Acceptance
Spotted on a gaggle of gaming sites, Steve Gaynor recently made a post about “…video games will never become a significant form of cultural discourse…”, which as you can imagine created a flurry of opposing viewpoints. Now, I don’t want to talk about whether they will or won’t, but rather I want to talk about why we feel the need to even discuss such matters.
For the past couple of years it has not been uncommon to see articles such as this, or ones dealing with similar issues such as the artistic merits of digital gaming or how mainstream games really are in today’s society. I’m endlessly fascinated by such talk because I really don’t understand where people are coming from. Why does it matter? Why does this desperate need exist for video games to be more than what they are?
In other forms of gaming you just don’t see this attitude. I’d argue that if there is any form of gaming that comes closest to ascending to a higher status it would be tabletop role-playing. Would a LARP be really that great of a leap from your living room to an off-Broadway production? But you don’t have people worrying about whether the great public feels that role-playing games should be treated with cultural respect. Which is perfectly fine.
And for the most part it’s only recently that this desire has taken shape. That’s not to say it’s never existed, as Chris Crawford in the early ‘80s brought up similar points, but it seems the movement has really surged recently.
So why now? Why do we need to be accepted outside of our peer group?
> Why do we need to be accepted outside of our peer group?
Pretty simple. Playing games is associated with being a kid – on the mental front that is. So gamers feel the need to “defend” their choice of hobby, and go overboard doing it by claiming games are good brain-trainers or enhance social skills and other things that really don’t matter. I like playing games because they are fun and let me escape the pretty serious technical world of my job. Other people like to get up at 4 am and go fishing. I think they are nuts, there isn’t a force on this planet able to drag me out of my bunk at such an hour to go staring at a sinker, but you don’t see them “defending” their hobby making ridiculous claims like an outdoors hobby being healthy and building character and all that so I guess they’re a more mature subset of humanity and gamers are really still kids
Greetz,
Eddy Sterckx
Comment by Eddy Sterckx — 2/18/2008 @ 5:29 am
Heh - good point Eddy. I don’t get fishing at all either.
I also think that whatever people sink so much of their free time into is REALLY important to them and so, they think, it really IS important. Period. (And others should see it that way too.)
It makes me think of all the different people I’ve talked to about their day-job. Frequently you hear them say “Honestly - someone should make a TV show about this place. It’s too funny.” Which means it is funny to THEM. But I doubt America is the least bit interested in a sit-com about the finance department of a company that makes salad dressing.
Comment by Dan — 2/18/2008 @ 10:26 pm
True, but there seems to be a completely different level to this gamer mentality. To use your fishing example, sure, folks will list the benefits you say, but no one is trying to claim that fishing *needs* to be recognized as the next great thing of Western Civilization. Some gamers just seem to take defending their lifestyle to the 11, which is…interesting.
Comment by Scott — 2/19/2008 @ 9:17 pm