A roundtable? Actually on a Sunday!? It's good to have things back in order again, in this edition we ask the age-old question of whether gaming is cool, or are we all a bunch of geeks.

Is gaming cool, or are we all just a bunch of geeks?

Conor: What exactly is "cool"? And what exactly are "geeks"? The stereotypical image of a geek that has been impressed on us by clueless TV shows and movies is that of a spotty, glasses-wearing teenager stearing at his computer screen for hours on end. Such an image looks nothing like me. I mean, I don't have glasses :)

But seriously, such labels have little actual meaning, rather they are just there for people with little self-esteem to derive some from setting themselves up higher then others by creating such labels. I am a geek. Really. But I'm moderately "popular" (got mates, people like me), I go out (well, sometimes anyway), I have fun. Whn you think about it a "geek" is just someone who is really, really, really into something. So it isn't an insult at all, people just want us to think it is.

Example: yesterday I went to see XXX with my mats. Now, I had already seen it, but they wanted to see it so I just went along. When I first saw it I was late in so missed the trailers. Yesterday however I caught them. Now, I'm a HUGE Lord Of The Rings fan and was hoping a Two Towers trailer would be shown. Luckily enough, it was shown and naturally enough I was whooping and hollering through it, mouthing the words and spouting "Go on my son!" when Gandalf appeared at the end. After it when my mats and I were getting somehting to eat one of my friends said to me that the ass' behind us were caling me a geek. I just smiled and said "So? I am one." At that moment I was a Tolkien geek. Most of the time I'm a games geek. And proud of it.

Many say that Playstation made gaming "cool", but I didn't really. It just brought it more to the masses, to people who wouldn't really talk about their PS2 to their mates, they'd just have a go when they came home from the pub and leave it at that. But I'm obsessed with games, I guess that's the difference that makes me a geek. So to us gaming would be cool, but to the narrow-minded shallow mainstream, it most certainly isn't.

Ben: Are we 'geeks'? It depends. Everyone has a games console, it's just that some play more than others. I reckon that about seven hours a week is fine. Any more is OK; I mean, what will your friends know?

The word 'geek' is complicated to define, what are they? I feel that geeks ar none-existent - at the age of twenty, 'geeks' will have good jobs, and the people that call people 'geeks' will serve drinks to the 'geeks'. It's true, too.

Javid: The 'geek' stereotype is one image of someone that wears glasses; think ones, gets grade A's all round at school and has an IQ through the roof. They have no friends and are very secluded from people. Now, i'm not one to sterotype, but those that do need to do some serious thinking. I love gaming, and i can tell you now, i dont get grade A's, i dont have a killer IQ and i'm not secluded from people. I still go out, in fact playing games is something more to do other than go shopping, or the cinema or whatever, its alot more fun too. Those that do stereotype are usually followers anyway, what i mean by this are people that dress to be like their mates, that act in a way to conform to be accepted, anyone different isn't right. It's stupid really.

Sad people with no hobbies, they should be the ones subject to critism.

GameCubeGod: What is a geek? When somebody uses the term geek, the very stereotypical person is a boy, aged say between 13-18, with square glasses and spots, who has no friends and plays computer games for fun. Well, times are-a-changing my friends.

In this modern day and age, I think scapegoating as a whole has taken a decline. But also, the term 'geek' no longer really applies. It's cool to be a geek, and it's geeky to be cool. The fact that so many people, both male AND female, play computer games nowadays (thanks largely to the commercialisation of the Sony Playstation), kinda makes the term 'geek' pretty pointless. Chances are, if you don't have a games console in your house, then your best friend does. And chances are you play on it!

Geeks my spotty, square glassed, 16 year old face.

David: Right.We are all geeks because we play games right? Wrong. In my opinion a geek only exists at the extreme of something computer related, like someone who plays GC 8 hours a day.Are we geeks because we look forward to games? No. So what if we do? When a game like MS comes along, you cant help but anticipate it and look forward to its arrival.The term "Geek" is about as accurate as the word "blue". Blue what? Exactly.

Svt4him: We're geeks. Well, maybe that's too extreme, but if you think about playing games, it's all about amusement. We like to be amused, and if one game isn't doing it, we go to another. Some even come here. Now take the word amuse and think about it. A- without as in atheistic, without god, and muse- to think. So when we are truely amused, we cease to think and get caught up in whatever we're doing. Now we become a bunch of people who simply want to be amused while watching tv, a movie, or playing a game. Think about it.

Do I totally believe this, no. But I do believe it in part.

So there we go, we're still no nearer to an answer to the question than when we started. Ah well. Next week we'll be discussing the two recent "computer game deaths", and whether games are that dangerous.