My writing has dwindled as of late because I got a job in a major British supermarket I’ve been finding it increasingly difficult to find enough hours in the day to maintain my hobbies and this website, as I have been working a huge amount of overtime. However, if there is one thing that working at a retailer has taught me about videogames, it is that there is still the sad, annoying perception of gaming as a children’s activity.
Working at checkouts, one of the biggest things that shocks me about selling games is parents’ sheer ignorance and lack of willingness to engage with gaming at all. It is seen as something to shut a child up for a while, to placate them, instead of something to be used as a potential teaching tool. This is deeply frustrating; as I have written before, gaming can be a very productive activity if it is used in the right way. If we can teach audiences to engage with games and think academically, critical thinking abilities will continue to go from strength to strength. It’s telling that books and movies both have large bodies of academia devoted to their analysis, and the development of this kind of environment for gaming is an inevitable step that I would rather come sooner than later.
If only parents saw videogames as something more than an expensive, minor annoyance, then we may continue to see the development of videogames as a medium to be taken more seriously. Hopefully as the games we play continue to bridge the generational gap this will happen less and less; something that I tried to do as a worker was encourage the shoppers to engage with their children about the games they enjoy; I would often encourage such parents toward puzzle-solving or creative videogames as a great way to develop a child’s critical thinking skills in a way that also speaks to their generation. As to whether my attempts have been successful is another matter.
Perhaps the worst cultural issue with videogames, however, is the issue of parents ignoring age ratings. PEGI, BBFC and ESRB ratings, among others, exist for a reason, but sadly even today seem to be taken as a joke. Given gaming’s bad reputation and moral panic around videogame violence, such an ignorance to the issues of buying clearly unsuitable games for children is shocking. I’ve seen Call of Duty being bought clearly with the intention as a gift for very young people, and as a gamer and a responsible retail employee I brought this to the parents’ attention, only to be treated with a kind of dismissive scoff. It’s even worse when you consider that the gamings’ cover art in itself shows the kind of violence on offer. It’s more clear than ever what the exact content of a videogame is, and it’s made sad to see the sheer level of ignorance and lack of judgement on parents’ part when it comes to their purchasing choices.
Gaming needs desperately to continue to discourage the purchase of games for unsuitable audiences, for both its reputation as a medium and for the enjoyment of its consumers. We’ve all experienced abuse from younger gamers that make online shooters a fairly toxic place to be in, and suffered the annoyance of squeaky, immature players shouting down our microphones. Gaming is a great hobby, and a wonderful community to be part of, but it’s so sad to see the medium continue to not be taken seriously in the 21st century. It is my hope that soon we will be able to break through these cultural barriers and continue to make videogames among the most welcoming of modern day hobbies.
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