by Lindsay Robinson| Echo
When asked to define a college-aged gamer, you might describe a guy who sits alone with bloodshot eyes in a dark dorm room, lit by the cold glow of a computer screen on a Friday night. We all have a mental image of the label, but does this model encompass what truly characterizes a gamer or is it just an empty stereotype?
Freshman Kyle Shelton pointed out one dilemma with placing such a narrow definition on a large group.
"There are two very different extremes to (gaming)," Shelton said. "You could just play a game with the lights off all day, or you could have a bunch of friends over, going crazy like the entire time."
Many gamers say the social aspect of gaming is one of the best parts of their hobby. At college, social gaming could mean two roommates duking it out over Mario Kart or a whole floor yelling through a FIFA match in the lobby of their resident hall. It's the opposite of the antisocial stereotype.
"I've met casual gamers, like myself, where we have a life outside of gaming," freshman Gwen Agness said. "We're all just regular people with a hobby. I think we just have a bad reputation, because it's time-consuming."
People who refer to themselves as hard-core gamers tend to be more dedicated to the activity. They put in hours to learn every aspect of the games they play. Some might even work in the industry. The amount of time that hard-core gaming requires is one of the reasons most college students refer to themselves as casual gamers.
Casual gamers are the average consumers who enjoy a hobby where they can spend an hour focusing on their next mission, rather than the research paper due next week. Between the busyness of homework and other activities, gaming allows students to escape from the chaotic college world.
"It's a stress reliever . . . I can go sit on the couch and just like let my brain fall on the floor," senior Matt Goldsberry said.
While some games may require seemingly little brain power, others are more mentally engaging. It's up to the gamer to decide which games he or she prefers to play.
"For me it was kind of like reading in a way that I could kind of be swept away into these different worlds and I really liked that," Agness said.
Although all of these elements are changing the stereotype, there's still a key demographic that is being left out of the discussion. The popular gamer stereotype is male, but today, women are becoming more prevalent in the industry. It's a fact being largely ignored by the online gaming community.
"I've read far too many stories of other girls going into these gaming communities . . . and all of the males there just ridicule them out because they are female," Agness said. "We're becoming a much larger chunk of the gaming community than we were in the '90s when it was pretty much all guys. It's not just a man's world anymore in anything. They need to accept that we're here, and we're here to stay."
And what about the Christian gaming demographic? Being a Christian in a largely secular gaming environment can be challenging. However, according to Taylor gamers, dealing with the negative aspects of gaming just requires a little common sense.
"As a Christian, it's more surprising than anything," Agness said about coming across the crude behavior in many M-rated games. "But you kind of have to expect that opening it up. It kind of tells you on the back what's in there, and you kind of have to go into it with an open mind."
She said the best thing to do is to either give back an offensive game, mute the sound or be conscious of what you do while playing and stay away from areas that trigger inappropriate behavior.
As far as presenting yourself in a Christ-like manner, it's your actions online that speak the most to your character outside of the digital world.
"I try to be friendly towards other people," Shelton said. "Even if it's just in the game, I try to be friendly and not like kill everyone the first time I see them."
There's more to the gamer label than meets the eye. A gamer at Taylor can be any student who loves playing with a group of friends just as much figuring out a solitary computer game.
Goldsberry summed it up when he said, "Just like every stereotype, no one fits it perfectly. Just get to know people."
