With The Good, Comes The Bad

Gaming, and gaming culture, has gone down a funny route these past ten years or so. On the one hand, it is a lot more mainstream, and it’s getting more and more acceptable to say ‘hey, I’m 35. I own an Xbox 360’. It’s not really seen as a thing you should have quit when you turned 12 anymore. It is easier as a female to find other females to play with. When I was young, no other girl I knew played games. No other girl I knew, knew who Sonic was. These days, yes, the majority of women I personally know think that every console is called a Wii, but hey, at least they are aware that they exist.

Of course, the sad thing is that along with increased awareness of the gaming industry, there is also increased ignorance. I was grabbed by an article in the newspaper the other day that screamed ‘XBOX KILLS YOUTH’. This headline caused me to buy the paper, concerned that Skynet had risen using consoles around the world. Instead of pictures of the deadly robot army I had expected to see, I discovered some mediocre story that you could probably swap the word ‘TV’ for ‘Xbox’ and see the same conclusion, although it wouldn’t have even made the middle pages. He wasn’t even anywhere near his console when he died. It’s tragic, sure but my point here is that his lifestyle involved a lot of sitting and doing nothing, so instead of being the cause of death, as implied by the headline, it was actually just one of many factors. The moral of that story is, if you’re going to do nothing with your day/year/life but play games, you’re going to become rather unhealthy. The thing is, there are people who sit for hours on end watching TV, and have been doing so for years. Yes, you may argue that it’s not the same, and that people don’t ruin their social lives and get fired from work from watching TV. But neither do the majority of gamers.

Of course, addiction is real. The people who find themselves in a situation where gaming is their life do need help. But instead of pointing the finger at consoles and screaming ‘Gaming is the Devil!’ there needs to be facts, evidence, and a fair discussion. What we have at the moment is people being panicked by sensationalism. People who haven’t got much knowledge about games, i.e. parents, would benefit a whole lot more from industry professionals being invited to a fair interview where they could lay down the risks and benefits of gaming. They would also benefit from seeing all kinds of gamers, you know, the thousands that see it as just a hobby, and knowing that as long as the correct precautions are met (restricting the amount of time they are allowed on the console, not buying age restricted games), it will remain a fun, social activity, and not a life ruining obstacle like some would make out. Gaming is only going to get bigger, and it should be embraced, not met with fear.