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Another Comment from a friend, 14-years-old. He is starting high school next year and offers this opnion:
As all of you know, back in the early days of gaming, anyone who freely admitted that they played games every week was instantly labeled as a nerd. All the jocks and popular kids most likely played video games, but never admitted it in fear of being tormented or discriminated against. Now in the "future", anyone from any background can enjoy the love and heartbreak known as the video game. Does this situation sound familiar? Of course it does.
Back in the days of old (about twenty years ago) anyone that even mentioned that they were a homosexual was instantly labeled different and then hated and teased and discriminated against.
Just like the video gaming public but in a toned down version, the homosexual situation is getting better and better, and just like video games, it?s a thing that anyone can openly speak about what was once was touchy subject.
Now don?t get me wrong. People who are very obsessive about video games and people who are very "out there" are still hated by some and teased by some. But anything that is happening for the better I will take without a blink. I only have one thing to say; Video games are more than games, they are a mock up of what has happened in our world, what is happing in our world, and what is to become of our world.
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So it wasn't the cool thing to do in the eighties or even the nineties, but I've spoken to a lot of closet gamers recently now that "old school" merchandise has started springing up in local Hot Topics for reminiscent consumers.
Everyone seems to want to talk about how great the first Contra was or conjur up the Konami code from memory. That's great, but where were all of these people when I wanted to talk about the games when they were in their PRIME?
I'm sure, as the original article spoke of, that gays felt the same way before homosexuality was more accepted (but they still have a way to go). Of course, where I come from you'd probably still be ostracized for your sexual preferences (something I hold with great shame). I'm sure there are areas where video games are still held with a level of indignation, but such is life.
I guess the real thing to get out of this article is that art imitates life, but life can also imitate art.
Perhaps more video games will be made that attempt to convey a message in the fashion a Hollywood drama might. Since this is seemingly the medium that most of my generation and younger generations will use, I'm surprised a larger effort hasn't been made to try to to reinforce social norms and mores through video games hasn't been attempted by numerous social groups as well as movie producers and concerned game developers.
Instead, we resort to simply testing are reflexes and thumb muscles. Perhaps when my generation heads out into the work force they will bring new meaning to video games, as I'm sure younger generations will.
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The future is to those who take it.
Game on.