DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT
I’m not wasting my time
Who are you to tell me what I should and shouldn’t be proud of?
By AUBRIE COLE
When I tell people over the age of 40 about my intentions to work in the gaming industry, I usually get polite but muted reactions: “Oh, I’ve heard that’s a growing industry! I don’t like video games, though. I never let my kids play them.” These people always feel a need to insert their negative opinion on the tail end of their praise. It’s never simply, “That’s cool!” but always, “That’s cool, but …”
I’m tired — and not just because classes just started again (happy spring semester!). I’m tired of feeling belittled by an older generation simply because of their inability to comprehend the complexities of modern video gaming. I could go on and on about my irritation, but I’d rather share two stories I’ve been thinking about recently to convey my perspective.
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When you man a booth at the Involvement Fair, you tend to go into autopilot. Yes, we have meetings. No, we don’t have dues. Throughout the day, I formulate a script in my head on how to answer the generic questions every interested freshman is inevitably going to ask.
However, last year as I worked the booth for SC Esports, a student decided to ruin my day by not only going off my imaginary script (rude, I know), but also insulting me to my face. At the end of our conversation, I asked him, “Would you be interested in joining our organization?” to which he bluntly replied, “No, I think you’re wasting your life away with these video games.” He proceeded to laugh in my face and walk away.
The New York Times recently reported on a young boy, just 13 years old, who became the first individual to “beat” the classic game “Tetris.” Usually “Tetris” is played until the player loses — it’s not the type of game that one plays to beat. However, Willis Gibson did just that by reaching the limitations of the program’s coding, resulting in a kill screen and a monstrous “999999” score. This monumental achievement, previously only accomplished by artificial intelligence, likely took hundreds of hours of dedication and practice to do.
Everyone I know was talking about Gibson’s accomplishment. Even my friends and family, who don’t know the first thing about video games, were at least aware of it. But, with wide acclaim also comes harsh (and unsolicited) criticism.
Now you might ask yourself, “What cruel person would rain on a 13-year-old’s parade for no reason?” Apparently, a lot of people! Numerous older individuals took the opportunity to crawl out of the woodwork to call Gibson, a literal child, a time-wasting shut-in. One particular news anchor garnered flack from the gaming community for saying that Gibson should “go outside” and that “beating ‘Tetris’ is not a life goal.”
People are afraid of what they do not understand, and that’ll never change. My mom still loves to quote “1984” to me during election season. All my family could talk about at Christmas dinner was the current debate around generative AI.
It’s unsurprising that older individuals look down their noses at video games and those who enjoy them. With the way many news media outlets like to portray games — as agents of brainwashing and violence used to destroy the youth — it’s almost impossible for me to convince someone in their 50s that working on a game is similar to the artistic heavy lifting of filmmaking or music production. It would be an even greater task to try and explain the precision and intelligence it takes to push games to their breaking point like Gibson.
I’m not wasting my time by playing games. I’m not wasting my time by making games. Willis Gibson isn’t wasting his time by making history. Esports athletes, speedrunners, game developers and many others all take pride in their craft. Just because their goals and talents manifest themselves differently does not make their accomplishments any less significant.
Games are such a huge facet of my life — if I was that kid from “Inside Out” (2015), I think I would have at least three islands of personality dedicated to things related to gaming. It never feels good to have something so important to you belittled, and I wish there was a way I could just snap my fingers and make everyone suddenly understand games like I do. Though it’ll never be that easy, I can hope to change minds through my articles and other work.
Willis Gibson should be proud of himself. That kind of dedication to a goal is something seldom found in people. Maybe his haters should take a leaf out of his book and dedicate themselves to finding a hobby as fulfilling as his.
Aubrie Cole is a sophomore writing about video games in her column, “Downloadable Content,” which runs every other Tuesday. She is also an arts & entertainment editor at the Daily Trojan.
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