Reason being, I think this type of music can liberate your mind, body, and soul.

As far as games, I don't really care if people like what I like, but I'm more open minded in regards to certain styles of games than many other gamers I've spoken to, privately and publicly.

One great example would be Dungeon Siege 3 - I did not find it that different from 2, but a lot of people, especially here on GOG's forums, did not care for it at all. I'll be the first to admit it plays much better with a gamepad, but some of the core mechanics from Dungeon Siege 2 were also in 3. Quite a few, actually.

So in that respect, I don't care that people don't like what I like, other than the lashing Obsidian got from Dungeon Siege 3 contributed to it being castrated, gaming-ly speaking.

Now that I've thought about it some more, I believe you are correct. Everyone needs to feel loved. If they don't get that love from others, they at least need to get it from themselves. But people need to be loveable in order to be loved so these people use their "special unique tastes" to make themselves loveable because it is a lot easier than achieving something that will make you loveable(like being a good musician or painter etc). If their tastes cease to be special and unique, then they will have to find another reason to love themselves...so they HATE it when someone listens to same music they do, watch the same movies they do, play the same games they do etc. They often call people with the same tastes, "posers". Correct?

I've got a strange duality on this one. On one hand I like liking things that aren't mainstream. I don't go out of my way to do that like some kind of hipster. But I just tend to. On the other hand I want the things I like to do well and that means being more popular...

ok.

Of course, when presented with facts, I'm ready to review my opinions. But so far noone managed to present me any convincing sources regarding this matter. Wild speculations and conspiracy theories are not enough for me to turn on paranoia mode.

I like what I like and make no excuses; I really don't have a care in the world for whether other people like it or not.

I kinda feel like this ties in a bit to the whole sense of this need to feel "better" than someone - "Look, I'm great, I like this game, it's great, therefore you should like it too or you're not as great as I am." Of course, perhaps I'm reading too much into it, but I think just about any conflict can be boiled down to the "I'm better/smarter than you" thing.

Not that wanting other people to like what you like is necessarily a conflict, although I think that on a deeper level it is.

I would like others to like what I like, but I've long since learned that there's nothing I can say or do that will make others like something they don't like. I can introduce others to whatever it is if they don't yet know about it, but beyond that it's going to be up to them, that's something I have to accept whether I like it or not.

Personally, while I am interested in hearing recommendations and being introduced to new games by people, I don't really give a shit what others like or do. Whether you play casual games or hardcore CRPGs/strategy games, whether you buy digital or physical, whether you buy day one at full price or pirate your games - I find that an ideology is a personal thing. And honestly, it really gets my fucking back up when people start dictating to me what I should and shouldn't like, how some people are somehow inferior for liking different games, and what I can and cannot do with my games.

Yes, I buy primarily physical games. Yes, you can buy digital at $50 if you'd like. But don't expect me to act nice when you start getting all high-and-mighty on me about how I'm supposedly "living in the past" and somehow "harming the environment" and "putting developers at a disadvantage". You do your thing, and I'll do mine.

I play both casual games and complex CRPGs. I really don't appreciate being labelled as some kind of antisocial nerd by casual gamers or as some kind of second-class citizen by self-appointed 'hardcore' gamers. The complexity of what my girlfriend plays basically extends to Mario. Does that make her any less a gamer? No.

And yes, I do like to buy used games when there's no way to get them at a reasonable price new. Yes, it's fair and reasonable. No, I'm not a pirate for doing so. I really wish people would keep their narrow-minded sycophancy to themselves.

The problem with the internet is it brings the extremists out of the woodwork. I've actually tried my level best to find in real life the kinds of idiots that you sometimes see online, but every other gamer I meet is surprisingly normal. The internet somehow conveys the idea that every gamer is an extremist cunt.

Well there's a difference between not getting something and judging others for liking something. Obviously if my girl judged me for liking what I like it would be a deal-breaker, but she doesn't.

Sometimes she is a liiiiiiitle shitty about my games, and sometimes I am a liiiiiiiitle shitty about her reality TV addiction, but for the most part we accept each other's differences.

Kinda depends. If they feel too dissolving, if the others (by their numbers, or a too 'democratic' attitude) don't make them feel special enough, or if they don't relate enough to these others ("urgh, having to share my identity markers with THOSE kind of people!?"), then yeah, they're posers, or fake ones, etc... But you can also have a sectarian team, if the others manage to give the feeling of still being some sort of special minority. Even better if totally "misunderstood" or "oppressed", which is compatible with both obscure stuff ("hah, we are the connoisseurs elite") and mainstream stuff ("huh, the intelligentsia hates our stuff just because it's popular"). So, in some conditions, the superiority feeling survives -and is even increased- by sharing these opinions with a tiny or wide community.

It's mostly about defining oneself in opposition to others ("what/who i am" through "what/who i am not"), and this works for individual identities or groups identities alike...