It's attrition bias. The most dedicated console gamers tend to be lumpen, PMC, and petty swith considerable disposable income that they can spend on multiple consoles and on beefing up their PCs, the sort of paypigs capable of frequently wasting $60 or even $70 on a game on its release date no matter how buggy and incomplete it is at launch or how shitty the game turns out to be, or on paid DLC and microtransactions. To be fully invested in capital-G Gaming is an increasingly expensive hobby and lifestyle, the sort of lifestyle that most working-class people can only partly or occasionally participate in because they've been increasingly priced out of full participation.
The hangers-on are in a relative position of privilege, are fond of gatekeeping and exclusion, and don't necessarily see what's wrong other than in an abstract sense. The literal 14-year-olds are those whose parents pay for their consumption, and the adults who act like them are spoiled and have been pandered to for most of their lives. Critics and journalists like Jim Sterling speak for the rest of us, those who've been made to see the AAA gaming racket for what it is through lived experience, those who grew up with video games but are less invested now because they have more important shit to worry about.
I think this is the most accurate take, if you can afford to fully immerse yourself in the Gamer™ lifestyle these days you're probably in a position of privilege and don't have to worry about these kinds of things. The thing that I don't have an explanation for though is why is seems to be a hobby that has such a strong undercurrent of sexism and racism, more so than would be expected you know?
The thing that I don’t have an explanation for though is why is seems to be a hobby that has such a strong undercurrent of sexism and racism, more so than would be expected you know?
I don't want to lean too hard on an Anita Sarkeesian type of explanation and say it's the result of marketing and overrepresentation of white dudes among gaming protags (and also an absurd amount of women characters with cheesecake designs, and also the preponderance of pro-imperialist depictions of POC), but I'm coming up short for a better answer besides this and the "Gamers are mostly lumpen with disposable income (and are thus more likely to be attracted to reactionary politics)" explanations.
It's attrition bias. The most dedicated console gamers tend to be lumpen, PMC, and petty swith considerable disposable income that they can spend on multiple consoles and on beefing up their PCs, the sort of paypigs capable of frequently wasting $60 or even $70 on a game on its release date no matter how buggy and incomplete it is at launch or how shitty the game turns out to be, or on paid DLC and microtransactions. To be fully invested in capital-G Gaming is an increasingly expensive hobby and lifestyle, the sort of lifestyle that most working-class people can only partly or occasionally participate in because they've been increasingly priced out of full participation.
The hangers-on are in a relative position of privilege, are fond of gatekeeping and exclusion, and don't necessarily see what's wrong other than in an abstract sense. The literal 14-year-olds are those whose parents pay for their consumption, and the adults who act like them are spoiled and have been pandered to for most of their lives. Critics and journalists like Jim Sterling speak for the rest of us, those who've been made to see the AAA gaming racket for what it is through lived experience, those who grew up with video games but are less invested now because they have more important shit to worry about.
I think this is the most accurate take, if you can afford to fully immerse yourself in the Gamer™ lifestyle these days you're probably in a position of privilege and don't have to worry about these kinds of things. The thing that I don't have an explanation for though is why is seems to be a hobby that has such a strong undercurrent of sexism and racism, more so than would be expected you know?
I don't want to lean too hard on an Anita Sarkeesian type of explanation and say it's the result of marketing and overrepresentation of white dudes among gaming protags (and also an absurd amount of women characters with cheesecake designs, and also the preponderance of pro-imperialist depictions of POC), but I'm coming up short for a better answer besides this and the "Gamers are mostly lumpen with disposable income (and are thus more likely to be attracted to reactionary politics)" explanations.