Since I was absent Thursday, I wanted to post my thoughts on gamers here. I didn't know much about gaming culture. I mainly saw it as a bunch of people that enjoyed pretending to be someone else in a virtual world. The documentary showed me how influential gaming is on a person's life. The Philly guy's story brought up a problem that I was not really aware of. I mean I knew gaming had it's problems but the documentary made it more real for me. Seeing how gaming affected people with disabilities also was enlightening. Gaming is usually seen as a pass time with no benefits but it can really change a life in a positive way.
What I want to mainly discuss is society's reaction to the gaming roommates. Why do we see being a middle aged, single, and anti-social as a bad thing? It's because dominant culture and society expects us and emphasizes that we should have a family and a respectable career when we are "middle aged". These are "traditional" values and we have mostly moved on from this cookie cutter ideal and grew tolerant of non-traditional ways of living, but deep in our subconscious we still have a tendency to judge. I am not saying that this is everyone, but you get my point (hopefully). I think an important part of that documentary was to not chastise the gamers but to show the world another way of life.
Bringing up the idea about gaming affecting people, especially those with disabililties, in a positive way is an interesting thing that I was thinking about also. I was really moved by the disabled man who could not speak and who lived his life basically through this virtual world. I agree that this documentary was not meant to completely bash this gaming culture, but I was more affected by the negative sides of it. Throughout the entire film I couldn't help but feel that this culture was almost a vortex that sucked you in and was detrimental in all aspects of your life if you got seriously involved. However, when it introduced this man with the disability it made me stop for a second and wonder if this life is like a new awakening for some people and a savior for their happiness and abilities to live life, whether it be virtual or not. I felt bad and almost happy for the man that he was able to find a way to express himself and feel like a normal person, but I still thought that this was an unhealthy way to do so. Getting to caught up in gaming can melt your brain in a sense and create antisocial qualities. I feel that by creating this virtual world as his own reality is very detrimental to this man and I believe that there are other healthier ways in which to communicate with the world. Nonetheless, I feel alot more informed on the whole gaming culture and can really understand some of the good, but mostly bad qualities about getting too involved.
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