While perusing gaming sites recently, I came across this interview with Aisha Tyler on GameInformer Online. While it was interesting to read about her experience as Ubisoft's go-to presenter for E3 the past couple of years and recording VO for Watch Dogs, it was her experience with being rejected as a gamer...by other gamers that really caught my attention.
I knew this has been something she's struggled with in the past. I don't regularly check Reddit, so I didn't see the post she referenced. However, just based on what she said in the interview, it got me thinking about my post-E3 blog post. While my initial disgust with general gamer decorum has decreased (the console war has changed significantly, and the flame war has died down as a direct result), Aisha's experience really made me revisit the whole debacle.
When I made the aforementioned post, I started to think about why gamers just don't seem to get along as they seemed to in the past. Then it hit me. Video games, and those who play them, have changed drastically over the years. Video Games were basically invented in the 1950's and 60's. It is now 2013. Video gamers are now in their 3rd (or 4th) generation. The second generation, those of us who grew up with Pong in the 70s and Atari and NES in the 80's (let's also not forget arcades) are now parents or even grandparents. There is now a full generation of gamers whose first console may have been an original Xbox or PS2 - or later - simply because they weren't born before then. But, it's not the games or the consoles that have created the generation gap, it's Time itself.
Before video games started to be considered "mainstream" in the mid-to-late 80's, anyone who frequently played video games were considered oustsiders and labeled as "nerds." While systems like Atarti 2600, NES and the rise of arcades certainly increased the overall number of gamers and their exposure to larger audiences, video games were still widely considered an anti-social activity. This led to gamers being persecuted by others. Likewise, video games also provided a safe outlet for many other adolescents who were cast out by society for whatever reason. Many gamers who grew up in this generation recall being bullied and shunned for loving their favorite hobby. As Aisha mentioned, this made many people - herself included - feel excluded by the majority of society.
Another celebrity from that generation is Raheem Jarbo, better known as Random or Mega Ran.
Personally, I feel the song speaks for itself and it has nearly brought me to tears on numerous occasions.
In this song, he describes being a kid who didn't belong and struggling
to make friends. At some point, his mother bought him an NES (a large
investment for a single mother) because she felt it was safer than her
son being on the streets with gangs. Raheem discovered a passion for
video games. As an adult, he attempted to make a career out of hip-hop,
but he found little success. He began to create songs that focused on
his love of games, and video gamers embraced him wholeheartedly. His story
is yet another of how a social outcast found acceptance among others who shared his passion for games and likely had similar backgrounds as his. His story shares elements that many gamers of his generation have related to.
As time marched on, video games became a larger industry and video gaming eventually became more socially acceptable. As the Internet expanded and permeated homes across the world, gamers and many other outlying subcultures found a way to connect with each other without the fear of further persecution. Many have referred to this as the beginning of the "rise of nerd culture." It was the history of persecution that unified these previously isolated individuals once there was a means of doing so over distance.
Fast forward several years. The Internet is now firmly entrenched in society as a source of information and culture. Video games tournaments are webcast (MLG, Twitch) and major annual events with their own subculture (EVO, etc). Online sessions of FPS games can total into the billions of hours invested by players. Video games have become much more than the escape of the downtrodden. Though still the subject to inquires toward their effect on the human psyche, gaming has become a vastly more acceptable pasttime.
Today, there is a new generation that has had access to a much larger community of gamers as well as the Internet. They have known nothing else. While I cannot confirm or deny the identities of anyone who claimed Aisha was not a "gamer," it speaks to a growing divide amongst gamers. Most gamers of the older generation to which Aisha and Raheem belong still view video games as a common ground for social outcasts to commiserate and forget their troubles. Alternately, the younger generation who has grown up with video games as an acceptable hobby and haven't been cast aside because of it have a completely different perspective. They do not see it as the refuge for the downtrodden. To me, this disparity is a contributing factor to much of the "cred" disputes I hear and see in gaming.
In addition, I feel this Generation Gap also contributes to the entitlement I spoke about back in August. Video games themselves have changed drastically since the days of the NES. During the age of cartridges and before online console services became a mainstay, video games contained many flaws, despite the best efforts of the developer. Gamers reveled in some of these flaws, which resulted in glitches, exploits, and cheats. Regardless, developers had no method to fix these flaws once their product was in the wild. As internet connectivity has gained momentum, developers can now issue hotfixes and patches to an imperfect game. While a certain level of quality is expected when a game ships, developers can now be more directly involved with the lifespan of a game. The newer generations of gamers, the same who never experienced the days of glitches and exploits as commonplace, now believe they are due any fixes to a game that they consider to be broken. Thus, we get gamers getting upset about a Day One patch for a game rather than appreciating the fact that a developer can now do this.
Sociologists often say people are products of their environment (which is part of a greater psychological debate about "Nature vs. Nurture"). The same applies to the video game community. As games change, the gamers change. This leads to a sort of culture clash, and results in friction. It's easy for someone like myself to sit back, observe, and say "Well, that's a shame these groups can't get along." It's something completely different to try to act upon this observation and make a change. I encourage you, as a gamer (probably), to read my words and try to accept where your fellow gamers have come from. Let's not dismiss others as "not really a gamer" simply because they don't think like you do. We call ourselves gamers because we share in a specific hobby, and we do so for our own reasons.
Share the love, not the hate.
