Why Does The Mainstream Media Struggle To Cover Video Games?

Back in my high school days, we added a page to our school newspaper/journal/magazine for video game reviews and I was the writer. This article points out the rise of bigger new outlets beginning to cover video games; this in some ways is a surprise given how large the market is, but many people still don’t realize how big eGaming is or the like.

A few years ago I listened to a YouTube channel called ExtraCreditz, which seeks to discuss how the game-making and gaming industry works, among discussing other things about video games. At one time in my life, I desired to be such a video game maker, both in the coding and the writing. In a couple of their videos they discussed the need for video games to take a step of maturity; while I disagree with some of their desires for video games, this is one that certainly is up for debate. The general thrust is: are video games just games or are they art? It is not worth arguing that video games contain artwork and elements of art, but can they be scrutinized like artwork is scrutinized? The educators argue that video game makers desire to be taken seriously as artists, but as soon as their work is criticized or lambasted they hide behind the “game” title in order to deflect the criticism. After all, “It’s just a game.”

Seeing video games covered in the media certainly moves things in a direction of seeing them as an art, or at least as a large enough factor of the economy that they can’t be swatted away as just a children’s toy. If anything, it shows that video games are now in the same category as sports.

Video games are still new; Pong wasn’t made in the ancient past. Whether or not this medium matures and how it should mature, and how the Church will view video games and handle them, are matters still in the air.

https://www.theringer.com/2019/10/25/20929604/the-mainstream-media-is-not-playing-games

UPDATE: 20200323

This is a great interview on video games and how Christians should be thinking through them. He does a great job of expressing how video games should not just fall into the category of “child’s play” while being honest about how we should understand games.

https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/parenting-in-the-gaming-age