An Open Letter To You

A few weeks ago I was ribbed (by an unnamed person, unrelated to my group of friends) for my affection of video games. Said person returned from a wholly purposeful activity and exclaimed to me, "Oh my God! You're still playing videogames?!" Of course the statement wasn't meant in the light of my entire life, but rather the span of an hour or two.

I was silent -- it's not easy to put fools in their place and battle phazon enhanced space pirates at the same time. However, it got me thinking, and not for the first time, about one specific stigma of videogames and how they are perceived by the public: videogames are for children. But really, what are 'videogames'? In their most stripped down state, videogames are media, akin to movies, books, television, and newspaper. Merriam-Webster says videogames are, "an electronic game played by means of images on a video screen and often emphasizing fast action.", and that's a definition from 1973.

In the giant lake of fire that is American Media there are several distinctions, or categories. Adult movies (let's go ahead and include porn in there since that's probably what everyone assumes I mean), chick flicks, romance novels, and *gasp* children's books? Take away the modifiers and you simply have media.

The thing that really gets to me is that all media is, regardless of how young the target audience, created by adults. These childish ideas are formed in the minds of full grown adults. Nobody derided Dr. Suess because he wrote for children. Toy Story, and Shrek were critically acclaimed and enjoyed by people of all ages. Does that somehow make fans 'childish'?

The fact of the matter is that some videogames are intended for children, some for adults, and some for everyone. Much like the rest of the media, there are games that cross multiple demographics. My owning an Xbox doesn't make me any less mature than you owning a DVD player does, it's merely a conduit for an experience. If we really want to get on people's cases and make them feel inferior (which believe me, I'm all about), let's open up those consoles and DVD players. Let's browse your collection of books. Let's see how mature you are by what kind of media you ingest.

Really what I think it boils down to, on a personal level, is people are forced to grow up and be serious and give up certain things they did as kids. Somehow the videogame got mixed in with Tickle Me Elmo. People who think videogames are for kids have either A) Never played Silent Hill (PSX) or B) Are jealous that you had the balls to keep doing something they gave up for percieved 'maturity'. Keep on fighting the good fight, interwebs. And next time someone's been reading for an hour or more in the same place, loudly exclaim, "Oh my God! You're still reading that book?!"