Male Gamers

I must say I really enjoyed "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters" documentary. Initially I wanted to watch the documentary because Billy Mitchell seemed like an interesting character that would entertain me throughout the duration of the documentary. However I found myself really engaged within minutes of the screening of the documentary.

Going into the screening, I thought that I would watch a documentary about a bunch of pathetic 30-40 year old men who waste their lives away on video games. Although I found this somewhat true, I didn't expect myself to be as emotionally invested into the personal stories of the characters, as well as connecting with these men on a deeper level.

At times I would find myself really rooting for the underdog of the story, Steve Wiebe. I could feel how much he wanted/needed that title and the sense of achievement and success he would feel once he obtained it. At other times I would find myself cursing Billy Mitchell and his "disciples" for their sneaky passive-aggressive tactics to rob Steve of his rightful title. Their actions lacked integrity and I even found them "dishonorable".

I never thought I would find myself attaching values like honor, integrity, achievement, and success with video games, especially within a gamer community of 30 year olds. However I started to realize why these men play these games so rigorously (pursuit of success and achievement), and noticed how vulnerable I was in becoming one of them.

Therefore I want to start researching why it seems as if so many men are absorbed/obsessed/attracted to video games and what exactly about video games(pursuit of success and significance) draw them in. To start, I found this short article about how video game addictions can spread to other parts of men's lives (like their marriage): http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1392561/World-Warcraft-video-games-blamed-divorce-men-prefer-wives.html.

Because this phenomenon could not be a gender-specific issue, I think my next blog post will be about research on female gamers.