Gaming and taste
Games are actually a very appropriate medium for measuring taste precisely because there are no conventional advantages at all in liking more intelligent games.
You can't even really mention it in high society without them thinking you are a "no lifer" and "incel". But - you like them because you yourself have a high need for cognition, you enjoy complexity, you find it pleasant for no practical reason, and you are even fine with a stigma. Conversely, if under the same conditions of no practicality you prefer dumb simple games pushed onto you by mass culture, then this is not prestigious and your taste deserves scorn.
You can't even really mention it in high society without them thinking you are a "no lifer" and "incel". But - you like them because you yourself have a high need for cognition, you enjoy complexity, you find it pleasant for no practical reason, and you are even fine with a stigma. Conversely, if under the same conditions of no practicality you prefer dumb simple games pushed onto you by mass culture, then this is not prestigious and your taste deserves scorn.
