The Song Remains the Same

One thing that frustrates me to the point of apoplexy is that video games are still labelled pejoratively, and as being 'bad'. It's 2025 and society has barely moved on from the Satanic Panic of the 80s and 90s, where Dungeons & Dragons was considered tantamount to communing with the Devil, and the reason for the Columbine school shooting of 1999 was that the perpetrators, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, were both keen gamers who played *DOOM.

Rather cynically, I would suggest that there are more dramatic headlines to be had from assuming that videogames are bad and those who play them are destined to become murderers. And if the zeitgeist (still) tells us that games are bad, then there's more money to be made from writing books that play into that zeitgeist.

So it really pisses me off when I wander into Cardiff Central Station's WH Smith's while waiting to pick up my mum for a weekend visit and I see things like this:

I’m all for raising healthy gamers, so I have no objection to the book’s title. It's the statements in lower case at the bottom of the book's cover that grind my gears. They are all negative. "Let's look at breaking your children's bad screen habits!" (Because if they're playing games, then the habits are bad by default.) "Let's work on ending power struggles!" (Between whom? Children and parents? Children and game studios?), and "Let's see if you can transform your relationship with your children!" (which implies that parental relationships with children who play games need to be transformed). 

Admittedly, looking at this publication in further detail online reveals that the book has been written for parents whose children have developed an addiction to gaming. It may have been good to mention that on the cover, though the term 'gamer addiction' is problematic in itself. I'd assumed that it was written for any parent who have children that play video games. Reading further, it offers, among other things, an eight-week, step-by-step road map for setting, enforcing, and troubleshooting healthy gaming boundaries, advice on how to react when your child becomes irritable, rude, or seemingly directionless, and essential communication strategies for reaching kids who have developed a serious gaming problem. 

The book also examines "...the neuroscientific and psychological reasons that children gravitate to video games and how to help them meet these needs in real life, and insights and advice on dealing with behavioral issues that often accompany game ADHD, spectrum disorders, and substance abuse." Let's pick these statements apart.

Is the author implying that children play video games because their real life needs aren't being met? Isn't that a sweeping and possibly dangerous statement to throw around? My old mate Chat GPT tells me that 89% of children play video games, so does that mean 89% of children are not having their psychological needs met? Isn't that something of a massive problem that needs to be addressed immediately, or are we relying on hyperbole and the accepted notion that gaming is 'a bad thing' to sell books? (Sorry. Being cynical again.)

And what the hell is 'game ADHD'? Is the author claiming that ADHD can be caused by gaming? ADHD is not an illness or a disease that can be 'caught'- it's a way of being that one is born with!

I'm possibly going a bit over-the-top here, because I immediately go on the defensive when I read anything about gamers, and that's because there is rarely anything positive written about us. Having said that, maybe I should read the book before making judgements.

Watch this space...

*I have played DOOM. Oddly, this has never made me feel like carrying out a school shooting.