Why do we want to be taken seriously?

[Trippy Turtle]

I don't care what they think. I play games for the fun of games not because how I am seen. Half the fun of video games is to take yourself away from the serious parts of life and just have fun slaughtering people or something. I don't care if others do or not but I will never take a game seriously, I will have as much fun as possible and that is all I want from a game.

 

[Pjotr84]

I think it's important to ask yourself, as a gamer, by whom you want to be taken seriously. If someone thinks less of you or makes fun of you because you game, does his or her opinion really matter?

 

[Metropocalypse]

I want GAMES to be taken more seriously simply because I think potentially they could be the most superior form of storytelling.

Only if people will allow them to be.

 

[Aposthebest]

Because when a person who spends hours and hours of his life watching pointless TV series and then proceeds to call a gamer tosser,that's plain hipocricy

Extend this to everything else other people pointlessly devote time to like sports,magazines, modern-age money seeking literature and movies and you get the picture.

 

[everythingbeeps]

My question is thus, *why* do we want to be taken seriously, particularly since there's no danger of our medium being banned or censored anymore after the recent Supreme Court decision. Do people feel that annoyed when certain news media (*cough* Fox *cough*) portrays video gamers in a negative light? Or is it because if we seek to be taken seriously then eventually we could get mature games, which we consider better? Is it because of our ego? Or is it some other reason entirely?

The fact that there was a Supreme Court decision means nothing. People will still fight to get it overturned.

 

[TheGreatAndPowerfulZOG]

I'd actually prefer games not be widely recognized as art. The "art" community is fucking poison to creativity and intelligence. I'd rather hear what a computer scientist has to say over an art student any day of the week.

 

[HardkorSB]

There's been a lot of hubbub over the years about media looking down upon us, the stereotypes that are attributed to gamers, the possibility that video games could serve to be a medium of art, the immaturity of developers when it comes to mature themes, etc. The vocal gaming community (which is separate than the non vocal majority of gamers, who frankly probably don't care about the industry's direction) seems to want to make video games and us by extension to be taken seriously by the mainstream. Me included.

My question is thus, *why* do we want to be taken seriously, particularly since there's no danger of our medium being banned or censored anymore after the recent Supreme Court decision. Do people feel that annoyed when certain news media (*cough* Fox *cough*) portrays video gamers in a negative light? Or is it because if we seek to be taken seriously then eventually we could get mature games, which we consider better? Is it because of our ego? Or is it some other reason entirely?

My personal reason is that I like emotionally compelling video games, so by supporting the "video games can be art!" ideology I feel like demand will warrant more emotionally compelling and mature video games. That's just my reason though, and I don't have a clue as to the community's reasoning as a whole.

Why does fun need to be taken seriously?
- "Hey, what'cha doing?"
- "I'm having fun... but I'm doing it SERIOUSLY!!!"
I mean, seriously?!?

OK, enough of that.
Do you really care how old people view your pastime activities? Because that's who is mainly "looking down" on games and gamers - old people. People who didn't have games when they were kids. When the kids of today will be adults, they won't look down on games because they are playing them themselves and very likely will still be playing when they'll get old.

Just let the old fucks die out. That's the best and the most efficient solution.

 

[Jandau]

A number of reasons

1. I don't like being mocked for my choice of entertainment medium. To many people, a person watching Jackass on MTV is more mature than a person playing Planescape:Torment. That's just wrong, on so many levels...

2. If the medium is considered to be for all ages, games might diversify and try more new things. I'm not a kid anymore, I'm almost 27, and I can feel myself slowly getting out of touch with gaming. The thing is, if I was still 14, this wouldn't be a problem, but I get the feeling I'm slowly not being catered to anymore and I don't want to stop gaming simply because I don't like any of the games anymore.

3. The media might back off a bit and stop using gaming as the boogeyman whenever something bad happens. This shit is just annoying at this point.

 

[Zack Alklazaris]

Over the years Gamers have become much more respected, "norms" have started playing video games though granted is more of the slightly homoerotic whose got the bigger gun games like CoD and BF. Video games crank in much more money than movies do and the entertainment industry has taken notice to once was what they thought a pathetic waste of time.

As for the courts, as with all forms of entertainment there will come scrutiny. Violence in video games is a fact of life and for some people it brings out the bad in them. However the constitution should always protect us and we should have nothing to fear. Though notice how I used the word SHOULD.

To answer the rest of the question, I honestly don't care if I'm taken seriously or not as long as it doesn't affect the release date of Mass Effect 3.

 

[Cpu46]

Because gaming is a medium that blends the best parts of all the different entertainment mediums into a single form. But for some reason gaming is as much an acceptable target as Neo-nazi's and socialism in the eyes of a media. Also if I have to be told that my video game playing is unhealthy by one more person who spends half their day collapsed on the couch watching Law and Order reruns eating junk food I will be broken down into a quivering, sobbing mass of shattered faith in humanity due to the combined ignorance of half the people I have ever met.

 

[GonzoGamer]

My personal reason is that I like emotionally compelling video games, so by supporting the "video games can be art!" ideology I feel like demand will warrant more emotionally compelling and mature video games. That's just my reason though, and I don't have a clue as to the community's reasoning as a whole.

I?ve been playing since the old Atari days and I have seen games mature but a lot of the recent ?Maturity? seems forced. For example, look at the difference between R* games from last generation and what they make this gen. When they weren?t taking themselves too seriously, a lot more attention seemed to go into making a lot of different kinds of rewarding gameplay. Now they seem to want to hem in the gameplay & rewards so everything seems to fit in the realistic and ?gritty? story they want to present. Now this would work if the story was really so good that it made up for the lack of rewards and options but it usually doesn?t. In fact, a lot of times when R* seems to be trying to get an emotional response out of me (usually by killing off a main character), it?s seems forced and not very effective. A lot of times when they are trying to make me cry, the pretentiousness makes me laugh. Bioware has the same problem.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

People take games seriously thus they want to be taken seriously for that and not equated with people who consider games simple toys for the young or immature. Makes sense to me.

 

[Jazoni89]

It's all about generations, and it's only been recently that gaming has gained mainstream appeal.

Give it time, maybe twenty years or so for the media to mature, and people will be uttering classics games like super mario bros, and Ocarina of time under the same breath as classic movies like Citizen Kane and Star Wars.

then that's the time when gaming will be taken seriously.

 

[Mallefunction]

Reposting for truth:

Media can be taken seriously as art and still have it's stupid fun shlock. Movies are talked about critically, but Michael Bay still gets to make his films and people get to see them. Making something art does mean that all the shit automatically gets blocked out FOOOOOOORRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEVVVVVVVVVVVVER like the fanboys assume.

As long as certain things are still popular (i.e. big titties, multiplayer, FPS), they will continue to be made regardless of the label that they fall under. Will these things have as much value as something created purely out of the pursuit of art? Well, that depends on a person's individual values.

But taking media seriously will hardly do any damage to games. And hell, you might even get that rare game that combines the sexy with artistic value a la Black Swan for film.

Just sayin'

 

[kortin]

People need to justify their hobby by calling gaming "an art form." Lulz. Really, whoever thinks of gaming as an art needs a reality check. Gamers shouldn't want to be taken seriously. They should just strive for a happy medium. I like people who realize that gamers aren't 4 years-old, and can differentiate a video game from real life. People who think we're all infants who will go on a killing spree if exposed to a recent FPS is a retard and needs to rethink his logic.

Honestly, gamers should just be happy where they are now and laugh at people who think they're a threat to society. We're not artist, and we're not sadistic muderers. Anyone who thinks otherwise should be scolded.

Playing games [Gaming] isn't an art. Making games is. I have a feeling that you thought the whole debacle was over playing games being an art form, which it wasn't.

 

[gigastrike]

Because I don't want to be belittled by a bunch of people who think that playing games makes me a childish, irresponsible waste of space with nothing going for me in life, who wastes all of my time doing fake stuff when I should be out getting a dead-end job like an adult.

 

[Rariow]

Respect. I want respect. I'm sick of people immediately assuming I'm stupid whenever I mention I'm into videogames. I'm sick of people considering me inferior to them because they prefer a good movie whilst I prefer a good game. Gaming still hasn't evolved into it's full potential, I will admit, and that is the reason why other art like literature or painting is still, in my opinion, superior. But get this: If gamers continue to embrace the stereotype of immature manchildren that people have (And which is, by no means, correct), it will continue to be this way. I'm not saying you can't have silly games that have immature attitudes, just like no one says you can't have silly books or silly movies.

What I'm trying to get through is that, as long as games aren't taking seriously, society will have no incentive to produce good games, apart from money, and, as we've seen over and over again, purely money-motivated games with no creative spirit are, usually, pretty bad.

We take ourselves seriously -> Society takes us seriously -> Society understands the value of games -> Games get better for EVERYONE, not just the small part of society that takes games seriously.