Yeah like Altered Beast said, I for one aren\'t embarrased about being a hardcore gamer. If im speaking to someone new and they ask for my hobbies, I wouldn\'t shy away from the fact that I play videogames to somehow alter their opinion of myself. If they think thats sad then so be it.
Although in reality if I was honest to myself I wouldn\'t try and emphasis the fact that Videogames and computers (programming, the internet, etc) is one of my major main hobbies because of the reputation this has, being a nerd! I for one would hold my hand up an admit that to some extend, im not ashamed of it, but I wouldn\'t walk around making it common knowledge.
Knotter8: I totally agree, gaming should be up there with the music and movies industries. Although sales figures show that it is. It isn\'t however in reality as theres a lot more media coverage on music and films and alot more CD and Video shops to gaming shops etc.