It's a common misconception that people who play videogames tend to be intelligent. It's also widely believed that these people are also, shall we say, geeks. After all, you have to be intelligent to be a geek, right? A very stereotypical view of that mysterious beast known as "the gamer" involves weedy, pale, spot-ridden teenagers clutching a joypad in their clammy fists, palms glistening with sweat and imprints of their fingers around the sides of the controller. You know � the kind of people who sit inches away from their television screen, in a darkened room with the only light emanating from the blinking, minute coloured bulbs on the consoles and the cold glow of the television; the only sound from the hum of their gaming machines, the bleep-bleep-blork of the action on-screen, and the occasional shout of "Yes! Take that, you zombie bastard!"

But enough about my Saturday night. In a myth that has spawned from the good old days when games were coded in bedrooms by bored programmers, videogames have often been linked with intelligence. It's a myth that has been emphasised by puzzle games and a scattering of other genres that require thought in order to progress. It's a myth that has carried through from the birth of gaming till the present day, when young people who play videogames on a regular basis are assumed to be prodigies � with intricate knowledge of sciences, maths, and other tedious subjects. The general consensus is simple � gamers are geeks, and geeks are intelligent. That's the generally accepted myth, anyway.

Hello? Have you looked at the charts recently?

Need for Speed Underground 2 is number one, at the time of writing. For the tenth week running. Tenth. As in, a record breaking number of weeks. A game that, among those in the know, is associated with the common chav � purely because every chav and his Rottweiler own a copy. It's not a game that requires any serious thought while playing, because you get to race around the streets in your pimped up Ford Focus. The only time the game requires you to stop and think is when you are forced to decide whether you paint your Skoda a lighter shade of blue or attach neon lighting to the underside. This might be a challenge for the kind of gamer that this game is marketed towards, but not for those who are used to more arduous challenges in videogames. You know - the kind of games that make you stop and think 'how shall I do this?' There aren't enough of those around. Are games that rely on logic and intelligence rather than reflexes and blind luck a thing of the past? If gamers were that intelligent, surely they would rather opt for a videogame that offers challenge and forces them to use their brains and not just their thumbs? I enjoy games that deliver that sense of excitement and adrenaline � who doesn't? - but the fact of the matter is, the idea of the 'intelligent' gamer is being replaced by idiots who buy certain games for the sake of looking cool.

Idiots who buy videogames based on brand name, and brand name alone � regardless of the quality of the game itself. Idiots who buy videogames for their 'swish' graphics. Idiots who buy videogames purely because they involve cars, or crime, or sex � sometimes all three. People who buy a game because it has an 18+ rating and received five stars in FHM. The consumer market is saturated with these fools � a statement proven by the sales of NFSU2 compared to superior games lower down in the charts. And people still associate gamers with intelligence? Bah. Hundreds and hundreds of people are buying these games, and, apart from the realisation that we are in fact 'a nation of chavs', (as one print publication chose to describe its readership), how does it benefit the rest of us?

Well, it's worth considering how much profit companies can extort from the 'chav gamer', for a start. While the rest of us can rest assured that our money will not be wasted on such a vapid experience, the publishers and developers benefit from all the money rolling into their bank accounts thanks to the gullibility of these foolish individuals. More money in the videogames industry is more money spent on making sure new, smaller projects that have potential can be snapped up and published, or that developers make a brand new game without making it as bland and tiresome as the previous game. After all, not even the likes of Nintendo can make a quality game every single time. Maybe, just maybe, the money the companies earn from these people will be spent on a brand new game concept that could totally revolutionise gameplay as we know it.

Or we could have another insipid, tedious Need for Speed Underground title. I'm taking bets, people.

Until we meet again, friends.

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