Video games have come a long way since their conception in the 1960s. From Pong to Super Mario Bros to Skyrim and Resident Evil, the hobby of gaming has more than cemented itself as a staple of modern pop culture.

Like it or not, video games are not going away. The case as to who is playing video games has also evolved. In the past, video games were looked down on by the public as a “waste of time” or something only “nerds” did.

Today, practically everybody who is anybody is playing them. You’d think the stigma of gamers just being “nerds” would die down because of this. Unfortunately, the gaming community is now suffering from a completely new form of negativity; in the past people have looked down on those for just simply playing video games, and now people are looking down on those who play only certain kinds of games.

There’s a stereotype of people on the rise who only seem to be playing games like Call of Duty or Fortnite. Sadly, they’re subject to unfair discrimination and bias.

The main reason this stigma arises has to do with the difference between video game fans and casual players. When people play games as a hobby, myself included, most of the time, they’re playing more than just the barebones shooters and sports games—and Fortnite.

If someone is an avid video game fan and they want to have a conversation with a casual about games, subjectively the last thing they really want to talk about is Call of Duty or Fortnite. This isn’t a bad thing necessarily, but if you are someone who’s dedicated themselves toward a hobby that spans a multitude of genres and types of games, it’s very easy to turn a blind eye toward a person who’s only interested in one or two genres. All of this just goes to show that there’s a much larger divide in the gaming community than we thought.

A lot of people make the argument that Call of Duty is basically the same game repackaged every year, and Fortnite is a fad, or bandwagon, that people just recently jumped on. While I definitely don’t disagree with either of those statements, I still don’t think it is fair to just blindly write off people who genuinely do enjoy playing those games.

It isn’t fair in general to write people off for enjoying something that you might not.

Trust me, I get crap for being a guy and not liking sports. As such, I don’t really understand why certain people take such a huge interest in games like FIFA or 2K. I have friends who are obsessed with Rocket League and play every Call of Duty that is released, yet haven’t touched Overwatch, which does everything Call of Duty does but better, in my opinion. The only difference is I keep this opinion to myself.

The kinds of games people play, or the games people should be playing, is not my call to make. It shouldn’t be yours either. If people are playing the games they want to play and are enjoying themselves, no harm really comes with it. By attempting to keep an open mind towards the games people play, the less discrimination will come to you. I guarantee it.

Not everybody has the same interests. That’s just how the world works. That’s just how the world always has worked. We all like video games here, so let’s game on.