I can't tell you how many times I've heard that phrase in the title, or a variation of it (or worse yet, something like "get a life"). It's insulting. And the person asking it never has any business doing so. One time, my dad had some of his model-train-hobbyist friends over. One of the friends' wife came too, and at one point video games were mentioned in a conversation. Not by me, but by her. She then asked if I played them, and I said yes. She replied, "Well, you need to get out and socialize." She actually spoke in italics. "You'll never make any friends playing video games! Unless those friends are, like, freaks or nerds or whatever." In my opinion, that was way over the line. Worse yet, her husband overheard, and responded to me, ever so politely, with "Yeah, get a life." And that was not the only occasion. The problem is, it's not like I go up to random people and bombard them with nerd lingo; they start the conversation and then insult me for playing games! That has happened to nearly every gamer at some point. What is causing this?