The Gamer Stigma

    When I was younger I used to be bullied a lot about being a nerd and playing lots of video games and for this project we were supposed to make a point for a cause we believe in. I first started with welfare except my teacher and I were at a disagreement on whether welfare was an issue. The same thing happened when I wanted to talk about the death penalty. I finally decided on defending gamers and eliminating the stigma placed on gamers. This project was tough because I had to keep going back to the drawing board to get something to work but when I finally did I think I did well. 

    Were you that kid in school that was left out of everything? or just didn’t get along with anyone? I was. It was because I am a gamer, and as everyone knows gamers are anti-social, whiny, and unpleasant. But before that they were the creepy people who stood in the back of the arcade all day and never saw sunlight. And now there are over 210 million gamers in North America alone. That is almost half of North America's population being placed under this stigma of being a gamer, being scared (afraid) to share their passion or their interests for fear of being viewed as a waste of space. We need to change this. We must break the stigma of gamers.
    I have played competitive Call of Duty. I have played on the top of the charts in World of Warcraft. And I have played countless other games casually. And I have been the subject of much ridicule because of it.
    I used to be that kid that no one liked in school. I was the one who you see in movies sitting on his own. Yes, you can say I was the mean kid or I was the gross kid or I was the socially awkward kid. I wasn’t. I was the one who, instead of going home and watching sports, went and played World of Warcraft. Everyone knew that I was an avid gamer because at the time I was too naive to understand that people would care what I did in my free time.

When a pair of twins, who played also, transferred to the school I was at they weren’t even acknowledged by the other students past “hey” or “grunts.”Can you imagine going to a new school in a different state and not even having people say more than a half-assed greeting to you? Wouldn’t you feel like you meant nothing? The reason for them being ignored was the “letter” they had written to the school. They had to write what they were interested in, their name, and what they wanted to do when they grew up. It was presented to the class prior to their arrival and for both of them they wrote that they were interested in World of Warcraft. And immediately the attention of the other students was lost. Of course being a gamer and craving some companionship I introduced myself to them and we became friends instantly.

I am still great friends with them and now one of them was recruited to the  Harvard crew team and the other is on track to becoming a surgeon. They are the opposite of what they were categorized as. Instead of being low lifes in their mom’s basement they are out accomplishing their dreams and continue to play video games. We went through a childhood full of being cast out and unincluded and want no one to have to go through the loneliness we had to.
    There is no short term way to abolish this stigma. We need to accept video games as an art form and need to teach video game design in school as an art class. When people are exposed to things they become more comfortable with them. Teaching kids about game design will make them more comfortable with video games and will help lead the way to having all gamers accepted into society. Along with breaking down the stigma this would also help students develop different skills including patience, strategization, and leadership, stated by Makeuseof.com. Gamers need to be accepted because from 2012-2014 the gaming industry has increased its revenue from 76 billion dollars to over 100 billion according to Statista.com. We can not lose out on including a large group of people in our society just because of their hobbies. We need to include gamers into our society.

Lee, Joel. "5 Life Skills That Video Games Can Help You Develop." MakeUseOf. 6 Aug. 2014. Web. 9 Feb. 2015. <http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-life-skills-video-games-can-help-develop/>.

Nunnely, Stephan. "Number of US Gamers in 2012 Declined by 5% – NPD Report." VG247. VG24/7, 5 Sept. 2012. Web. 9 Feb. 2015. <http://www.vg247.com/2012/09/05/number-of-us-gamers-in-2012-declined-by-5-npd-report/>.

"Video Games Revenue Worldwide by Source 2012-2015 | Forecast." Statista. Web. 9 Feb. 2015. <http://www.statista.com/statistics/278181/video-games-revenue-worldwide-from-2012-to-2015-by-source/>.