Here in the lovely realm of Communication Studies that I call my home, as well as in the world of some other social sciences, we’re pretty big on stereotypes. Stereotypes give us these preconceived notions that tell us how we’re going to act with other people. Yes, stereotypes are often painted in a negative light, and when you hear about them they’re more than likely being used that way, but thinking outside of that box, it is simple to see how we use them in our daily lives.
Everyone’s beliefs factor in to their stereotypes, and more often than not, we see that we, as gamers, are rarely credited with a positive stereotype. Michael Abbott once spoke on a podcast (an episode that I cannot remember) that even he, as a professor, gets strange looks when people walk by his office and see him playing something on his PS2 (thus giving me a model to aspire to: an in-office PS2). Even in the world of academia, and in an age when videogames are such a prominent media, gamers and gaming are still looked at as something off-base by those outside of our world.
For a class assignment, I chose the topic of communicating while playing games, specifically, whether players prefer online or local co-op. However, when discussing the assignment with someone, a comment was made that irked me at the time, yet for brevity’s sake, I chose to look past it. This comment was along the lines that it was strange for me to choose communicating while playing games as a topic, because videogames are primarily an isolated activity. Like I said, I didn’t comment on it, but it’s had me thinking about it since yesterday.
How many people of the world still hold this view? In days when online co-op shooter Left 4 Dead has gigantic billboards and the Wii is bringing together people in living rooms across the nation, while also letting thousands of people play locally or online in Mario Kart, do people still view games as primarily anti-social activities? I know the nights my friends and I get together for some L4D online, or gather at my house for some Rock Band 2 would argue otherwise.
