A Gamer's Perspective

So a while back I wrote up a brief blog on the new relaunch of Game Crush. The post happened to spark a small debate with a friend of mine. The basis of the debate boiled down to the perception of the gaming community in modern society. My feeling was generally slanted towards the belief that this service looks bad for gamers and that comes from my experiences in life and a "hardcore" gamer.

For years gaming had been (and in some cases still is) considered a degenerate form of entertainment. There was a certain stigma associated with being a gamer. The industry appealed to a niche market of people. However through the years video games have grown into a multi-billion dollar industry. The industry has grown considerably since I was a young child playing Super Mario Brothers on the living room floor of my parent's house.

But what about society's view on those or us who play games? In my youth it was sort of a touchy subject. No one wanted to be associated with that nerdy, loner stereotype closely resembling that of the gadget geek. As a child it was fine because it was common ground. But as you got older and developed socially it almost became taboo. It wasn't in the realm of what is considered "cool". No instead gamers were viewed as socially awkward basement dwellers; more comfortable in front of their console than in a normal social setting. Generally you had gamers that are ashamed of their hobby.

It seems regardless of how mainstream gaming has become there will always be a stigma attached to it that makes people shy away from being associated with it. I'd say since the Wii was launched we've come a long way in breaking the misconception that gamers are lazy, pale-faced, couch potatoes. I may often talk ill of the Wii and its motion control but it has done wonders for breaking down barriers and making gaming seem like a respectable hobby to those who continue to look down on it. Though for every attempt at knocking a wall down another is built right back up by a story of a young parent who neglects their child due to a gaming binge or some act of violence being blamed upon a violent video game like the recent incident in Russia. The fact is, as long as video games remain a relatively new and easy scapegoat for society's ills then being associated with them will continue to retain that negative stigma. Hopefully that will change one day, and I assume it's up to the members of the community to lead the charge.