The Gaming Lounge

Gamers across the country unite. Set down your headsets and listen to my plea rather than the whiney 12-year-old you’re playing against online. As our pastime has become more accepted in this new era, our own devotion threatens to destroy us from within. The console war has been around for a while, drawing invisible lines between fans against loyalty to certain companies. Soda brands, fast food franchises, the vampire and werewolf from “Twilight”; these are battles created by marketers to drive sales. The console wars are just another example.

I can understand the rationalization, especially at a younger age. When I was dependant on my parents’ generosity for games, I had to choose one system to call my own. This would end up being one of the biggest choices in my adolescent life. So when “Sonic The Hedgehog” and the Sega Genesis won my unearned dollars, I had to convince myself that I wasn’t missing out on anything on the Super Nintendo. But since I’ve earned my own money and can now afford to have every system, I no
longer feel the need to pick sides.

It’s a defensive response we often use. Politicians who have spent their lives picking sides seem unable to admit when their party is wrong on an issue. Horrible relationships go on long past their prime because of that same failure to admit defeat, and I’m currently eating ham well past its expiration date for that very same reason.

With games, the Internet has taken conversations usually reserved for playground debates to a fervent level that I cannot escape. Gaming journalism is wrecked in this culture, unable to report without a storm of furious commenters. How can a publication accurately review a product like “Grand Theft Auto IV” without knowing the backlash that would rain down upon them for a negative score. It’s bad enough that some enthusiasts have been caught equating patronage with good scores (GameSpot’s former editor Jeff Gerstmann was fired for a negative review of “Kane & Lynch,” a sponsor on the site), but the industry’s coverage cannot truly succeed until it can rise above the vicious community.

Adult gamers believe themselves to be holy warriors in some crusade, with review scores and negative press their sword and shield. And while comparison to the crusades makes a decent metaphor given the recruitment by both of child soldiers, the battle itself is closer to the battlefields of World War II: soldiers firing insults without evidence with the accuracy of a machine gun. Both sides have dug in and anyone attempting to storm the other side is merely going to get caught in the crossfire.

Rise above the conflict, my brothers. If a younger sibling says “Your console sux” (somehow saying the “x” and not “cks”), sit them down with your favorite titles. Show them the way of peace: a new violent video game they didn’t realize they were missing.