Should Gaming Media Work to Fight Stereotypes?

An Anonymous Reader writes "Gaming Horizon has a nice editorial taking a look at how gamers are poorly stereotyped and pandered to. (SpikeTV awards, anyone?) The writer proposes that gaming media unionize to help fight the stereotypes perpetuated by outsider media and interest groups, perhaps a more "Oscar-style" awards show, and further establishing the ESRB rating system among parents."

Comments

Who cares?

[Anonymous Coward]

Should Gaming Media Work to Fight Stereotypes?

I believe the correct answer is: Who gives a fsck?

Re:Who cares?

[Asriel86]

I'm personally insulted when everyone assumes that I must like to suck down Mountain Dew and blast rap music all night just because of a preference in entertainment. Not every gamer pitches a tent in his pants over Mortal Kombat and Lara Croft's insanely disproportionate boobs, I like games with a solid story and good use of mechanics (MGS3 = most underappreciated game of 2004). I see games as art, just like movies. Watered down games like Halo are making us all look bad by associating us with the "casual gamers" that like those kind of games. Yes, everyone is stereotyped. Soccer players, apple users, and rap fans are all basically stereotyped from the start -- but they dont have a media base consistently perpetuating it by making such a big deal about how awesome blood is and now great it is that Snoop Dogg is in yet another video game. Gaming media is too juvenile for me, it needs to grow up and stop feeding the flames.

Awards Show?

[inkdesign]

Let me just say that giving anything an "Oscar style award show" is not the route to legitimacy!

Article Makes Some Good Points

[bubblewrapgrl]

I think that there is a pretty negative stigma attached to being a gamer. It's very difficult to overcome. I don't think a games award show (be it Spike's horrible monstrosity or otherwise) is going to help the situation. There are a lot of gamers who are good people. The first big example that comes to mind is the guys over at Penny Arcade who set up the Child's Play Charity - http://childsplaycharity.org/ - in response to the negative image of gamers in the media. I'm sure there are others, but that was the first that came to mind.

I think the biggest problem is not that there are violent videogames. The games are rated for a reason. If you don't want your child to play GTA, Hitman, Halo, etc., don't buy them. I used to work at Target as a cashier. As a cashier, you're supposed to check IDs for games rated M (must be 17 or older). I'd ask people for them and they would have no clue that the game was rated or what the game was even about. The problem is that people like scapegoats for the way our society is. Violent videogames and movies are easy targets. They are easier to make go away and "fix" things than actual fixes are.

Re:Article Makes Some Good Points

[kingsmedley]

I think that there is a pretty negative stigma attached to being a gamer. It's very difficult to overcome.

Really? I've never been singled out and mistreated because I enjoy playing videogames. Nobody has ever pointed at me as I walked out of the local EB Games and shouted "frag lover!" I haven't been forced to sit in the back of the bus, or in any other way felt I have suffered the brunt of a negative stigma.

This negative image we talk about is in fact attached to a faceless, nonexistant media cliche of the videogame fanatic. I am yet to meet anyone that fits this image. Difficult to overcome? There's nobody to persecute!

Of course I am speaking in terms of the gamers themselves. I will concede that game developers, publishers, and retailers have been targetted with unfair accusations and absurd lawsuits; and the financial burdens associated with this treatment is very real.

The problem is that people like scapegoats for the way our society is.

This is absolutely true. But how could the gamer media solve this? That would only be preaching to the choir. It is the mainstream media that has created this stereotype, based not on actual people but on the hype generated by special interest groups (and lawyers) laying blame for society's ills on the game industry. Correcting this image can only be done through PR campaigns that will draw attention to evidence that refutes the hyperbole that has already been published. (And published so often that it has accepted by the public as established fact, when in truth it is nothing more than assumptions, theories, and conjecture.)

Re:Article Makes Some Good Points

[TopShelf]

I don't think a games award show (be it Spike's horrible monstrosity or otherwise) is going to help the situation.

Personally, it's hard to think of a problem anywhere in the world that can't be solved with a good, entertaining award show. Hopefully there's still enough time to line up some celebrity talent to announce the Iraqi election results...

I haven't read the article but..

[ayersrj]

It was pretty obvious that both the SpikeTV gamers show and AutoRox (the recent car show) was a quick move to capitalize on young male gamers and auto enthusiasts without focusing on the rest of the market. The problem is that these markets would not get the time of day on any large network or cable channel.

The ideal first step would be to have something like G4Tech host a gaming awards show, classy and all, and be sure to make this the pedastal that developers and companies want to get to. Perhaps have five-ten major gaming publications vote on each area for a "Game of the Year" as opposed to have 200 GOTY awards. That sort of thing.

The fact that companies are willing to put SpikeTV Gaming Awards winner makes me shake my head.

Bah.

[The-Bus]

A number of issues, which I will list but not enumerate.

• What does a regular player of The Sims consider herself? Surely not a "Gamer" -- but that gaming title can be a nice "gateway drug" to other types of gaming in a similar genre. Just because you like Simming does not mean you want to play Halo 2.
  
• Advertising. I don't think I've seen games being advertised in "mainstream" magazines. Of course the advertisements that do run in Maxim and FHM and GamePro and GameBizMonthlyTech or whatever they are called are well, male-oriented. I've seen a lot of TV advertisement but you could very easily buy print ads for that same amount of money.
  
• Retail outlets. Where can you buy video games? In Best Buy, EBX, GameStop... Not extremely "female-friendly" places, or "mom-friendly" places. Even the games section at Wal-Mart always seems really cramped. Where's a video game Apple Store?
  
• A bit more PR? We need some more positive news or less negative news in media. A million bucks will go a long way with a good PR agency, one that doesn't send "Press Releases" to GameSpot.
  
• Mainstream audiences already exist, but they are not all tied together. Where's the focus on non-Gamers?
  

Re:It may help if you stop whining.

[JNighthawk]

The only reason I'm feeding the troll is because some idiot modded him insightful. Hey, asshole, what the world thinks of gamers DOES matter. The article's author was not "whining," but pointing out a lot of common gripes that gamers have with some of these idiots. If Illinois successfully bans violent games from stores, it fucking matters you twit. They're trying to do that because they see gamers as violent, socially inept, serial killers-to-be. If that passes, other states will do it and after violent video games are banned, what about those video games bashing the government? Surely those are evil too!

So, in conclusion, stop being an asshole, and think about what you say before you say it.

Dick.

Re:It may help if you stop whining.

[tha_mink]

They're trying to do that because they see gamers as violent, socially inept, serial killers-to-be.

When really, they're just a bunch of non-violent, socially inept, basement-dwellers-to-be.

Plus, if states like Illinois DOES choose to ban some games, it'll be like porno being "banned". You need to be of a certain age to buy. What's wrong with that?

I mean shit, won't SOMEONE please think of the childen???