Something curious happen to me a couple a days ago. I was on the bus when someone around my age enter and start playing with the 3DS, something that's it not really common in my country. And some other young guys also around my age start whispering about how the guy who is playing with the 3DS should grow up and how is it possible that a man of his age is still plaing videogames, but one of the guys was playing Angry Birds on his phone (a game that is more childish than whatever game the other guy was playing on his 3DS), that's hypocrisy at its finest.

The same thing happens with the console games, a good friend of mine posted on facebook about how excited he was about Darsiders II, and some dude "friend" of him commented asking why is he's still playing games at that age (he is 25), which my friend only replies because he likes them. My friend them told me how that dude keeps playing Farmville, Mafia wars and those other shit facebook games all the time, again hypocrisy at its finest.

 This things probably happen to me because the gaming community is really small in my country. For some people it's still consider a kids hobby, doesn't matter if it is a PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, etc. But I want to know of this happens even in some big countries like the US.

Something interesting to talk about since we all are gamers here.

I think by many it is seen as a little immature to play video games on dedicated devices, BUT smartphones seem to be changing this

On the tube, I never see anyone playing a proper handheld, but I see people playing on the smartphones all the time. Hopefully in time these people will "graduate" to proper gaming...

I'm almost 30 so i have a reputation to uphold... I only use a DS when I want to lure younger girls <13 into my van.. For the older ones I whip out my Ipad.. Works every time..

I feel if the Wii's momentum had continued such that 'everyone' had a Wii in their living rooms and it was played by all family members, the stigma would have started to decrease. Instead we went back to a rigid separation between PC and console "gamers" who play GTA and Halo (in people's minds) and Facebook/phone games played by 'everyone' else.

I see people playing games on their smartphones all the time. Sometimes it feels kind of awkward playing my DS in public places, but maybe it's just me.

Haha! Agree, it feels pretty odd to take your 3DS out in a public place, but it's cool to take your iTouch out.

I think the stigma is that people who play dedicated games are reclusive, and so it comes off as an anti-social hobby. However the iPod is marketed as a communications device, as such the opposite of anti-social. The ironic thing about it is that nowadays instead of talking to each other socially people are now socializing on their devices while in real life social contexts.

That's the thing, why we should fell awkward playing on a handheld in public? Games aside, there is no difference in playing a dedicated handheld system and a smartphone

If someone is talking shit about gaming and is playing Angry Birds on their cellphone then they deserve to be skull fucked.

There is a difference.  Playing on a hand held is better.