Well averages are tricky things. For every three 12 year old kids playing CoD and calling you whatever swear/racial slur they learned in school that day, there's 1 60 year old house wife playing Peggle. Then you mix in the rest of the upper age gradient and viola, you have the age of 30.
irwinemporium said:
Well, lets face it, gaming is marginalized, especially if you're in your 30's and up. It's just not socially acceptable. It's fine if you're teenager, but an adult...nah. By the time you're "of age" your interests should have grown beyond sitting slack-jawed on the couch playing useless games. Ya, they're fun (I still play games from time to time) but I do recognize the stigma attached. I'm not trying to pick a fight, just stating my opinion.
I find that statement odd considering the majority of the people who grew up in the NES generation are about to hit their 30s if they aren't there already. I really feel sorry for the people who have "grown out" of video games. You know they didn't do it of their own free will, they simply let the disapproving sneers of the previous generation beat them down. Didn't they teach us in school not to let peer pressure talk us into doing something we don't want to?
The stigma comes from people who are actually of sound mind and responsibility giving into that peer pressure; thinking that to be "serious adults" they must cast off all the pieces of their younger days. There's no actual part of your brain that suddenly stops enjoying video games once you hit 25+, you've allowed society to beat something you love out of you which no one should ever let happen. What we're left with is the fat, 30 year old, basement dwelling "nerd" stereotype because the people who are so terrified of being associated with them have fled rather than showed resolve in the face of adversity. We need to stop allowing this marginalization, not give in to it or else we'll always be considered this creepy, lazy sub-culture.
I'm also curious about what your interests change to when you're "of age?" Going to college? Clubbing? Finding a job? Finding your significant other? Sex? Starting a family? Playing canasta with the other old people? Are growing into a well rounded, responsible, human being and playing video games in your spare time mutually exclusive activities? In the grand scheme of the universe, are any of these activities more "useful" than the others? When we're all dust will the historians look back with utter disgust at those who spent Friday night raiding on WoW with their friends while those who were doing meth and having unprotected sex in the bathrooms at the dance club are immortalized in golden space-temples?
What makes playing a video game so much more "useless" than say bowling or going to a party? Do you get paid for those activities, do you gain some status in society? Possibly, but probably not. Are they more fun? Maybe, maybe not. I think we've all had some pretty miserable social experiences for one reason or another.
Why are you "slack-jawed" while playing the game? Are you not enjoying yourself? If so, why play it in the first place. No one is forcing you to do it. Is slack-jawed in front of a game somehow worse than slack-jawed in front of a movie screen? Or slack-jawed at a concert?
Honestly, statements like the one I quoted really sadden me. Drinking, gambling, clubbing, smoking, any kind of sports, and any number of dozens, if not hundred, of other "socially accepted" activities, most of which are far more destructive the self and others and just as "useless", are consider normal in nearly every society yet saying you game is met with strange looks or outright hostility. It is that "Oh, I need to grow up, adults don't play games" attitude that keeps video gaming classified as this "children's" activity. Yes, it has gotten better as the kids that grew up with games have moved into the forefront of society, but there's still this stigma, for absolutely no reason, other than people who could help to change it deciding to hide and letting the extreme stereotypes get all attention. Don't shout it from the rooftops but don't deny it in shame and sure as hell don't let all those baby-boomer ex-hippies who spent their youth smoking pot, protesting, and spreading social diseases tell you that your hobby should be frowned upon.
