For anyone who plays video games regularly, it’s long been a running joke that when the mainstream media discusses gaming in any capacity, it will inevitably mention how games are surprisingly popular, how it’s not just socially disadvantaged kids in their bedrooms, and how video games are big business. . Did you know that the gaming industry is bigger than Hollywood? Yes, Steve. Everyone knows that.
Despite this, the mainstream stereotype is still that players are socially vulnerable weak people who have to go out more. You’d think people would know better by now — and in some cases, it’s hard to imagine them not knowing better — but here we are; we’re still being told to take a shower, get out of the house, touch the grass and expand our horizons beyond the high score and the mast.
As NL contributor, VGC features editor and very nice guy Chris Scullion pointed out this morning on Twitter, the old stereotype of confinement is still thoughtlessly talked about. The video he posted shows Sky News reporting Story that 13-year-old Willis Gibson became the first person to hit the kill screen in the NES version of Tetris, a game released in 1989. You can watch a clip of Chris’s tweet below:
After recounting the impressive success, presenter Jayne Secker couldn’t resist rushing in, with the qualification ‘as a parent’ by heart as she struggled to contain her laughter:
“As a mother, I would just like to say, ‘Step away from the screen, get outside, get some fresh air; beating Tetris is not a life goal.’
Does he just want to have a little laugh during the day? Probably, but given the huge cross-demographic audience of people who enjoy all kinds of games these days, it was incredibly bad for many.
Good people in The VGC detailed some of the criticisms The segment caught the attention of the internet, including commentary from UKIE’s head of communications, Bhavin Bharkhad, suggesting that the child chess champion shouldn’t have to put up with this crap. The VGC also notes an earlier comment by Gibson’s mother The New York Timesin which he says, “He does other things besides playing Tetris, so it really wasn’t that hard to say OK.”
The reaction of the gaming community was unanimously critical – feel free scroll through the quote tweets yourself — and yet we seem to be stuck with this disheartening, inaccurate stereotype that needed to die decades ago.
How long will this last? Why does it persist when we see daily examples of players interacting healthily, engaging in their communities, and playing games gracefully? Are Twitch and other platforms contributing to the perpetuation of this stereotype by showing webcam images of gamers locked in stuffy rooms responding to text chat, deprived of a ‘real’ social outlet? Isn’t the image of a well-adjusted person enjoying video games sensational enough?
It’s especially confusing for people in these parts who have witnessed Nintendo expand the industry’s demographic horizons. The company has been at the forefront of changing perceptions even before the Wii and DS revolution spearheaded by Satoru Iwata and its ‘blue ocean’ thinking. For the sake of argument, let’s take the release of Wii Sports as the pivotal moment when an imagined cultural threshold was crossed — when people began to realize that not all video game fans were loners or eight-year-olds whose parents needed talking.
Wii Sports was launched in in 2006. Now it’s 2024 and we’re hearing the same old story from people young enough to know better.
We’re living in a time where more people are playing games than ever before, and more people than ever understand their value, so it’s infuriating to see this kind of reaction from major media outlets who consider this story important enough to report on, but unimportant enough to dismiss as a smug quip while they pass on time.
