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The Media Entertainment Games

Should Gaming Media Work to Fight Stereotypes? 59

Posted by Zonk from the laudible-goal dept.
An Anonymous Reader writes "Gaming Horizon has a nice editorial taking a look at how gamers are poorly stereotyped and pandered to. (SpikeTV awards, anyone?) The writer proposes that gaming media unionize to help fight the stereotypes perpetuated by outsider media and interest groups, perhaps a more "Oscar-style" awards show, and further establishing the ESRB rating system among parents."
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Should Gaming Media Work to Fight Stereotypes? More

Should Gaming Media Work to Fight Stereotypes?

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  • Who cares? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 31, 2005 @12:54PM (#11529356)
    Should Gaming Media Work to Fight Stereotypes?

    I believe the correct answer is: Who gives a fsck?

    • Re:Who cares? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Asriel86 ( 547129 )
      I'm personally insulted when everyone assumes that I must like to suck down Mountain Dew and blast rap music all night just because of a preference in entertainment. Not every gamer pitches a tent in his pants over Mortal Kombat and Lara Croft's insanely disproportionate boobs, I like games with a solid story and good use of mechanics (MGS3 = most underappreciated game of 2004). I see games as art, just like movies. Watered down games like Halo are making us all look bad by associating us with the "casual g

  • Awards Show? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by inkdesign ( 7389 ) on Monday January 31, 2005 @12:55PM (#11529360)
    Let me just say that giving anything an "Oscar style award show" is not the route to legitimacy!
  • Aside from Tetris and Jardinains [jardinains.com] I really never bothered with games. Too little time, too little interest. I was more concerned with creating real content that playing on my PC.

    This week though I downloaded the now free for asking GTA 2 [rockstargames.com] and started playing with it.

    Hey - it's fun to crash cars, run over pedestrians,and generally blast the daylights out of everyone on the screen. I haven't even figured out half of how the game works, and have no clue what the end goal is, but I am enjoying myself.

    The GTA
    • while there are the typical 'boobs booms and blood' games, that exists in hollywood, too. there are artistic games, just as there are artistic movies, and they both have the same problem: very few people play them, (compared to the mass-appeal games/movies that fit into public conciousness formulas.) even the movies that gets awards is usually formulated: even if its not a 'boom boom' formula, it follows a formula that 'gets awards.' the truly original content in film is found in independent cinema theate
    • GTA is only one game. I bet you won't find the stereotype applying for Katamari Damacy, or Metroid Prime, or the even more rare Elastomania. There are literally thousands of games out there that don't fall into the whole over-testosteroned under-sexed gamer category. That tends to describe people who play crap like Tony Hawk or Madden. You know, frat guys.
      • Metroid Prime is basically the samething as many other FPS's. You have a base destroyed by the enemy (be they aliens or demons). Your fallen comrades get reanimated into killer zombies. You have to search for "keys" (be they key cards or hidden power panels or floomoxed finagle device). Any of this sounding familiar?

        It is used in Metroid Prime, Doom, Half-Life, Serious Sam, and many others.
  • I call BS on the Mountain Dew and Victoria's Secret catalog. They may not be the same brands -- but something along those lines is practiced by pretty much all gamers.

  • Article Makes Some Good Points (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bubblewrapgrl ( 189933 ) on Monday January 31, 2005 @01:10PM (#11529521)
    I think that there is a pretty negative stigma attached to being a gamer. It's very difficult to overcome. I don't think a games award show (be it Spike's horrible monstrosity or otherwise) is going to help the situation. There are a lot of gamers who are good people. The first big example that comes to mind is the guys over at Penny Arcade who set up the Child's Play Charity - http://childsplaycharity.org/ [childsplaycharity.org] - in response to the negative image of gamers in the media. I'm sure there are others, but that was the first that came to mind.

    I think the biggest problem is not that there are violent videogames. The games are rated for a reason. If you don't want your child to play GTA, Hitman, Halo, etc., don't buy them. I used to work at Target as a cashier. As a cashier, you're supposed to check IDs for games rated M (must be 17 or older). I'd ask people for them and they would have no clue that the game was rated or what the game was even about. The problem is that people like scapegoats for the way our society is. Violent videogames and movies are easy targets. They are easier to make go away and "fix" things than actual fixes are.

    • Re:Article Makes Some Good Points (Score:4, Insightful)

      by kingsmedley ( 796795 ) on Monday January 31, 2005 @01:41PM (#11529837)
      I think that there is a pretty negative stigma attached to being a gamer. It's very difficult to overcome.

      Really? I've never been singled out and mistreated because I enjoy playing videogames. Nobody has ever pointed at me as I walked out of the local EB Games and shouted "frag lover!" I haven't been forced to sit in the back of the bus, or in any other way felt I have suffered the brunt of a negative stigma.

      This negative image we talk about is in fact attached to a faceless, nonexistant media cliche of the videogame fanatic. I am yet to meet anyone that fits this image. Difficult to overcome? There's nobody to persecute!

      Of course I am speaking in terms of the gamers themselves. I will concede that game developers, publishers, and retailers have been targetted with unfair accusations and absurd lawsuits; and the financial burdens associated with this treatment is very real.

      The problem is that people like scapegoats for the way our society is.

      This is absolutely true. But how could the gamer media solve this? That would only be preaching to the choir. It is the mainstream media that has created this stereotype, based not on actual people but on the hype generated by special interest groups (and lawyers) laying blame for society's ills on the game industry. Correcting this image can only be done through PR campaigns that will draw attention to evidence that refutes the hyperbole that has already been published. (And published so often that it has accepted by the public as established fact, when in truth it is nothing more than assumptions, theories, and conjecture.)
    • I don't think a games award show (be it Spike's horrible monstrosity or otherwise) is going to help the situation.

      Personally, it's hard to think of a problem anywhere in the world that can't be solved with a good, entertaining award show. Hopefully there's still enough time to line up some celebrity talent to announce the Iraqi election results...
    • I would disagree. However, I would say that people *think* there is a negative connotation to being a gamer...so they don't talk about it. That is, until they realize that their friends and colleages enjoy the same hobby.
  • It was pretty obvious that both the SpikeTV gamers show and AutoRox (the recent car show) was a quick move to capitalize on young male gamers and auto enthusiasts without focusing on the rest of the market. The problem is that these markets would not get the time of day on any large network or cable channel.

    The ideal first step would be to have something like G4Tech host a gaming awards show, classy and all, and be sure to make this the pedastal that developers and companies want to get to. Perhaps have

  • Bah. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by The-Bus ( 138060 ) on Monday January 31, 2005 @01:19PM (#11529614)
    A number of issues, which I will list but not enumerate.

    • What does a regular player of The Sims consider herself? Surely not a "Gamer" -- but that gaming title can be a nice "gateway drug" to other types of gaming in a similar genre. Just because you like Simming does not mean you want to play Halo 2.
    • Advertising. I don't think I've seen games being advertised in "mainstream" magazines. Of course the advertisements that do run in Maxim and FHM and GamePro and GameBizMonthlyTech or whatever they are called are well, male-oriented. I've seen a lot of TV advertisement but you could very easily buy print ads for that same amount of money.
    • Retail outlets. Where can you buy video games? In Best Buy, EBX, GameStop... Not extremely "female-friendly" places, or "mom-friendly" places. Even the games section at Wal-Mart always seems really cramped. Where's a video game Apple Store?
    • A bit more PR? We need some more positive news or less negative news in media. A million bucks will go a long way with a good PR agency, one that doesn't send "Press Releases" to GameSpot.
    • Mainstream audiences already exist, but they are not all tied together. Where's the focus on non-Gamers?
    • Retail outlets. Where can you buy video games? In Best Buy, EBX, GameStop... Not extremely "female-friendly" places, or "mom-friendly" places. Even the games section at Wal-Mart always seems really cramped. Where's a video game Apple Store?

      There's not enough profit margin on the consoles and games to have a game "Apple Store". What exactly would be the value in the higher prices that would be required for a nice storefront? Apple and Ikea sell unique stuff... The copy of Madden 2005 you get at Wal-Mart in
      • "Female-friendly"? That's some nice misogyny there. Last I knew, females liked to buy music/media/games (gasp!)/TVs/etc. just like anyone else. Oh wait, they're probably all too busy looking in the Appliance section to notice the video games.

        Firstly, this is about games, not "music/media/.../TVs/etc."

        Secondly, it's a statistical reality that a much higher percentage of males regularly play video games than of females.

        Thirdly, by female-friendly, the OP probably meant getting rid of, or at least playin

  • Problems with Awards show (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    An Oscar style awards show for video games sounds like a good idea, but it really isnt. First, im not sure if any television station would hold such an event due to worries of poor ratings. They would have to spice it up somehow. We all remember that shows like Spike TV game awards are not only terrible, but distract from the point of the awards show. Second, How will the games be rated? It would be nice to have a panel of judges made up of gamers and their creators, but thats asking a whole lot.

    "Okay, Mr.
  • "Should Gaming Media Work to Fight Stereotypes?"

    How about "no". Why? Because it's pointless. Stereotypes are simply the normal process of categorization that goes on in the human brain applied to people. As long as humans are not completely and utterly uniform in all perceivable aspects there will be stereotypes and attempting to fight stereotypes will only add (or emphasize) "whiney" to the long list of stereotypical characteristics a gamer has.

    The other reason it's pointless is that it is only the

  • I would much rather Gaming Media work on accurately portraying the games in their reviews rather than the slick non-informational hypefest's that they are.

    If anything, it is their portrayal of the industry that has made the stereotype. Not the gamers themselves.

    (Except for those of us who played D&D wearing our cloaks to school. We brought that upon ourselves!)
  • I'm all for doing whatever I can to prevent the SpikeTV game awards from ever happening again - but uniting the game media for a common goal? It's not difficult to see how "joining forces" could easily turn into a single, unchallenged view of video games in the media's reviews, furthering tunnel-vision in hit titles and encouraging the sequel syndrome that much more.

    A better solution is probably to just not watch shitty television.
  • take a look at the games

  • ...it's the gaming company's/store's response to the stereotypes that the media create that needs to change.

    I don't care if the media ignores me. Big deal, I don't buy many gaming magazines anyway. I don't feel the need to read every article online either. And advertisements? Well if they aren't aimed at me, then that's one less thing for me to pay attention to.

    What annoys me, is the idea that because I'm a girl, I don't know anything or have any worth as a consumer. I couldn't possibly want to talk abo

  • I object to being stereotyped at all. Why not just do some actual market research and get some facts, then use those? The ESA seems to get it. The fact is that just like guitarists, who come from all walks of life (except those which involve not having any hands) gamers come from just about every group around. I mean hell, even the little old lady in the office is probably addicted to sol.exe.

    On the other hand, if I see a games award show, nothing is going to get me to actually watch it except boobs and

  • Yes (Score:2)

    by sien ( 35268 )
    Let us fight those stereotypes!

    Let us blow them up into teeny weeny little pieces with our huge gonads (gun of nasty destroying spray) and stomp them into little pieces so that we can save the supporting character with huge, errr, tracts of land and listen to the rousing musical score.

    Ah, stereotypes, schmereotypes. They have their uses, who doesn't stereotype people at least a little. Let's not get excited and not over do these things and keep to the really important stuff - finding new and exciting wa

  • To be blunt, who cares? I don't want celebrities, I want video games. Getting a spot in the tabloid section won't make me feel like video games are suddenly legitimate.

    The simple fact of the matter is that video games bring in more money the movies. Period. They are going to keep making more and more money. The people that matter are taking it seriously and pumping millions of dollars into the industry.

    The rest of this crap is just ego stroking and people being insecure with themselves. I don't care
  • and further establishing the ESRB rating system among parents

    lol "End stereotypes! Anyone who is under eighteen must be restricted from video games we don't like, at all costs!"

    Replace 'is under eighteen' with 'has dark skin' or 'is female' and it becomes a hate crime.

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