Page 21 - Reading And Listening

Glossary

numerous : many
Reading
influenced : affected
pretend : fake
A. Circle the words that are new for you based on violence : attack
the reading text below.
recognize : identify

Gamers: Image and Reality

Video games have become very popular. There are numerous games for the personal
computer. Additionally, game systems, like Sony Playstation and the Xbox can be found in many
homes. As video games have become more popular and sophisticated, they have influenced
popular culture. There have been several movies based on video games, Tomb Raider included.
Obviously, the video game industry is highly profitable, and the designers of a successful game
can be very rich. Of course, what this means is that there are many people buying and playing
video games. What kinds of people are they?

There are many stereotypes about gamers. The first one is that most gamers are males.
Another stereotype about gamers is that they are not interesting or attractive people. According
to this view, gamers are mostly fat because they always play games instead of exercising. Even if
they are not fat, they are still unhealthy because they rarely go outside or do anything active.
Another part of this image is that gamers are ugly. They play games because it is impossible for
them to find girlfriends. Not only are they ugly, but they are also boring. Gamers have no interests
outside games, so games are all that they can talk about, beside computers. Further, this image
implies they are antisocial. They do not know how to communicate with other people. Gamers
spend all of their time alone with their computers, and they only connect with other people
through the Internet, where they can pretend to be different people. This sort of communication
is not real, since gamers would never be able to talk the same way with people in the normal
world.

The most negative stereotype about gamers is that they possibly have emotional problems.
Many video games are violent, so gamers might be influenced by that violence. They may start
to feel that it is OK to use violence in real life. Further, gamers spend too much in the false worlds
of their games. The result is that they can no longer recognize the real world. They may come to
believe that they are characters in a game. The result of this could be violence or destruction of
property, either real or through computer hacking.

Of course, these views are only stereotypes. There may be some gamers that fit the
negative stereotype. However, a recent study about gamers was conducted in the United States
by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. This research involved a survey of 1, 162 college
students across the United States. The survey found that most gamers are the same as normal
people. According to the survey, both gamers and non- gamers spent the same amount of time
doing different kind of activities, like studying and exercising. Gamers did not spend all their time
playing games. They did not spend all their time alone, either. Most of the gamers in the survey
lived normal lives and had normal friends. For the, gaming was a social activity. These gamers

General English 18