A Gamer By Any Other Name- Editorial

Never feel shame for being what you are!

In recent weeks talks of scandal and corruption within the videogame industry have seen a great deal of proliferation on the internet. It's been a hotbed issue to say the least, and much more prominent figures from around the web have weighed in on, or investigated the matter. If you want to have a firmer understanding as to what the genesis of all of this is, I suggest watching this video here, and reading this page here. While I would say that the video is slightly colored in its stance, it is still highly informative and can detail the situation far better than I ever could.

Now normally I don't like to make comment on controversial topics like this, as I am not a journalist by any stretch (nor will I ever claim to be) and frankly it just isn't how I want to do things here on my blog. Since day one, I've wanted this to be a place where I can share my thoughts with you on movies, games, comics, and all that wonderful nerdy stuff that brings us together as a community. Most importantly though, I've wanted this site to be a place of fun, and it has been very fun. Every post I complete and put out for you guys to view motivates me to do the next one.

However, in the last few days it seems that there is some tampering with something I hold very dear. It's something that a lot of us hold dear actually, and that my friends is our identity as gamers. In lieu of everything that is currently happening I feel like I have to say something in regards to the slander and allegations being thrown.

As it stands, major videogaming websites such as Kotaku, Rock Paper Shotgun, Gamasutra, and several others are calling for the term and label of "gamer" to be put to rest. The claim is that at this point in history the label has outlived its usefulness. That the word is now toxic, existing mostly as a vilifying pejorative that no self-respecting videogame player would ever want to openly identify as. Essentially (as it is of this post) they are saying if you self-identify as a gamer, you're nothing more than a hate-mongering, anti-equality, homophobic, misogynist, who needs to get out of your parent's basement and get a life. Comparisons are even being made likening gamers to that of actual terrorists. There is more to their argument of course, such as how growing demographics are making games more inclusive, thus the definition is beginning to blur, dissolve, or lose meaning. A lot of us though know for a fact that couldn't be farther from the truth.

Before I go any deeper down the rabbit hole, I'm going to delve a little bit into my own personal history. I think I need to in order put some things into perspective. You see, the word and label of "gamer" means something to me, and only with knowing my history can you fully understand and appreciate why this is such an important and personal matter to me. With that said let's get this show on the road.

I haven't mentioned it often here, but it was not only because of things like comics and animation that I aspired to become an artist. Videogames played a major hand in that decision too, especially when the game Mortal Kombat was released to the masses on home consoles. Mortal Kombat was one of the first games I had on my family's Sega Genesis in 1993, and I thought it was one of the coolest things ever. It was unlike anything I had seen before, as it combined so many of the things that I loved into one package. I knew then one of my goals in life was to do art and possibly create a videogame one day. When Mortal Kombat 2 came out to home consoles, my brother met someone in his 6th grade gym class named Matt. That kid my brother met would go on to become not only just a friend to us, but become my best friend, and my current room mate. We have shared so many life experiences together now that he's fundamentally an official member of my family. Us being the gamers that we are helped to form what has been a life-long friendship that neither of us would ever trade for anything.

It goes even deeper than that, as videogames, and the act of gaming itself, have been a major part of my life for about as long as I can remember. I have been playing videogames since I was four years old, and it's always just felt right to me. My first gaming system was an Atari 2600, and some of my earliest memories are of playing Chopper Command with my Father, dropping hours into Frogger with my Mother, or competing for the high score against my Grandmother in River Raid. The score-board from those River Raid games is one of my most cherished items I have to remember my Grandmother by. I remember how my older brother and I would stay up late into the summer nights playing games like Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist, Columns, or R.B.I. '94. We would spend hours discussing ideas we had, and would write/draw up our own game manuals, touting to our parents that this is the sort of stuff we wanted to do for a living. When we finally made the leap to the Playstation 1 platform, we were practically left speechless by the very sight of our first Final Fantasy title, or the fluidity of Tekken 2's (then) groundbreaking 3-D graphics. During some of the more troubling times (when my Grandmother was dying from cancer) gaming was what brought my family together. Had it not been for the videogames and board games we played as a family unit then, I might not have as close of a relationship with my parents and siblings as I do now. Those inaugural days with games are what set me down the path to becoming who I am today, and frankly I'm happy with who I am today.

Not all was great though if you called yourself a gamer years ago. For a long time the label of "gamer" existed with a fairly nasty stigma in popular culture. It used to mean that you where a shut-in, no one liked you, and that you had incredibly inept social skills. In those days (and in my neck of the woods) openly enjoying such activities like playing videogames, reading comic books, and watching anime got you ridiculed pretty quickly.

I got picked on a lot in my school days, being called a weirdo, a loser, and a freak, simply because of my interests. I used to come home, just wanting to go to my room and cry because of how much I got bullied. All I ever did was be honest with who I was and everyone seemingly hated me for it. I also knew quite a few people who felt the need to closet their love of such things because they didn't want to endure the shaming from their peers. To be blunt, it wasn't easy times, and I'm sure a fair portion of you lived similar situations.

We all fought long and hard over the last fifteen years to do away with those damning stigmas and to get gaming accepted among the mainstream populous. When it finally was accepted, people were no longer living in fear of being harassed because of their hobby. In fact, being open about their gamer hood became a badge of honor, and the label of "gamer" was finally something we all could wear proudly. Our position in society had finally changed. We were the cool guys now, and for a brief moment, it seemed like everything was right in the world of gaming. Honestly I feel like we missed out on that moment to collectively sigh and just admire the fact that gaming had finally arrived in a big way. Games were finally sitting as not only a multi-billion dollar industry that everyone wanted to be a part of, but also as finally being taken seriously as a legitimate art form. Hell, we even got games to be seen as a form of protected free speech! To see the gaming media of today decrying that the very people (who were fundamentally responsible in making their sites what they are today) as horrible human beings, who's very identifying term should be taken from them, is outright staggering to me.

Talk about going out of your way to bite the hand that feeds you...

Now I will concede that things have never exactly been perfect in the house of gaming (and no one community ever is mind you) but I find these articles to be somewhat alarming, if not shocking. These guys are letting the actions and words of the radical few they don't like be the defining image of all gamers. The gaming community has grown by leaps and bounds over the last decade, making us so much more than just the trolls. Even with the broadening demographics, that doesn't mean that the label has lost its purpose. If anything else I would like to think the term carries even more weight now when one takes the time to consider how so many people around the world are identifying with it. Games and by extension gamers are stronger now than they've ever been, and I think that is a fantastic thing! I'm honestly baffled that the gaming media would want to shut it all down now after all we've been through and how far we've come. 

In so many ways I'm starting to feel like it's becoming the bad old days all over again. We're seeing those with positions of influence in the media once again demonizing us gamers simply because of us being who we are. The bullies we had to deal with as kids may be gone, but now we have new ones, and hits from these guys hurt. Remember, these guys once saw themselves as gamers, just like us, but somewhere along the line they forgot what being a gamer meant. Being a gamer isn't just about buying the latest releases, or having the most achievements; it's about the bonds that games create between us as gamers and those who make games. Being a gamer is about partaking in someone else's vision; to interact with something in such a way that a book, or a movie could never do. Being a gamer is about the community games invariably create in their wake; to have that sense of comradery that comes from having a shared experience. 

Games have bridged so many gaps, bringing so many of us together, and uniting us all under one banner. That banner being "Gamer." The current gaming media may try to strip us of our identity, but there are literally millions the world over who always have and always will see themselves as gamers. You folks in the media mean to tell us all that we should just give up on something that we consider to be a part of ourselves? That the term means next to nothing now? That the culture has gone bad? That if we continue to use the term that we should feel shame for it? I guess I'm glad to disappoint you then, because this guy is going to continue to call himself a gamer. Even though I'm just some schmuck with a blog, an opinion, and perhaps too much time on his hands, I'm not going to let someone just take a part of me away. I'm not going to carry myself in shame just because you don't approve anymore. Like I said, we've come too far to turn around now. 

If anything else, I hope those in the media realize what it is they're saying. I hope that they come to remember what it means to be a gamer, and that the actions of a few do not define the whole. Are there bad apples in the gaming community? Sure there are, but they are not all of us. Most of us are just regular people who have a deep love for videogames. I implore all of you who may be reading this post to please contemplate on what gaming means to you, and why you identity as a gamer. In spite of all our differences, be it race, gender, nationality, religion, etc etc.. this is the one thing we all have in common; our love for games. If you say you love games like I love games then I've got some news for you; you're more than likely a gamer, and you should be proud of that. Never ever let anyone else try to tell you otherwise.

Just don't spawn camp, cause that's not cool...