Gaming will rot your brain.
Your eyes will turn square.
You will never make any friends.
Get yourself a real hobby instead of spending all of your time playing silly games.
Yadda yadda yadda.
If you’re still living at home under your parent’s roof, you may well have heard such words of ‘wisdom’ from your mom and dad. And if you have long since left home away from the care of your folks, you can probably remember those words or similar being fired at you when you were trying to knuckle down and play your game of choice. Okay, well you may not have heard your parents shout ‘yadda yadda yadda’ at you, but if you were otherwise engaged in a COD battle or a battle of wits with your Sims, you probably weren’t listening that closely anyway, so anything they were saying would have sounded suspiciously similar.
As gamers, many of us have had to put up with the judgement of our parents. Back in their day, or so they tell us, they were playing outdoors on their bikes, collecting conkers, and enjoying games of tag with their friends. The fact that what they were actually doing was probably indulging in what we now refer to as retro gaming is against the point. As parents, they realize their duty of care has to involve telling you how not to live your life, and while there will be (or has been) some wisdom coming from their mouths (we really should get some fresh air from time to time), they might not always get it right when trying to coax us away from our gaming passion.
If you are thus far relating, and especially if your parents have told you that gaming is a waste of time, we have some suggestions as to how you can convince them otherwise.
#1: Gaming can be profitable
eSport gamers (image)
You don’t need us to tell you that gaming can be profitable. You can make good money from your gaming passion, be that as a means to add to your allowance while still living with your folks, or as a way to create a career path after leaving home.
So, point out this fact to your parents. While the words coming out of your mouth will probably sound like ‘yadda yadda yadda’ to them, you can still attempt to use the phrases ‘monetizing my live streams on YouTube,’ ‘gaining revenue from podcasts,’ and ‘acquiring sponsorships through PvP tournaments,’ when trying to explain just a few of the money-making opportunities available to you. You can show them the video games magazines you buy, and point out the bookmarked gaming websites you have on your laptop, and explain how people make money from video gaming journalism. And you can let them know about the range of profitable small business ideas for gamers that might provoke an interest in you. Hopefully, these pointers will sway your parents away from thoughts that you might never leave home (if you are still doing so) and that you might never make money to start out on your own.
And if your parents want you to get an advanced education, you can show them the range of courses that might benefit you if you do decide to make a career from your gaming passion. These include the relevant bachelor degrees that will help you gain entry level posts into video game design and programming careers. It might also include courses such as this online colleges business administration if you do decide to turn your hobby into a business, and it could include a qualification in journalism if that is your preferred career choice. This might satisfy your parents when they are comparing the educational path you are taking when compared to some of your peers (or when they are trying to explain the colleges you will be considering to the parents of your friends).
Your parents will hopefully discover that gaming is a worthwhile venture, although if you are still living at home, you might also want to crack on with your homework to prove your dedication to a gaming career instead of spending all of your after-school hours playing Fortnite or Anthem.
#2: Gaming is good for you
No, gaming won’t rot your brain, gaming won’t turn your eyes square, and gaming won’t turn you into a violent psychopath. Okay, on that last point, while there might be some correlation between gaming and aggressive behavior, chances are, if you weren’t exhibiting violent traits before picking up the joypad, you are unlikely to show them later. You might want to put your pad down for a day or two if you do, or even consider another hobby!
Gaming can be good for you, and so, assuming your eyes actually haven’t become square, and your brain hasn’t turned to jelly (in both cases, gaming won’t be to blame), you can advocate some of the benefits that gaming has to offer.
Let your parents know that gaming isn’t anti-social. The myth that perpetuates about gamers being solitary beings alone in their bedroom isn’t always true. Thanks to the mass of online multiplayer games where friendships can be built with people of like minds and tastes, the gamer is never truly alone (unless he or she decides to turn their headsets off because they are sick of listening to the endless expletives being shouted by those nitwits who are perhaps a little too competitive). And it’s not all about gaming with a headset. As a gamer, you can still play games in your bedroom with real live people sat next to you – check out these examples on the PC – and you can communicate with others while watching live streams and by contributing to gaming forums. Now, you should make the effort to do other things with your friends beyond your television screen, but you can still break out of that perpetuated myth that gamers are antisocial.
Rather than rotting your brain, science has proved that gaming is actually good for the brain, so show your parents this article, and point out how if anything, your parents should probably pick up a joypad occasionally themselves, especially if their memory isn’t quite how it used to be, or if their stress level is high. As the article illustrates, gaming can boost memory, calm down feelings of stress, and has other brainy benefits, such as improving spatial awareness and enhancing problem-solving skills.
Gaming is good for your eyes too, so despite your parents berating you with the ‘knowledge’ that you are making yourself blind when transfixed to your TV screen or computer monitor, science has also proven that gaming can improve rather than worsen your vision. You can educate yourself by reading this article on video games and vision, and then educate your parents by regaling the facts you have learned. There’s other good news in the article too, as not only is gaming good for your eyesight (in moderation, we hasten to add), gaming is also good for your hand-eye coordination, so while you might not be outside catching balls, you are still doing something to improve your motor skills.
And while this subject might be particularly yawnsome for you, it is still worth reminding your parents that videogames can be educational. While in truth, you probably spend little of your time playing math games and other games that have been designed by high school practitioners, there are still other games that have educational value. As the linked article suggests, these include top titles such as Scribblenauts (excellent for language and problem solving), Professor Layton (good for working out math problems), and Big Brain Academy (perfect for developing your logic and math skills). You might still want to pick selected games from the list – you would be a fool to show your parents the word-tastic benefits of Dora the Explorer or the educational minigames of Reader Rabbit (unless you’re under the age of 5) – but in any case, your parents will soon discover games are not all about shooting Nazis and illegal street racing!
Finally
Now, many of us get too involved with our gaming passions. So, when your parents tell you to get some fresh air, you probably should, especially if you haven’t been outside for a while. And if you don’t have any other hobbies, you might want to consider doing something else with your times besides playing games. You might want to hang out with your mates face-to-face once in a while too, even if you do prefer looking at their virtual avatars.
However, you can still use what we have suggested within this article to show your parents that gaming isn’t a waste of time. You can let them know that your brain won’t rot and your eyes won’t turn square. You can tell them that you can make good money from your hobby, and you can further convince them by letting them know you will one day help to fund their retirement with the big bucks you have made! Gaming isn’t a worthless hobby, and while you know this yourself already, we hope that those around you will begin to understand this fact too.
Happy gaming!
