Gamer Stigma
For a long time there has been a stigma about video games, that they are unproductive and anti-social. If I put myself on the outside, I could say that gamers sit in a darkened room, pressing buttons while watching a TV screen - not accomplishing anything and not being socially interactive. What I am wondering is how true this is, and whether being a gamer is a poor lifestyle choice. I think the initial stigma against video games is that they were foreign to people of older generations, and a lot of the time foreign things are distrusted whether it be food, people or activities. These days I think the stigma still exists from young people who don't play video games. The basic argument is "Most people choose lifestyle A, therefore your choice of lifestyle B is wrong". They may try and argue that lifestyle A is a better choice than lifestyle B, but they can't really prove it. I'll give an example - imagine the situation where a person (P1) goes to the pub, gets really drunk stumbles home and passes out and the next day cannot remember any of the people they may have met the night before. Next imagine a person (P2) who that same night had some friends over to play video games together in the lounge room and eat junk food. It is easy to forsee a situation where P1 calls P2 a geek for not coming to the pub, implying their lesser lifestyle choice. However in terms of actual outcomes of the night, you couldn't really say that P1 had a more productive and social night than P2. Be aware that I am not trying to say P2's lifestyle choice is poor. Also be aware that P1 and P2 stood for person 1 and person 2, not player 1 and player 2 :)
Why Game?
I have tried to show how some of the stigma about gamers has been established, but now lets look at what being a gamer is about, and why people do it. I guess I liked gaming as a kid for the fact that it was challenging and interactive, and also that I would play it with friends. I guess the ability to improve at it and have positive reinforcement of 'finishing a stage' also added to the enjoyment. Currently there are many different genre's of video games, from FPS to RTS to action/adventure to RPG to MMORPG. Okay, so those acronyms may have gone over some people's heads, but the genres range through skills of reaction time and accuracy, ability to plan and micromanage, fine coordination of control and puzzle solving, exploring and collecting, analyzing attributes and abilities and much more. Apart from the skills used, some games are creative works of art, with in depth stories and cinematic mastery. In fact I have a friend who is a cinema fanatic but not a gamer, who gets me to play Metal Gear Solid for him just so he can appreciate the story and direction. My point in bringing up the different types of games, is that gamer's are attracted to gaming for different reasons whether it be interest in problem solving or wanting to play games with others. There is a lot more to gaming than sitting in a dark room pressing buttons while watching a TV screen.
Bad Gamers
I read a quote once which I thought was quite insightful:
"Normal person + anonymity + audience = total dickwad"
This was in reference to certain internet forum users, but I think it also gets at the psychology of some online gamers (who are probably the same people who post on forums). Playing online games is a different type of social interaction to meeting someone in person (they call me captain obvious). I think the reason is pretty much as above. I have enjoyed my fair share of online gaming and in that time I have seen a lot of reactions classic to gamers. I find gamers to be commonly obnoxious and self-hating in a group respect. Derogatory comments are often about being young, scrawny, unattractive and having a lack of a sex life. Its the kind of thing a non-gamer would say to a gamer, and in essence reinforces the stereotype of 'gaming nerds'. The other comments are often about skill level, the term 'noob' being the classic example. Noob is derived from a 'new player' or 'newbie' and is referring to the fact that a person is new at the game but commonly just referring to a lack of skill. This slander comes because people often get frustrated with having to rely on others of a lower skill level than themselves. However the problem is not with the person who is bad at a game because they haven't had a chance to get good, it is with the format of the game which allows those of high skill level to be mixed with those of low, something that doesn't happen that often outside of video games as often. I think its understandable to see how some gamers develop verbally abusive habits, but it doesn't make it any less annoying when you see it all the time. Keep in mind this is probably a minority of gamers, just that in multiplayer games where you can hear from a hundred of people in a session of playing, that one of a hundred can stick in your mind.
Too much gaming?
There is a lot of talk about video game addiction with the introduction of games that are seemingly without an end. I hate the idea of blaming addiction on the substance addicted to as it is a cop out from the person who is addicted, but that could be because I have never had a problem with addiction. Usually addiction is defined along the lines of using something even though it has negative effects, craving it, and having difficulty stopping it. When I was playing WoW, there were times when I played it for long hours on consecutive days, and I would think about playing it at times when I was not. However I don't know if it was having negative effects and I did not have trouble stopping it. At the time I just preferred playing it to doing other things - I was on holidays from uni and was working. I was still going to work on time, and when I went on holiday for a month, I just stopped playing WoW like that. I have met other people who spend a lot more time playing the game, but often it seems that if they stop playing one video game there wouldn't be much change to their schedule, they might find other games to play, or do other activities instead of finding a job etc. I guess they have just made a lifestyle choice that they like playing video games. As for stories of gaming addiction leading to death, I think if you are bad enough to do such a thing, it is your own fault not the game's. I started this paragraph saying that there is a lot of talk about video game addiction, but that is just it, a lot of talk. I think instead of sensationalising things such as video game addiction, real issues such as domestic violence should be addressed. Video game addiction is just an easy target.
Why can't I play that game?
The last bit I want to talk about is video game ratings. Australian gaming enthusiasts will be well aware of the current situation in which we can not get R rated games here because there is no classification for them. This means because there is no R rating, the highest possible rating in Australia is MA+, and so anything which would be above that rating is not allowed. I guess this is a part of the long running debate about violence in video games and its effect on children. I will not presume to answer the question of whether violence in video games causes negative effects on children, but I can't see the reason for ultimately banning games from Australia completely that would otherwise be an R18 rating. Alcohol and cigarettes are known to have negative effects on children, but both are allowed in Australia with an R18 rating (so to speak). It seems that it is just taking the place of parents autonomy in deciding whether they want their child to play such games, or monitoring their use. I could easily go into a discussion on parental autonomy in the current day and general institutionalisation but I won't.... The other big point in this is that it stops all the 18+ gamers from having easy access to these games (some of which are considered classics). I guess I find it along the lines of not allowing movies such as Fight Club or Pulp Fiction to be allowed in Australia. Both are renowned cinema classics, and both have an R18+ rating. For myself, if I hadn't been allowed to watch both of these movies I feel I would be less of a person than I am today. Just as anecdotal evidence I am an extremely non-violent person. Although I don't believe a single case is in anyway proof of a point, I think this demonstrates that violent media which is also high quality can have a generally positive affect on some people.
So, there is a lot more to gamers and video game culture than that, but it shall be left for another day. Funnily enough I think the impetus for me writing this post was from looking at photos of a bunch of gamers and thinking - whoa, what a bunch of geeks!
Too much gaming?
There is a lot of talk about video game addiction with the introduction of games that are seemingly without an end. I hate the idea of blaming addiction on the substance addicted to as it is a cop out from the person who is addicted, but that could be because I have never had a problem with addiction. Usually addiction is defined along the lines of using something even though it has negative effects, craving it, and having difficulty stopping it. When I was playing WoW, there were times when I played it for long hours on consecutive days, and I would think about playing it at times when I was not. However I don't know if it was having negative effects and I did not have trouble stopping it. At the time I just preferred playing it to doing other things - I was on holidays from uni and was working. I was still going to work on time, and when I went on holiday for a month, I just stopped playing WoW like that. I have met other people who spend a lot more time playing the game, but often it seems that if they stop playing one video game there wouldn't be much change to their schedule, they might find other games to play, or do other activities instead of finding a job etc. I guess they have just made a lifestyle choice that they like playing video games. As for stories of gaming addiction leading to death, I think if you are bad enough to do such a thing, it is your own fault not the game's. I started this paragraph saying that there is a lot of talk about video game addiction, but that is just it, a lot of talk. I think instead of sensationalising things such as video game addiction, real issues such as domestic violence should be addressed. Video game addiction is just an easy target.
Why can't I play that game?
The last bit I want to talk about is video game ratings. Australian gaming enthusiasts will be well aware of the current situation in which we can not get R rated games here because there is no classification for them. This means because there is no R rating, the highest possible rating in Australia is MA+, and so anything which would be above that rating is not allowed. I guess this is a part of the long running debate about violence in video games and its effect on children. I will not presume to answer the question of whether violence in video games causes negative effects on children, but I can't see the reason for ultimately banning games from Australia completely that would otherwise be an R18 rating. Alcohol and cigarettes are known to have negative effects on children, but both are allowed in Australia with an R18 rating (so to speak). It seems that it is just taking the place of parents autonomy in deciding whether they want their child to play such games, or monitoring their use. I could easily go into a discussion on parental autonomy in the current day and general institutionalisation but I won't.... The other big point in this is that it stops all the 18+ gamers from having easy access to these games (some of which are considered classics). I guess I find it along the lines of not allowing movies such as Fight Club or Pulp Fiction to be allowed in Australia. Both are renowned cinema classics, and both have an R18+ rating. For myself, if I hadn't been allowed to watch both of these movies I feel I would be less of a person than I am today. Just as anecdotal evidence I am an extremely non-violent person. Although I don't believe a single case is in anyway proof of a point, I think this demonstrates that violent media which is also high quality can have a generally positive affect on some people.
So, there is a lot more to gamers and video game culture than that, but it shall be left for another day. Funnily enough I think the impetus for me writing this post was from looking at photos of a bunch of gamers and thinking - whoa, what a bunch of geeks!
