I used to have a job adjacent to the gaming industry, I went in a number of gaming stores to try to find partners for the products we were selling.

I could talk at length how sad and strange gaming stores are, but I just wanted to share one incident where I was in Phoenix in August and entered a small shop in a business plaza that looked relatively clean and new on the outside.

On opening the door I was hit with the worst BO wave that has ever crashed over me, and having been in gaming stores before, this says a lot. There were some young guys sitting at tables surrounded by backpacks, which I can only assume were full of fermented roadkill, and playing various games, looking up curiously as I tried my best to smile and nod a greeting. My eyes watered and I left immediately because I felt like I was going to vomit.

I checked up on the store 6 months later and it had closed doors pretty fast. I can't imagine why they wouldn't get business.

The memes and jokes are not an exaggeration. Gamer boys are TERRIBLE at self-care and hygiene. I don't know why it's so hard to reinforce the concept to people that just because you can't smell yourself, it doesn't mean you don't smell, you NEED to shower, change clothes, all of them, including and especially socks and underwear, and you need to clean your fucking rooms, your rooms are stink nests and that smell seeps into EVERYTHING.

You know how angry incels will vomit spiels online how frustrated they are that they get the advice to "just shower?" I love this common exchange because I know for a fact that probably more than half of these boys screaming online how nobody wants to touch their weewee are also completely disgusting and do nothing to maintain and manage themselves.