If I had a dollar for everytime that I’ve heard someone say, “You play video games? Seriously?” or “Your an adult, what are you doing playing games?” or the classic ”Hmmm, I guess somebody hasn’t quite grown up yet.” I would have all the money that I need to buy the worlds greatest gaming set up, complete with 3D HD TV!
My kids think that its funny that at 36 years old I still love to play video games. There are times my oldest daughter gets embarrassed when I start talking with people about my gamer score or my current rank in whatever Call of Duty game I happen to be playing at the time. I have seen her roll her eyes and walk away embarrassed when my best friend (who also is an avid FPS gamer) and I start to talk strategies, tactics and prefered weapons and perk load outs in anticipation of our next venture behind the virtual enemy lines. But, she also thinks its pretty cool that her Dad plays Mortal Kombat with her now and then and that I’m into a few hobbies that arent what she considers “totally lame”. For the record, she also teases me about being a comic book fan! Whats up with kids these days? But thats a topic for another time.
I wonder to myself why so many people automatically associate video games with childishness or immaturity? It is not likely that the Walmart associate who sold me the newest Batman game would have looked at me the same way had I been buying shotgun shells or hunting supplies, which I do also purchase quite often, but to him a video game…well, thats for kids. I believe that when the general public thinks of an adult gamer they automatically envision a middle aged, over weight man with a mullet hair cut, wearing a wife beater, boxer shorts and a robe stained with countless bags of cheetos and spilled Mt. Dew. Of coarse this person is sitting in his parents basement yelling “Mom! Bring me some meatloaf!” Which is likely an accurate assesment, in some cases.
The fact of the matter is that even though there are many young kids playing online video games, the majority of players that I encounter, even in public rooms, are adults who, by the sound of their voices, range in age from twenty to forty years old. In fact, its now well documented that over half of gamers are adults and the ESA’s latest number confirm that the average age of a gamer is now 37yrs old and its been going up every year for as long as I remember.
These gamers come from all walks of life – business men, accountants, Doctors, auto mechanics, college students, clergy, you name it. Most of them seem like regular people with regular jobs, families and responsibilities who, like myself, love to take a few hours at the end of the day, log out of the real world for a little while and log into a world where they get to swing high over Gothams streets as Batman, pilot fighter jets and engage in dogfights over some makebelieve Middle Eastern country, participate in a night time raid on a terrorist hideout as a member of a Special Ops Team, Quarterback their favorite football team or just stomp the yard in a virtual dance battle (not that I do that…)
Years ago video games were marketed, mostly, to children and youth. But today that is just not the case and yet so many people still brand it as a kids toy or an immature hobby. A few years ago my Mom told my wife that I am a very hard person to buy gifts for, she asked her what she should get me for Christmas. My wife told her to go down to Gamestop and buy me a gift card, to which my own Mother replied, “Oh no, video games are for kids. I want to get him a real gift.” The following Christmas I got a wall clock from her, which when added to the goofy gifts that my Grandma got me were more than enough trade in at Wal-Mart for me to pick up Rainbow Six Vegas! In retrospect I felt kinda bad the next time that she came over to my house and inquired about where we had hung that clock.
When I was a kid only a few games boasted 2 players, but rarely were you actually playing at the same time. Usually you were taking turns and waiting for your older brother to stop hoggin it and let you have a turn. But today the virtual world of video games is a place to become someone that you would never be able to be, do things that you would never be able to do and meet new and interesting people that you would never have had the chance to meet otherwise and do all of that as a group.
People who think that “grownup gamers” are immature do not realise that I play online with people from the East Coast to the West coast and everywhere in between. I play with Canadians and even played a few Black Ops rounds with some blokes from Australia once, granted the connection was horrible, but the conversation and fun that we had was awesome. Many of these “grownup gamers” are people that, though I have never met in person, I consider good friends. Whats immature or childish about that? I say, “Not a thing”.
Being a “grownup gamer” has not only given me the chance to meet people from all over, but it has given me opportunities to spend time with my own kids, playing with them is a tremendous amount of fun! And even though my wife doesnt play she has listened to many monologues about the games that I play. She may never have put a controller in her hand, but she knows the basic story line of Halo and Gears of War. She has never met anyone on my friends list over xbox LIVE, but she knows many of their gamer tags because I talk about them and share the funny highlights of our gameplay. She understands that it is an outlet for me to have fun and invest in a community of other people having fun and in no way does she see it as a childish or immature hobby.
But despite all of that, there will always be those who see grownup gamers as immature adults who refuse to grow up. And to those who would share their condescending comments about my gaming I say “What…I’m sorry I couldn’t hear you…I’m too busy sniping terrorists and having fun with friends from all over the world”.
According to demographics ‘gamer’ now typically describes an adult does it not?
A quick google shows
The average game player is 37 years old and has been playing games for 12 years.
The average age of the most frequent game purchaser is 41 years old.
When someone assumes games are exclusively for children/teens, they are the uninformed ones. People don’t feel weird when their hobby is gold, or repairing old cars, and i don’t feel weird saying one of my hobbies is gaming.
The problem is their definition of ‘gamer’. They tend to include prople playing Bejeweled on Facebook. I’d like to know what the statistics look like for a game like Batman, Archam City, or any $60 Xbox game for that matter.
Brilliant article Dan!
Good read Dan. I don’t see myself not gaming. I will be buried with a controller in my hand.
Great article Judge! I’m 44 so I know the feeling all to well. I think it’s gotten better this console generation though as gaming has become more mainstream than ever. I caught part of a sitcom the other day(Up All Night)where the stay at home dad played on Xbox Live and talked to his buddies about his problems. You didn’t see scenes like that in prime time a few years ago. Also since consoles do so much more like stream Netfix, Hulu, ESPN etc a lot of people who weren’t familiar with consoles at all (like my wife) actually see the benefit of having them in the house and playing games is just one of its many functions. I think most people nowadays don’t consider a console a toy like it was back in the NES days. My dad’s generation didn’t grow up with videogames so they just don’t get it like we do but that’s all changing. Pretty soon it will be hard to find someone who doesn’t play games of some kind or another especially with gaming spreading through Facebook, cell phones and tablets.
Thanks guys.
Ashaman: Your comments are so true…but that doesnt change the strange looks that adult gamers get now and then. I tease my wife about being a “gamer” b/c according to a recent article that I read a “gamer” is anyone who plays games (on any platform) for at least 3-4 hours a week & she definatly logs more time than that on her ipad games!
Rammer: I also recently saw an episode of Psych where the main characters father (played by Corbin Bersen) confiscated his sons xbox, only to get addicted to it himself! They found him days later wearing the same clothes, covered in food & the phone unplugged playing online! It was classic!
Good read Judge, you immature child.
Nice article Judge! My pet peeve are people that turn their nose up at video games, thinking they are a waste of time. But the same people will happily veg out in front of the television for hours.
Me too Tacoma.
Great article Judge!
I feel like the stigma of being an adult gamer is waning to some extent because we all grew up with video games and we all know that our kids will too so we probably won’t get flack from them. Heck I can even get my dad (a baby boomer) to hop on and play the AC-130 mission from Call of Duty every now then, but I will never forget the way my grandparents (WW2 generation) would look at my old black and white gameboy when I was 7. They just didn’t seem to understand how a kid could enjoy something like that, much less an adult spending money on it for themselves. Thankfully, that attitude seems to be changing imho.
-OVERCOME
I think videogames will always be associated with childhood and adolescence. Rather than waiting for society to change, I think you’ve got to get to the point where it doesn’t matter to you what other people think of your hobbies, whatever they are. If they add to your life, are done in moderation, and don’t hurt anyone, then that’s all that should matter. Who cares what some old fart in Walmart thinks.
I’ve rarely had anyone say anything derogatory to me about the fact that I play games. The only time it’s happened was when an 8 year old girl made fun of me. But who gives a sh1t what an 8 year old girl thinks?
I think as long as YOU respect your gaming, then others’ opinions (strangers, anyhow) don’t matter much. I think we get ourselves into problems sometimes because we ourselves, in our gut, feel some insecurity about the fact that we are grown men who play videogames. Then we get sensitive, react defensively to others’ opinions, or even project them on to others who aren’t even disapproving in the first place.
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Great article. I have written some similar papers and forum posts on other sites about this same issue. It is really baffling how people think. My father in law is constantly coming down on my son and I for ‘wasting’ time with games, making comments about how you just get fat sitting there doing nothing… and then he goes and watches TV for 6 hours. What is the difference? On the scale of what is or is not a waste of time, playing video games and watching TV are both on the opposite side of the scale from ‘finding a cure for cancer’.
And no sooner do I ‘like’ this post on facebook than I get someone in my family posting “isn’t ‘mature gamers’ an oxymoron?” SERIOUSLY??
My wife tells me not to take it personally. But it’s really hard seeing as how my entire life, everything I’ve been into has been shunned; comic books were a waste of time, heavy metal made you a satanic loser, and dungeons and dragons was for nerds and was also satanic. (satanic nerds? really? yeah, never made much sense to me either). And then it was videogames. I’m sorry, I think watching TV is a big waste of time especially with the utter crap that is on these days.