Every Gamer is Different

When I think of a “video gamer,” I picture an overweight person, sitting on the couch all day, playing video games, who only gets up to go to the bathroom (maybe). This is exactly what the documentary does. It showed the stereotypical gamer and his/her typical day. After watching it, I realized that for some people it is a real addiction. It’s as much a part of their everyday life as eating or sleeping is. Just like alcohol, drugs, or even shopping, it controls their lives. Even though this documentary shows both the positive and negative effects of gaming, I feel like it does more damage to people’s lives than anything. Like the guy in the film, it can ruin peoples’ relationships, cause them to lose their jobs, and lose their homes. I thought it was sad how his electricity was shut off because he couldn’t make the payments and yet he spent the little money he had on internet service so he could continue playing his video game.

I feel that most video games, even for young children, have a negative influence. I went to Arizona this past summer to visit my family. One of my cousins is six years old. You’d think he’d be outside collecting cool bugs or swimming in the pool, but during my stay there, he did the complete opposite. He was inside playing on his Play station 2/Wii the entire time. These video games involved running over people with cars, shooting, etc. A six year old should not even know what or how to do that! What happens as he grows up and continues to play games like this? Is he going to think these behaviors are normal? Is he going to think its ok to drive over people in cars when he’s 16 and has his license? Well, hopefully not, but do you get my point?

Yes, video games do create major problems for many people, but on the other hand, I don’t think that this idea the film portrays, applies to every gamer. I feel like it didn’t do the best job portraying video gamers. For a large portion of the film, you see people meeting through these games, finding their soul mates, and falling in love. This isn’t eHarmony! It’s a video game. It’s not real. And even if people do actually fall in love through video games, than how many people does this really happen to? My guess is not many. Another thing that bothered me was how the one guy took a week off of work to play video games with the guys instead of saving it for when his wife had her babies. I don’t think most sane people would take vacation when their wives are about to pop, and if they did, they’re obviously insane.

From what I know, the majority of gamers are not addicted and have normal (or somewhat normal) lives. I think this documentary just contributes to everyone’s stereotypes about gamers, which is not 100% true. Every gamer is different.