We Demand to be Taken Seriously

I have been writing passionately on this blog about video games for the past four years. I love doing it. Every post that I right is in celebration of video games as an art form, and the things that we can take away from them. I write this way because I believe that there is still a stigma that comes along with the moniker of 'gamer'. I write to dispel that superstition of gamers being basement dwelling wastoids who don't do anything but play video games.




This image kind of captures how I feel about my defense of video games. I just want to be taken seriously. I don't want to be looked down upon for my passion. Rejection sucks, and to feel a slight tinge of that every time that I mention that I love video games to someone who doesn't play or understand video games kind of hurts. I have such a passion that burns within me for the medium that it consumes me. I am all about video games, and I love them dearly. Video games have helped me through some rough times in my life. Video games have even saved my life. I know that video games have done the same for many others around the world. Gaming is more than just a hobby or a pastime; it s a cultural phenomenon.

Sure, I could go on about how video games have started beating out the box office since Halo 3 back in 2007, or I could talk about all of the scientific studies that show how much playing video games can improve one's mental capacity, but none of that matters to me. Those things are just heartless numbers and stats that gamers like myself would use to lean on to support the claim that video games are not a waste of time. I've once heard it said that writers often use statistics in the same way a drunkard uses a lampost: for support, rather than illumination. Basically a "nuh-uh!" but with numbers. Video games are so much more than the amount of money that they make opening weekend, or how much the entire industry has grossed over the past five or ten years. Video games are an experience, and developers work very hard to create the experience of their video games.

There are many people out there who speak just as passionately about video games as I do, though none really address the more abstract things that I do. However, the way that most game reviewers or journalists talk about games is in a way that seems stagnant and clunky. These people speak in a language that only people who play video games can understand. When I get the chance to be a writer for one of the more prestigious and more well known video game sites, I want to change that. I want to change the way that video games are talked about. I want people who don't play video games to know more about them.




Because the way that games are broken down in reviews talks about each individual element of the game, rather than speaking to the experience as a whole. I know that when I talk face to face to people who don't play video games, they can see the passion that I have for video games, and those same people can see that passion come through in my writing. I'm very proud of my voice that I've found in my writing. I want that to be the new standard of conversation among gamers. Because going through a checklist of items, and ticking them off one by one with a brief summation of what was subjectively good or bad about said item is so boring. Video games are not boring! or at least they shouldn't be.

Video games have evolved far beyond that of Pac-Man or Space Invaders. Games now tell stories, and engage the player in ways that were not possible back when they first came out. Games are no longer just about having fun, but telling stories in a way that only video games can. There is something that only the player experiences when they pick up a controller and play the game. This is an amazing experience. Having direct control over a character in a story is something that was only dreamed of before video games. Who hasn't read Harry Potter and thought about the misadventures that they would get themselves into? Who hasn't watched Star Wars and thought about becoming a Jedi, or joining the Rebels? These experiences can actually be found in video games, and it's awesome!

Video games are awesome, and I want people to know this. I want people to understand why I think that video games are awesome. Because they are more than something that just improves my mental capacity, or something that makes a lot of money. Games are more than just a brief summary of a story, followed by an analysis of its gameplay, followed by its graphics, followed by its presentation, in that order. Video games mean so much more to me than simply a waste of time. Video games have brought me before the gates of the deepest darkest places of my heart and let me fight my way out and overcome that darkness. Video games have given me something to lean on when nobody else seemed to be around. Video games understood me, and spoke my language when nobody else would listen. Gaming is a passion. It is a way of life, that for some reason is still looked down upon. Video games are here to stay, and they are not just some irrelevant way to kill time. Video games are leaving a significant impact on cultures all around the globe, and to deny them of that significance is a disservice to the advances that they have made over the years, and the ways that they have changed the lives of millions. Because we gamers play them all the time does not mean that we are useless. It does not mean that we are insignificant. It does not mean that we simply exist and take up space, only to waste time and the air that we breathe. We are gamers, and we love what we do. We matter, and we should not be overlooked or passed by because of our passion.