In Episode 2 of the Talking Games with Reggie and Harold podcast, Reggie Fils Amie made the title comment; that the way gaming is now being viewed in the world is changing, and in a positive way. He’s right. When once video games were frowned upon as mere ‘wastes of time’ and ‘poison for the mind’, the industry has become a cultural phenomenon that is ingrained in almost every form of media to date. How did we get here? What happened to change the course of entertainment history as we know it?
The video game industry has had a long history as being the go to political scapegoat when the nation is faced with a surge of violence; Particularly mass shooting and school violence. This M.O. dates as far back as 1997 wherein 14-year-old Michael Carneal’s triple homicide shooting at his school was blamed partly on his enjoyment of video games. The law suit fell through, but the stain of the intention remained. Back in March 9th, 2018, Donald J. Trump held a roundtable discussion about games, expressing how he viewed them as a threat to society.
He started the discussion with a sizzle reel you can view below (Warning: The video is for mature audiences only). The clip was tailor made to highlight some of the most intense and gruesome moments from a collection of games. However, the International Game Developers Association fired back against the accusation that video games were just mindless, violent escapes devoid of substance. The official IGDA account tweeted “Let’s be blunt on video games and gun violence-we will not be used as a scapegoat. The facts are very clear-no study has shown a causal relationship between playing video games and gun violence.“
They also went on to say “Making video games-or any form of media-a scapegoat for consistently refusing to even CONSIDER the reasonable, rational firearm restrictions Americans want and deserve isn’t fooling anyone.“.
Pretty poignant stuff and wholly correct. Blaming video games for a person’s actions only takes away the responsibility of addressing the real issues at hand. The problem is never solved and we find ourselves trapped in an ouroboros of misinformation and nonsensical blaming.
Let’s get back on track though. Violence isn’t the only way video games have been viewed negatively in the past. Society pegged gamers as introverts and shutins that didn’t know how to function in a normal environment. A world where you either conformed to the media driven ideologies of coolness and success, or were doomed to be shamed and left behind.
The truth is, there are dozens of studies proving that regularly playing video games strengthens cognition, motor skills, problem solving, and numerous other mental faculties. In a 2012 literature review published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, it was proven that out of 38 studies, video games were able to soothe and offer pain relief in patients undergoing psychological and physical therapy.
So what does any of this have to do with the way the average Joe that doesn’t enjoy video games the same way someone else does, perceives others that do? As the industry continues to grow, it has been ingraining itself deeper and deeper into our culture and media. Video games are virtually every where now. They’re on our phones, on TV, on our PCs, in books, and wholly saturate social media and content creator channels. In fact, the industry itself is worth billions of dollars, rivaling and even topping the music and movie industries. You see; video games have the unique ability to make the player a part of the story being told. Whereas when you watch a movie, you are merely a spectator, but when playing a game you are actively a part of the story unfolding. You’re not simply absorbing the images on the screen, you are driving their progress.
The professional competitive scene has also been graced by video games. In 2018, the eSports Industry was worth a whopping $138 billion dollars. Franchises like Overwatch, CS:GO, and League of Legends continue to highlight some of the highest paying tournaments. The FGC (Fighting Game Community) also continues to thrive with the annual EVO Championship series, which was first founded back in 1996.
There are innumerable YouTube channels dedicated to video games with thousands to millions of followers. The same goes for live streaming, which has absolutely boomed in just a few short years. At the moment I type this, the titular streaming platform, Twitch is sitting at 1.85 million average concurrent viewers, up from 1.7 million in 2018, and a mere 102K in 2012. Celebrities such as Drake, T-Pain, and even Ice-T have expressed their enjoyment of video games, regularly streaming and posting their gaming experiences on Twitter.
The bottom line is this: With nearly 3 billion gamers around the globe, it’s rather silly to write off gaming as something nerdy or a negative hobby to shame someone for. Men, women, boys, and girls of all race, creeds, and colors enjoy and share their gaming experiences with one another in a way that spreads more positivity than most other mediums.
Gaming has has been a part of myself since I was five years old, and I don’t really see that changing any time in the foreseeable future.