Dear Obama, Lay Off Video Games

Dear President Obama,

I am writing you in response to a comment you have made numerous times, "put the video games away". Now don't get me wrong, I believe you are only saying this as a way to tell people to be more productive but that is precisely my problem with the statement.

I feel as though video games have become synonymous with laziness. Far too often they are used in the same breath as unhealthy and unproductive. I'm tired of hearing it, as I feel very close to the medium. Video games have always been a big part of my life, but never in a negative manner. Every single one of my relationships with friends has either been started by or strengthened because of them, and if it wasn't for my purchase of a fitness game I would have never began leading the active, healthy life I do now.

I am one of the many avid gamers that is currently working to try to become a part of the gaming industry. What I love most about the community that surrounds games is how friendly and inclusive they are. I am trying to enter the blogger/journalist side of the industry and have been continuously impressed by the help that current game bloggers/journalists are readily willing to give. You may only see gamers as one of three things, the casual family gamer, the secluded in his basement gamer, and the trash talking college gamer. But there is another side you may not have known about, the gamer that analyzes his games and gaming experiences.

This type of gamer consumes their games. They not only play them, they enjoy listening to and participating in discussions of them. They feel the need to get online and write about their opinions of them on blogs, forums, and comment sections of gaming sites. It is this type of gamer that will only increase in numbers as the next generation grows up with no concept of a time without video games.

Cinema used to be scoffed at much like video games are today, and only after new generations came to identify with them as closely as they do now did they become a highly respected medium for storytelling. So while I am not worried about the perceived state of gaming, I still make this plea to you: please stop using video games as a metaphor for laziness. You are the most tech savvy President America has ever had, and because of that you are our greatest chance of gaining a little bit more credibility.

Countless politicians have rallied against video games, seeking to strip them of their rights to use violence or sexuality even while literature and film use these to much greater degrees. Please be the first step in the process of rectifying this double standard. Video games can and will be as respectable a means of storytelling as every other form of media, I just hope that you can be a part of this growth rather then just helping to further the stereotype.

Sincerely,
Alex R. Cronk-Young