Hey everybody, Alex Danger here, and I feel like it’s about time we had a little heart-to-heart, after all we at Gamepedia are gamers just like you! Having played games for most of my life, I’ve observed some aspects of the lifestyle I hope you all might find interesting. As such, I’d like to get some of my thoughts down on paper… or pixels… whatever, and I encourage writing any responses in the comments! Remember, this stuff is a totally BIG DEAL and really matters to everyone. Everyone also agrees with everything written here.
BIG DEAL NUMBER 1: Not everyone agrees with our lifestyle, and as gamers, we are constantly besieged by waves of judgement from older generations. And it’s not just older generations, stuff that might be a big deal to us is also often taken lightly by our peers. People who haven’t grown up gaming don’t understand what it is that keeps us inside, in front of computers or consoles for hours on end. This is totally understandable… but makes conversation extremely difficult. I don’t hold anything against these people, but trying to explain the draw to something others find meaningless can be very difficult and tiresome…
BIG DEAL NUMBER 2: New people are getting into gaming for different reasons. As tech grows and new avenues of social interaction are presented to an expanding online community we find that more people are signing up, logging in, and sticking around for more. This change in both gamer culture and tech gave birth to new types of gamers: casuals, core gamers, hardcore gamers, pro gamers, n00bs, retrogamers, and even girl gamers. By expanding the net of interest to include people outside of the communities that dominated traditional gaming culture, we see a more casual, inviting, and social culture begin to take form.
BIG DEAL NUMBER 3: Games should not be used as babysitters. I feel like I had a very fulfilling and wondrous childhood, full of tree climbing (or in my case, tree descending), hide and seek and camping trips. I still love to go outside, being from the Pacific Northwest I have a very special relationship with the sun in that I so seldom got to enjoy its warmth. But letting children spend any extended time on video games during developmental stages is proving harmful in more ways than one. I’m talking about very tangible changes in the social behavior of young gamers in their online interactions. It wouldn’t be so bad if the maturity level of your average adult was a bit higher, but the intellectual degradation of the internet as a whole is increasing at an alarming rate.
BIG DEAL NUMBER 4: Streaming video game play is the future of entertainment! More and more people are finding that watching video games can be just as fun as playing them. This is something very, very few people outside of the gaming lifestyle understand. But the same way Stephen Colbert can make a day’s worth of news insanely interesting and hilarious, there are streaming entertainers that bring a new perspective to the games we know and love. In addition to being fun to watch, competitive esports is also on the rise, and many of your favorite games no doubt hold competitive tournaments or circuits at some point. Being able to watch the best players in the world duke it out on one stage adds to the sense of community and camaraderie that defines esports.
BIG DEAL NUMBER 5: Love what you do. This piece is a bit cliche, but is increasingly important to remember for the times we live in. If you find yourself stressing or getting pissed at the games you play, maybe you should re-evaluate what you’re spending time on. As much as I hate to admit it, it is true that there’s likely something better you could be doing, so why not enjoy every second of every minute you spend in-game? People who get frustrated when they do poorly are always interesting to me, if you really can’t handle it, you should play something else! I know for a fact my Mom could kick the crap out of me in Brick Breaker, and that wouldn’t upset me, because it’s not my game. Trying new stuff is always recommended, and give it long enough to leave an impression. If it’s not for you then whatever, there are hundreds of thousands of games out there, all you have to do is find the right fit.
Again, I encourage comments below, this can always turn into an interesting conversation. If this takes off you can look forward to more in the future, until then, keep living the dream like nobody else can! Damn it’s good to game.