The death of the stereotype game player

“People of all ages play video games. There is no longer a ‘stereotype game player,’ but instead a game player could be your grandparent, your boss, or even your professor.”

—Jason Allaire, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at North Carolina State University and co-director of the Gains Through Gaming Lab

Image credit:  Neeta Lind 

Sometimes changes in society are so rapid that it takes us a while to digest them. With more than half the households in the US owning a dedicated game playing console, American homes have at least 2 gamers per household. The 2014 report titled “Essential Facts about the Computer and Video Games Industry” from the Entertainment Software Industry is an eye opener. Many of the ostriches have had to pull their heads out of the sand after seeing the infographics on this report.

Though the average age of the gamer is 31 years, the young take to gaming like fish to water. Something about the rapidly changing and colorful graphics and the pace of the game attracts the kids to it. A lot of educational games are being developed on these new platforms. Interactive techniques assist in the learning and teaching of various subjects.

Multiplayer games got friends and peers on the game. Now with massively Multiplayer Online Games played on the Internet, some games like Happy Farm have 228 million active users, and 23 million daily users (daily active users logging onto the game with a 24-hour period). Hard to absorb?! How does all this translate into the real world? World of Warcraft representing 58% share of the MMOG subscription market, generated $2.2 billion in cumulative consumer spending on subscription since 2005! Good or bad? Well, the jury’s still out there.

Though a lot of worry has been generated among parents, teachers and caregivers about the early introduction of kids to video games, the attraction has shown no signs of waning. Psychologists and scientists are coming up with various theories about why children are attracted to games.

I look at gaming like eating cookies. People love cookies and sometimes eat to their own detriment. Cookies are not all bad, and healthy cookies are popping up all over the baking world (fortunately!). Eating cookies is good when in moderation and along with other regular food. Just like that, gaming is good in moderation along with other regular play. Binge-eating or binge-gaming: the side effects are no good.

Bon game-age on your gaming journeys.