Gaming's Bad Rap

My dad has a friend doing some remodeling work in our basement for a couple days. Yesterday I came home from work (I worked from 4 - 11AM) and proceeded to play some video games (after moving my XBox out of the basement)

Later on I hear the guy talking to my dad "Does he do anything else"

I'm not sure what else he had in mind. (I did help him carry a few things out of the basement when he needed a hand) I get the feeling that had I been watching TV or a movie or something that could easily fill the same time space, he wouldn't have said anything.

I play video game in place of watching TV for the most part, and it's bugged me how long that has been considered a lesser form of entertainment than say watching TV or listening to music. Any one else feel this way or have similar stories?

Also, my grandpa still asks me when I'm going to "grow up" and stop playing video games. (I'm 26 and I don't think he's figured out I'm not going to)

PS: Yes, I'm 26 and still live at home, the economy sucks. Hopefully I will have a full time job soon.

You work a camera for a news station. Tell him "gramps, fuck right off."

Media history tells us that every expressive form goes through periods of "popular disgust," in a sense. Artists refused to believe photography could be considered art because of its mechanical properties. Now, some photographers that don't understand the history of their own passions are refusing to believe that video games could be any more than low-brow entertainment for kids.

Film is the obvious comparison (though I think video games and photography have more in common), as it started gaining popularity in nickelodeons alongside vaudeville acts. It was for the poor people. A few groundbreaking films later, and it becomes esteemed, noteworthy, and births outrageous asshats like Roger Ebert (who no one should respect, in my honest opinion, simply because he's ignorant), who don't seem to understand the cyclical nature of media and mainstream acceptance.

Games are clearly past the point where they are expressive or artistic. I know you weren't specifically talking about high art, but it's a completely related topic. No one that believes games are expressive or artistic should ever falter in their beliefs and say things like "not all of them are," or "well, they could be," because it shows too much vulnerability. This is really cut n' dry: if you don't think so, you're ignorant and don't know media and media history. You don't realize that media changes our definition of art, and that new media is never for an individual group (like kids).

So, brush it off. He doesn't understand these things. Many don't.

Oh I do, just thought it would be a good topic.

I think previous generations dont really get what we love. Some do - I never thought my mum played video games seriously until she told me that she'd been playing Dragon Quest on the DS for 40 hours, quit her game because she didnt like her character and ploughed another 80 hours into a new character.. and she's 65. That BLEW MY MIND.

Research has it that the average gamer is in their mid 30s, so gaming has very much been something our current generation has grown up with and I dont for one think we should be ashamed of it. It's part of life, just as the explosion of TV was to our past generation, and radio the generation before that. Some people just cant move with the times - but thats their problem.

The way I look at it, is that we could be doing many more things worse to society than gaming. Hope more people see that.

It's funny, in high school and breaks from college, my friends and I would often use my grandparents otherwise unused basement for gaming on a nightly basis. While my grandpa had the previously mentioned "Grow up" thought, my grandma would often counter with. "Well at least they aren't out drinking!"

One other example I'd like to vent about. At work, our network administrator has blocked access to gaming related websites. Wasting time on YouTube, facebook, ESPN, and Twitter is fine, but how dare you read about video games!

Thanks Mike I totally agree. I have educated my in-laws by showing them ROn Gilberts PAX 09 keynote. It helps that my father-in-law still has an old coleco vision and atari 2600.

I also don't understand how people see any form of sedentary entertainment as different from the other. I argue it is better to play a game then watch garbage T.V. I learned losts of cool stuff playing sims.

I think this article from 1up hits the nail on the head pretty well.

http://www.1up.com/features/television-hates-video-games

If you don't want to read it, it talks about the poor portrayal video games get on TV/media. It includes a scene from CSI where they arrest a couple of overweight greasy adults who just bitch about being pulled away from their games, a few reports from news stations that are way off base (DS Pictochat being used by sexual predators) And a few clips from current TV shows that still depict video games as having Atari-era sound effects. And Big Bang Theory (which I never really realized was so bad)

Basically, the video game nerd stereo type still exists, and we'll be dealing with this crap until it goes away.

I honestly dont think it'll go away until the generation that is older than us passes along. We (those in their mid 30s) were the first to be raised as kids playing games, and we will be the first to live through our lives with it being central to our existence.

Those who didnt grow up with gaming and didnt catch along to enjoy gaming will simply not understand what we know - in that gaming is, like reading or going to the cinema - just a way to pass the time.. like TV was to the past generation.

Also, I think the violent video games arguments will die down as we get older and the gamers start raising kids themselves.