One should keep in mind that there's a kernel of truth in all stereotypes. Even if that kernel represents only a small minority, that wildly different minority

One should keep in mind that there's a kernel of truth in all stereotypes. Even if that kernel represents only a small minority, that wildly different minority is what people remember. I used to go to "gaming" stores 15 years ago to play tabletop wargames, collectible card games, board games, etc. You'd have the dads who just treat it as a fun hobby and are "normal", but you did have the occasional unwashed, overweight individual with a shabby graphic t-shirt. I briefly played a Star Wars CCG for its mechanics, but there were die hard Star Wars fans who would go on for minutes on random bit characters. My friend works for BioWare as a creative writer. We both love our video games. Mine are cleverly concealed behind a veneer of mid-century and contemporary modern furniture so you don't know they exist. He has a 10-foot screen and front projection setup with a 1kW surround sound setup that he has no intention on tidying up. I only play about 5 hours of games a week now. He still can play for 30 hours a week on a regular basis. I played World of Warcraft for 5 years. I ran and participated in some very hardcore groups including former FoHers and had several friends in a world Top 25 guild. I prefer a computer to be compact and dead silent, whereas some of my comrades feel a large box with a 600W power draw and sounds like a jet engine is perfectly normal. One was a big DIYer and a very sharp guy... but you'd swear he subsists solely on CLIF bars. I remember getting called out by him for stepping away to finish a proper meal. I have a few Miyazaki films, but I've known anime fans that have no qualms about having rather vulgar figurines of female characters in skimpy clothing, walls covered in posters, etc. And they're going on 30. I had a friend who collected DEC hardware. He honestly has a working MicroVAX cluster running on DECnet, three DEC Alphaservers, amongst other things running in his apartment. Probably a dozen operational computers, running 24x7. I could go on and on. R/C cars. Model trains. Slot cars. Operating systems. In every group, you had always individuals that took it to an extreme, and boy do they stand out. Because they stand out, that's who and what is remembered.