A bad rap

Do video gamers get too much of a bad rap? The question of what is a ‘gamer’ aside, this is a question that I’d rather address at this earlier point in time. Someone who considers themselves a gamer; someone who spends multiple hours a week or even a day playing games; people that think of themselves as a part of the fandom circle of certain game series. You know the type. The image that many people may get when reading such descriptions could be considered a direct answer to the original question at hand. When I say image, I don’t necessarily mean just one’s visual image, but the general ideas people who don’t game may have about others that would consider themselves gamers. Though things are certainly improving, I believe that even in this day and age ‘gamers’ continue to get a worse rap than say, film buffs. Playing games does not make someone seen as childish anymore, yet even now when the average gamer is said to be 32 (with an average playing time of 13 hours a week), in general they are still seen in a different – and less positive – way, in comparison to most people with other hobbies.

This is a way of thinking that I would like to challenge. I am not a gamer by my own definition, but I cannot help but notice that some of the more negative views that people have of video games (most of these being unfounded) often lead people to have negative views also on the individuals who frequently play them. In the same way that video games have been seen by society generally in a worse light than other media forms, their consumers also take unfair blame for social issues. Because of the agency that video games involve, violent video games are more blamed than violent films and books are for crime and violence. Yet the United States Secret Service and United States Department of Education in fact found that 27% of people who took part in school shootings were fans of violent films, while 24% enjoyed violent books and a mere 12% were fans of violent video games. An unfair bias against video games and their ‘gamers’ is clearly taking place in society. I really hope that this is something that will continually change to a point where games and their fans are viewed in no different a way than other forms of media and their fans, which do not receive the dirty end of the stick quite so much.

Richard Dunn

Relevant links:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/average-age-of-gamers-is-32-says-study

http://www2.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/preventingattacksreport.pdf