Or are gamers just too darn sensitive?

TV channel Vuzu’s gaming show, The Verge, recently uploaded their coverage of South African gaming expo – rAge 2011 – to their YouTube channel.

If the comments and feedback to the video are anything to go by – the local gaming community is not happy.

The video depicts host, Lalla, as she wanders through what the show has dubbed “Mordor”: over 2,000 gamers that have set up their PCs at rAge’s LAN, and are enjoying what they love – gaming.

“This is where kids come; they bring their PCs their hard-drives and alles. They camp out for the whole weekend, and they play…games,” Lalla says, with a tone of veiled scorn.

She ends off her astute observation with “Jah neh, no comment…no comment.”

The video proceeds to elaborate on its loaded Lord of the Rings analogy by likening the gamers to Orcs and Uruk-hai, before settling on one gamer whom the host dubs as “The Dark Lord of Mordor.”

Lalla asks gamers loaded questions like “Do you have a girlfriend?”, blindly pushes their keyboard button asking “what happens if I press this button?” and acts flirtatiously and suggestively around the predominantly male gamers.

She also implicitly questions a couple of gamers’ sexual orientation and general personal hygiene, amongst other things.

Comments on the YouTube channel where the video was posted are generally negative, with users calling it “offensive” and “insulting.”

MyGaming’s own community of gamers were quick to slam the video and The Verge for its clumsy, stereotypical depiction of gamers, with users saying: “I don’t get how you can insult the same audience your show is marketed at.”

Other members were also quick to dismiss the video, saying The Verge missed the point – but also that the video should rather be ignored: “Who cares, don’t take offence, rather just point and laugh, that’s what we all generally do,” posted one forum member.

Even though the backlash has thus far been from a small selection of the gaming community, none of the attention the video has received has been at all positive.

Whatever The Verge’s intent with the video – it would seem they’ve missed the mark.

Check out the video below and make up your own mind.

Download the video here.

The Verge insults gamers? << Comments and views