Gamers Make Network News

This weekend will see two very different portrayals of gamers by major media outlets. Gamepolitics reports on tonight's episode of Dateline NBC, which will detail a murder plot crafted by an RPG gamer. From the article: "'This is a tough case,' said Dateline correspondent Dennis Murphy. 'There were no forensics. (the police) knew that Brian Trimble was the link, the video-game player locked forever at 16 years old. Blaine Norris had the nerves to do the killing. And they had to get one guy to flip on the other.'. Meanwhile, Sunday's 60 Minutes will feature a piece on professional gamer Fatal1ty. From that article: "Some believe the time is near for video game competitions to become large spectator events. If and when that happens, Wendel will have played an enormous role."

Without a voice

[Stachybotris]

Gamers are, unfortunately, a large group without a collective voice. Until we can organize and start lobbying in Washington and get an advocacy group together, we will never be understood by the rest of society. The media will continue to misrepresent us, and society will continue to react out of ignorance. Attacks on gaming like this one will continue, when they should have already ended long ago. We need to educate people about games and show them more stories about people like Fata1ity instead of focusing on the 'morose gamer kills five then self' events.

Of course, the game manufacturers already have a small lobby, but we really need one for the game players. Sure, there are those of us who live in basements and have no social skills, but plenty of us have productive jobs and families. We participate in our real-world communities, some of us go to church, and we contribute meaningfully to society as a whole. Gaming is a hobby for most of us - not the be-all end-all of our lives. This is the face of gaming that we need the public to see. So do we speak up ourselves, or let others decide who and what we are?