I like games and I guess I may look like a bit of a nerd. I have myopia and I prefer my thick-framed black glasses over my gunmetal gray wireframe Hugo Bosses (which only come out at job interviews and dates, really). I even have a Super Mario T-shirt (though it's just part of my summer jammy collection).

But I also like to have a beer with mates, go out with my girlfriend, go to the footy and meet new people. I'm not socially inept, though I am prone to using big words more often than I need to. Though I'm sure if you got all my close friends to line-up alongside me, you'd pick me as the 'nerdiest looking'. Of course, not everyone who plays games is a nerd. It just so happens that I look like one. Just a little.

One of my friends plays DotA at least 3 hours a day and plays competitively in LAN tournaments whenever he can, but he wouldn't look out of place in a Coca-Cola commercial on a beach somewhere with a surfboard tucked under his arm. My girlfriend can be classed as a hardcore gamer on the premise that she owns every Sims game and expansion pack ever released, she's also taken recommendations I've made for her like Little Big Planet, Katamari Damacy and Okami, but she certainly doesn't fit the bill of a reclusive nerd.

Once upon a time, it may have been easier to pick a gamer out of a crowd on looks and mannerisms alone, but these days, you might as well try and pick out someone who prefers Coke to Pepsi.

*i'm thirsty*