2008 Woodie Awards
Should Gaming Ditch The Niche?
Good Game
Fernando Dutra
Issue date: 4/18/08 Section: Focus
As the video game industry increasingly penetrates into the mainstream consciousness and takes up more and more of the entertainment market, is it time to recuse the niche sentiment surrounding the pastime?
In the Gamesetwatch opinion piece "Ceci N'est Pas Un Gamer," Douglas Wilson thinks so. The very concept of being a gamer is a nuisance, given the baggage that comes along with it. Gamers seem to be divided within two spheres: maintaining a community with each other or willing to spread games into the mainstream.
The problem is that the gaming community has made a name for itself in the wrong areas. With regards to the "Mass Effect" scandal, in which a guest that appeared on Fox News made false claims about the sex scene in the game, Wilson says, "unable or unwilling to connect the dots to the bigger issues, the gaming community successfully pigeonholed itself, effectively muzzling its own resistance in the process."
Reactions to politicians, being pro-video game legislation or the aforementioned "Mass Effect" debacle suggest that the media can expect certain predictable outcries from video game players. One New York Times story commented on the reaction to "Mass Effect," stating "the Internet hath no fury like a gamer scorned."
These radical and ultimately divisive reactions only serve to reinforce that gaming is a cult, comprised of what Wilson calls a "Church of Gamers." Continued exclusionary actions like these means that "this exclusivity is exactly what impedes games from attracting a more diverse player base beyond the white adolescent male stereotype."
This will ultimately stifle innovation and drive others away from video games, leading to a possible stagnation. By getting caught up in minutiae and disproportionately dealing with it, the video game community makes a damaging and unpleasant name for itself. Being a gamer now comes with certain assumptions that Wilson believes would be better left solved by dropping that stereotypical sobriquet and focusing on issues that would be truly beneficial.
In the Gamesetwatch opinion piece "Ceci N'est Pas Un Gamer," Douglas Wilson thinks so. The very concept of being a gamer is a nuisance, given the baggage that comes along with it. Gamers seem to be divided within two spheres: maintaining a community with each other or willing to spread games into the mainstream.
The problem is that the gaming community has made a name for itself in the wrong areas. With regards to the "Mass Effect" scandal, in which a guest that appeared on Fox News made false claims about the sex scene in the game, Wilson says, "unable or unwilling to connect the dots to the bigger issues, the gaming community successfully pigeonholed itself, effectively muzzling its own resistance in the process."
Reactions to politicians, being pro-video game legislation or the aforementioned "Mass Effect" debacle suggest that the media can expect certain predictable outcries from video game players. One New York Times story commented on the reaction to "Mass Effect," stating "the Internet hath no fury like a gamer scorned."
These radical and ultimately divisive reactions only serve to reinforce that gaming is a cult, comprised of what Wilson calls a "Church of Gamers." Continued exclusionary actions like these means that "this exclusivity is exactly what impedes games from attracting a more diverse player base beyond the white adolescent male stereotype."
This will ultimately stifle innovation and drive others away from video games, leading to a possible stagnation. By getting caught up in minutiae and disproportionately dealing with it, the video game community makes a damaging and unpleasant name for itself. Being a gamer now comes with certain assumptions that Wilson believes would be better left solved by dropping that stereotypical sobriquet and focusing on issues that would be truly beneficial.
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