Is It Too Loud, or Are You Too Old? Video Games In The Eyes of Non-Gamers

"Inevitably, after I finish speaking, the strong opinions come. It happens the same way every time: People listen and then they say what they've been feeling. 'Videogames are not good for you'. 'Videogames are a waste of time. They isolate children. Kids never go outside to play. They just sit there and stare at the TV all day'."


This choice is from an enlightening, and at times, sobering look at what prominent game designer Brenda Brathwaite has written for The Escapist.
After a dinner table discussion of what she did for a living lead to an exchange like th one quoted above, she was inspired to ask 40 people over the age of 30 (who were not gamers) what they thought about video games as a whole.

The answers wre surprising: most of them were completely negative, and seemed grounded in second or third hand media reports, or buried resentments.

From later in the article:

More and more, Edison sees a split between two extremes. "I see popular thought divided starkly between those who play, enjoy or appreciate interactive media and those whose feelings fall somewhere along the lines of 'I hate videogames,' 'Videogames are for kids' and 'There is no redeeming value to be found in gaming.' If you take the latter group, you hear two contradictory beliefs: that videogames are a child's medium, and that videogames are too violent and explicit for children. Just those two conflicting biases alone would be enough, I think, for a person unfamiliar with videogames to throw up their hands and be done with the subject until someone more invested works it all out."

The article's entitled "The Myth of the Media Myth", and is worth a read.

How about you, dear readers? What do your parents, friends or other relatives who are non-gamers? What do they think? Any readers over 30 who'd care to chime in?

So You Want To Be A Video Game Journalist?

This series is a bit of an oldie, but a goodie.

I've written feature articles for 1UP.com and been published in PC Magazine, I have written for 411Mania Games, and I blog for RPGX.org. What insight can I offer to those wishing to become a Games Journalist?

Hell if I know.

Seriously, I'm not some big special person, I just had the right ideas at the right time, and was a little bit lucky. As passionate about the medium as I am, I do other things besides write about video games; it's nowhere near a full-time job. I don't really have any authority in the matter. I don't think I'd be up to writing a guide, personally.

CMP, the company behind Game Developer and Gamausutra recently published an article titled "So You Want to Be a Games Journalist" by Aaron McKenna. Criticism leveled at the article was that it was written in what seemed like an overly optimistic, condescending and starry-eyed tone that wasn't helpful in conveying what it REALLY was like to be a video games journalist.

This article got Kieron Gillen and Tim Edwards so hot under the collar that they arranged for as many games journalists as they could think of to publish articles titled "So You Want to Be a Games Journalist" of their own at the same time. Matthew Kumar of Insert Credit says:

There are currently 12 entries, and you can read my take at my workblog, but readers might particularly be interested in the Triforce's extended metaphor, John Walker's frontal attack on the original piece, and Kieron Gillen's completely straight (and certainly useful) guide. But there's also Tim Edwards, Tom Bramwell, Suki, Bill Harris, Jon Blyth, Richard Cobbett, Stuart Campbell and Jon Hicks.

You've never heard of any of them? Well, as my guide explains, that's practically the point.

The entire series in incredible reading; I particularly recommend the Triforce's piece, along with Tim Edwards' and Kieron Gillen's article, but they are all good, all useful, and they all ring true (even the contradictory parts).