There exists a stereotype surrounding people who play video games that they are couch potatoes who have no great aspirations in life other than beating the game. I have been accused of this stereotype myself. While I can see where this idea would have come from, I heartily disagree.
While there are always exceptions to the rule, most gamers are not lazy people. If this were the case, they wouldn't be playing games. Video games are not just simple walks in the park that require no effort. Games like Half-life 2 and Portal, with their puzzles that require complex thinking. Games like XCOM and Total War that require strategy on par with that of an actual military general.
The reason that this stereotype exists is because of those who don’t play games. They are on the outside looking in and only see a limited view of what is actually going on. All they see is the gamer twiddling stick on a controller with little ambition to seek out any rewarding experience out in the world.
This is because games are designed to effectively be a Skinner box. They are designed to hand out rewards to the player whenever they do something to further themselves in the game. Going back to Portal as an example, when you reach the exit door and finish the test, you feel like an absolute genius for figuring out the puzzle.
Because these rewards are doled out so easily by games, people then the seek games instead of seeking out rewards in the real world due to them being harder to achieve. While there are people who can disassociate the two rewarding experiences, there are those who can only see the one and thus a stereotype was born.
It is a case of a few bad apples spoiling the bunch. Those who ignore the world and pursue the simple pleasures given by the games they play are the loud minority that have become a sort of poster child for everyone that plays games both as a hobby and as a career.
Whenever I’m asked about what kind of journalism I want to specialize in, I have a hard time telling people about my love for games journalism because I know exactly how they will react.
But I digress, while this idea of lazy gamers is a toxic one that surrounds all gamers, I can see the change happening. Gaming is becoming a much more widely spread hobby among many people.
Games are on our computers, our consoles, our browsers, our phones. We as a people are constantly surrounded by one form of games or another. Just like movies and television started as a hated form of entertainment that people thought would make them lethargic, but came to be part of everyday life, so will games if they haven’t already.
I hope that with this widespread acceptance of games, people will better come to understand the industry and those who revel in it.
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