23/01/2009

See previous post

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What had made me think (again) about 'gamers' and their public image was the announcement of a reality show about videogames, where the 'cool' aspect of gaming is shown. I'm against the trend of creating a 'gaming subculture', since it's bound to lock a lot of people out of the videogame world: a world which is much more varied than what the most popular 'cool' games make it to be.

For this I mainly blame Microsoft, which has, since the introduction of the Xbox console (or was it since the Xbox 360?), tried to make stronger ties between videogames and... I don't know what it's called today, whatever's the leading trend now on MTV. But Sony and Nintendo (the two other console manufactorers) may have their share of the blame: Sony having a good number of ads for their PSP that focus exclusively on a young male demographic, and Nintendo, despite their claims of trying to reach everyone, has made some marketing choices which tend to alienate long-time gamers and kids (I didn't think ill of Wii Music, but I was baffled by the significant backlash it had generated since its announcement).

Videogames should be for everyone, just like any other entertainment medium.

No, I don't need a pic for this post, it doesn't deserve it.

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