Spymaker seeks gamers

I am just having a hard time believing even the government can be so daft as to target socially incomplete gaming morons.

Remember when someone at the ministry had the idea to form a Regiment made up of street thugs and hooligans during WWI? They all ran off at their first battle...someone should have remembered that criminals and bullies are cowards by nature or they would have gotten hard working, honest jobs from the start.

Gamers may demonstrate teamwork over the Internet but they do not have "live together in social harmony" skills in real life.......don't have girlfriends either so I hear.

what have thugs and hooligans have in common with gamers... and as for calling us incomplete morons atleast we are using are leisure time actively unlike the idots who sit and ponder other peoples lives in pathectic soaps reality shows and other talentless contests gaming improves co ordination i agree some gamers are a waste but there are many exceptions...

Whilst that view may have held true 25 years ago, it hardly applies now. I regard myself as a part time gamer... and have a very active social life at the same time. When I do game, it's either online with dozens of others, communicating ideas, plans and leaning new tricks - or with three/four other mates in the same room working together, showing each other how do to various tasks.

The guy who sits behind a computer screen in his Y-Fronts surrounded by pizza boxes is virtually extinct - as you should be with opinions like that ;)

Could that be regarded as a flame?

The pizza box y-front guy isnt virtually extinct, they just play World of Warcraft.

Gamers in general have shown through scientific study to have hightened reflexs, above average spatial awareness and split second decision making.

There may have been a case 10 years ago for social ineptitude, but increased broadband speeds, social networking and console online gaming, with live chat, now the norm gaming is fast becoming THE social activity to be a part of.

This may have something to do with the accusations being made about international cyber warfare in the press lately.

The implication is that GCHQ is expanding its cyber intelligence capability.

I dont think they are advertising on Xbox Live to attract the average or even above average gamer, more likely the extraordinary technician with a combative mentality is more their target.

That settles it,GCHQ have got to be living on Fantasy Island, just like that Arch-subversive, Gordo Brown.
If I see him online with the GCHQ server,then I want the first fragging opportunity to diss him,if punkbuster doesn't stop play first.

Your response proves my point but I don't think you have the intellectual skills to understand it.

Matt and Lenny disagree with me but they can express their opposing views in an academically sound manner.

There are exceptions to everything but hardcore gamers are not, in their majority, socially integrated individuals....and they don't have girlfriends.

The occasional, infrequent or hobbyist gamer is not targeted by "Intelligence" Agencies. Just as there is nothing wrong with having a drink on occasion but drinking everyday makes one a drunkard...gaming for fun on occasion is not the same as being a hardcore gamer. Anyone who has proven they possess the desired skills of a gamer can only do so by being a frequent or daily gamer hence a social inapt.

If James Bond were real he would be diagnosed as an obsessive paranoid neurotic with prone to violence. It is not generally recognised in the academic or medical worlds that Intelligence or Security Agents are psychologically or socially sound individuals but the hardcore gamer, unless he's locked in a room alone as an analyst, does not live or work well with others.

Socially inept is an almost exclusively ignorant comment that suggests that you lack intelligence to personally realize that it is actually called introversion. It does not mean that they lack the capabilities of competent conversation merely that they choose to avoid it. Insinuating that these individuals are below average intelligence suggest you have an inferiority complex of these individuals and feel intimidated by their ability to separate themselves from society on an instinctual level... Don't worry though you and your xenophobia are well met in third world countries where your justifiable IQ would measure in the reasonable 100's of Average idiosyncrasies quit categorizing lest you prove that you are incapable of reasonable rational thought. It seems highly unnecessary to try and compare gamers to thugs unless of course you are friends with Jack Thompson in which case he was disbarred for a reason quit thinking you are superior to us… A lot of us socially inept individuals become your IT services and do things like programming and networking things that you find genuinely useful in your day to day life… we don’t hold society back people refusing to get past our differences due.

The thing is the people commenting that gamers are socially and academically inept are simply morons. I go to university, i study History in my second year and i balance hard work with a part time job and i also play Call of duty for many hours day, i am excelling in my uni course, i am a valued member of my work team and a top Xbox gamer with a top gamer K/D ratio on CoD:MW2. I frequently play games with my mates bakc home on a daily basis, we work as a tea to dominate other teams, i also complete assignments and attend seminars and lectures and balance this with my job. I go out frequently during the week, and have made many friends in my new environment - and have many more back hom - i also have a very attractive girlfriend. So this ridiculous argument that gamers are morons is compeletely inaccurate, a minority of gamers devote their lives to games (WoW etc) and have no job - living off benefits and job seekers allowances- but the majority of top gamers i play with enjoy every aspect of life and, like myself, enjoy a competetive and serious game of Cod for many hours of the day.
If you haven't got the knowledge to comment on these articles then go back to your wife and 2 kids and contemplate why you have to sit on a PC and criticise other membes of society. Is your own life fulfilling? Stuck in a dead-end job? sounds about right. grow up, enter the modern age and realise that the CoD is the highest selling entertainment medium in history. Its a fact that cannot be ignored. Stop being a luddite and stop judging a community that excels socially and academically. the majority of online gamers work together as a team to achieve their goals and i can totaly understand why companies look to top gamers on xbox live for vacancies in their companies.

You're just proving the point......trying to render "normal" the abnormal does not help your position. Humans are social animals. If one chooses to spend more time with games than with human interaction then that person is not "normal". It's much like someone who masturbates regularly but never has sex with a real person. You can debate the merits of masturbation but a physically healthy adult who does not have real sex is abnormal and needs to seek professional help.

No one has compared gamers with thugs...the comparison was with Ministry level mistakes. Please learn to read and understand what has been read.

Nothing else to say......nothing else needs to be said.

"socially incomplete gaming morons" you said.

you labeled people incorrectly and thus you are at fault which is why people respond.

'gaming' is a form of entertainment like any other.

unlike most it is interactive and therefore stimulates the brain in ways books, film or television programs never could but you would never refer to people who enjoy those forms of passive entertainment as "socially incomplete morons" would you ? no.

the fact is you are probably of a generation that simply cannot grasp that something new has come along (ie probably over 40) for everyone else 'gaming' has been part of the entertainment landscape for almost their entire life.

either that or (judging by the name) you simply are an internet 'troll'.

No particular person was singled out as a socially incomplete gaming moron.....but you and a few others seem to think the finger is pointed at them.

You convict yourself through your paranoia....obviously you have already questioned yourself as to your social aptness or you wouldn't feel yourself to be singled out.

Intelligence is ones' ability to adapt or manipulate ones' environment to conform to ones' needs and desires......if a gamer chooses a computer over an environment populated by real people then yes, the gamer is a moron.

lol, you certainly have a talent for getting up peoples noses!

Plus, you seem to have an inordenate amount of time to fritter away in front of a computer screen attempting to argue your conviction that anyone that sits in front of a computer screen rather than interacting with real people is a moron?

not entirely sure how that works, but hey, each to their own.

Ah well, i wish you luck in life, as from the sounds of things, you may need it! :))

take care, and kind regards.

My son is in hospital so nothing to do but wait for him to feel better and serf the Internet when he sleeps......doctor says he will be fine once he is re-hydrated.

I have noticed there are two topics that bring about the most controversy and responses: Apple computers and Video gamers.

For me a computer is a machine to get things done in life....a computer is not my life and shouldn't be for anyone else.

My children, my friends, my ladies, our dogs, the old woman next door who needs a smile when she's missing her late husband.....these things are life, not my brand of computers and certainly not spending all my free time playing games in an imaginary video world.

It would seem the only ones upset about my posts are those who mistakenly feel they were targeted......not my problem but theirs.

Actually, what GCHQ really need for the Power of Control over Everything, [and anything less is always going to have them reacting to events rather than leading them and therefore would their Intelligence Capability be second rate] are the skills of those who can crash the Global System by simply exposing its Systemic Operating System Vulnerabilities to Great Game Gamers ...... for they are the ones who will know exactly how to hold Everyone .... but Really only Ye Olde Establishment Fat Cats and Parasitic Wasters] to Kings' Ransoms and Queens' Biddings ..... which is what the Present Systems are Geared to Do without you Realising it.

It is certainly an XXXXStreamly Very Good Idea to have those Spooks on your Side and paying them whatever they need and whatever IT takes to get the Job done .... which is very Gordon Brown and therefore should not be a problem. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

That then raises the question of How Much for such a Facility/Players, for they will invariably be Off the Books Single Intelligence Account UKN Teamsters and their Spawn, with necessarily exotic and even erotic Field Requirements which are of course, always just Government Assets.

And such Staff, you do not find just anywhere for they would be a rare as hens' teeth.

What you can be sure of too, is that such is the Kind and Calibre of Opposition and/or Competition which they would be Confronting and/or Gaming against and thus would Home Engagement and "Employment"/Secondment be a double whammy of Convenience and Joy ...... for such is a Priceless Invaluable Emminently Tradeable Asset/Invisible Foreign Export too.

* Pay Peanuts, Get Monkeys.

And if GCHQ do not know who they should be contacting for Virtual Intelligence Work, Rest and Play Stations/CyberIntelAIgent Field Operations, and are reliant on Jobs Advertisements in the Mainstream Media, then the Myth of Total Information Awareness through supposed Mass Covert Snooping of All Global Communications [Phishing for Phormations] is shot down in flames as a failed red herring/rotten core discipline ...... and they are in Real Diffs and in Dire Straits Type Need of Immediate XXXXPerienced Help.

Sorry your son is ill, but your comments here show a considerable lack of empathy towards others. Its not about controversial subjects like Apple computers and Video gamers (as you well know), that's just your attempt to twist the interpretation away from people seeing your full contempt for others now people are getting angry at your game of putting others down.

The fact you seek to condemn anyone for the way *they choose* to live *their life* is proof of your frankly Narcissistic arrogance.

If someone wishes to spend their life in front of a computer, its their choice. If someone never uses a computer ever in their life, its their choice. Both are doing no one any harm, its simply their life to choose how they wish to live it.

The point you are missing is that however someone chooses to live *their life* its their choice, and not for you (or anyone) to tell them how to live. No one gives you the right (stalin) to stand in judgment over them and yet you fail to see this and worse still, you seek to repeatedly condemn them, and so to belittle them and thereby hold yourself up as some kind of an admirable person by comparison, almost like a role model. You demonstrate most definitely you are not an admirable person. If you wish people to show you compassion and empathy then you also need to show compassion and empathy. Yet currently your Narcissistic self centered attitude towards others very evidently shows you have contempt for others (which is a common game of Narcissists to belittle others to make yourself better in your mind than others) and so its your need to belittle others is what causes others harm (so its no wonder they react against you!).

So stalin, you don't rule over us.

p.s. If you want compassion and empathy, you should think about changing your name as associating yourself with your tyrannically Narcissistic historical name sake isn't a good move.

he's a troll (whether he knows what one is or not) indulging in ad hominem abusives and thinking them clever because he cannot or will not address the points made to him and despite his claim that that people should socialize seems incapable of having a discussion without doing so.

there is no argument that people should ofc have healthy social lives but in this disscussion only he is claiming 'gaming' and having a social life are somehow inherently mutually exclusive (and as i previously pointed out plenty of the more traditionl forms of entertainment which can easily occupy the same amount of time in someones life do not involve social interation either)

anyway i certainly wouldn't socalize with someone who's only form of discussion involved belittling the people they are talking to, indulging in fervent stereotyping, willfully ignoring any points made to them and attemption to deny outright what they said 10 mins ago.

in short he's not actually worth talking to.