Akademik

n.

Feelings of embarrassment or guilt caused by an obsession with computer games.

In my own defence, the pile of leaves in the wheelbarrow did obscure my view, but there is no escaping it: The first flower I saw this spring was smushed and sticking gamely to that wheelbarrow's lone tire.

The gentle tug of guilt this act inspired is a familiar one at this time of year: My gamer shame kicks into high gear as the sun starts taking back the evenings. It takes hold every time I consider closing the drapes to play — glare is the gamer's constant enemy, right up there with skeletons with swords — and it usually propels me out the door with a book in my back pocket.

— Scott Colbourne, "Confessions from the grips of gamer shame," The Globe and Mail, April 12, 2006

So why should I be ashamed of my hobby? Why do my mom and I lower our voices when she wants to tell me about the new level she just finished with her Amazon in Diablo II? Why don't I tell people at the university where I work that I play videogames? Gamer Shame is a powerful social convention and the gaming industry really isn't doing a very good job of combating it.

— Fizgig, "Gamer Shame: Or Why I Was A Closet Gamer," WomenGamers.com: http://www.womengamers.com/articles/gamershame.php, January 25, 2005

Chris Hussey used to be embarrassed to tell people he adored Dungeons & Dragons and other role-playing games.

"I have overcome the gamer shame," Hussey said with a laugh Saturday outside the Duluth-Superior Game Day convention.

— Baird Helgeson, "Role players relish the mind game of creation," Duluth News-Tribune, January 21, 2001