Scoop

I kind of haven’t wanted to write any more about that SMH article, because I’m a little sick of the whole hoo-ha already. Not that there’s been any particular hoo-ha over it – I don’t know of many Perth people who read the SMH, and, as M says, it’s the weekend so a lot of people will miss it as they are not at work and won’t be online. (Not going to say anything about the amount of non-work surfing that goes on in workplaces, nuh-uh!)

I’m certainly not going to mention it at work tomorrow (it should be interesting to see a) how many people read the SMH online at home, and b) how many people read this blog). I didn’t even mention it to my mum when I spoke with her yesterday. As we’re Perth residents (a fact not mentioned in the article by the way) we won’t even get to see a copy of the paper for some time yet. (Thanks to CherryRipe we know the article appeared on PAGE THREE of the paper! Yoikes!)

(I think I’ve mentioned before that I am a bit sensitive about being disparaged when I tell them I play computer games. I know I should just get over it and not worry too much about it, but it’s difficult.)

The funny thing about M being interviewed by the reporter is that he didn’t think anything would come of it. He’s actually been interviewed at least once before, also about games, and that time the reporter even came with a photographer (we’ve still got the photos to show for it!) – but no published article eventuated. So this time he was quite blasé about it all, and even though the reporter said the article would be in the Saturday issue, we didn’t even bother to check SMH until quite late on Saturday. (Thank goodness for SMH online.)

The article is not 100% accurate. It states that M plays games “for five hours a night”. This is actually quite rare, because he doesn’t usually have that much time in the evenings, after we eat together, talk about our day and maybe watch a bit of telly. It’s more like two or three hours gaming time, and that’s if he plays games at all. As for him playing “up to 20 hours at the weekend”, the emphasis should have been on the words up to, rather than the twenty hours. This too is a rare occurrence, because we usually have too many things to do on the weekend for M to have twenty hours to play games – the usual chores around the house, go out for meals, social and family events, you know, the stuff normal people do.

The previous time M was interviewed, the reporter also had the same “you guys are somewhat weird” attitude. I think that’s part of the reason I get annoyed by the response – these reporters have had little or probably no experience with computer games themselves and have no idea what it involves. Why is it a travel writer usually has to go to the places he or she writes about, but these reporters can publish their articles with so little first-hand experience of their own? They could at least spend time with a gamer and learn about the games they are trying to write about, and I don’t mean just ringing them up and asking a few questions. The experience would be far cheaper and less complicated than buying plane tickets, applying for visas, getting injections against tropical diseases and organising accommodation. (The main difficulty would be the language, but presumably the gamer the reporter would have as their guide would interpret.)

How does the Malay saying go? “Tak kenal maka tak cinta”, which translates roughly as “You don’t know it, so you don’t love it”. Don’t knock what you haven’t tried, basically.

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by the focus on “weird”, which is typical for the news media and their love for sensationalism. The article stated that “Mr Wiebrands was one of the first to grow up with computer games.” It’s true that M grew up playing games. He has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of them and can figure out most games very quickly.

It also stated that “He is also typical of many adults who are hooked on – some say addicted to – real-time strategy games such as World of Warcraft.” I won’t quibble too much about how “typical” M is and how silly it is to make a statement like that without any proper facts that back them up. All I’ll say is, it seems to me that for most people who don’t play games, any time spent on games is too much time, is weird, and looks like an “addiction”.

The reality is, that for most people who play games, it is just a part of their lives, just a hobby, or an interest, like anything else: reading, sport, drawing, juggling, pottery, gardening, trainspotting, birdwatching. Sure, you can focus on those people who lose their jobs, fail their exams, have their marriages break up, but how many of those people are there? (And maybe they had a lot of other problems in their lives that they weren’t coping with, and the game was a convenient crutch or escape.) What about all the rest of us who can play games and continue to lead quite happy, productive and fulfilled lives?

Edit 5:38am 17 January 2006: M was contacted by a Sydney radio station yesterday and asked if he would consent to being interviewed during their morning show this morning. He declined! In other news, only one of my colleagues had actually seen the SMH Online over the weekend. Phew! Nobody else has said anything, so I’m not saying anything either!

Categories: WoW, games, gamers, hoo-ha