by Duke

Hello. My name is Duke and I'm a mrhhmhmhrm...

"Duke!" one of them will begin, slowly sloshing his wineglass in a circular motion, "Haven't seen you in years. Where do you work now?"

"Oh, I'm a computer nerd." I'll say, trying to quickly end the subject.

"Well, what do you do with computers?"

"I'm in the video game industry." I respond, offering him some salted nuts.

Their eyebrow lifts and their lip curls, as if to suggest that hadn't realized that I had sunk so low. "Oh, you make video games?" they probe, like a doctor examining a cyst.

"Well, no. We play games and evaluate them. We publish reviews, previews, cheat codes, downloads… all kinds of stuff." I try to explain.

Their eyes involuntarily roll up into their head. They shoot my parents a sympathetic glance. Their ears are deaf to my explanations about the new elegance of video games, modern 3D graphics, and the two million people that read Game Revolution every month. Later, they will corner my father and say, "That's a nice hobby your son has. He's not going to move back in with you, is he?"

The Weasel gets more respect than the Duke.

But I'm not here to talk about me. Here's my point: Video games are a multi-billion dollar industry and a major form of entertainment. Yet games and gamers are stuffed into a ghetto of sneer and distaste.

If I had said that I was a film critic for the Denver Post, with 1/20 of the readership I get at GR, he would have found that fascinating. Why am I supposed to feel lower than a sports writer, a Rolling Stone contributor, or even the screenwriter for a new Pauly Shore movie simply because I cover games?

Speaking of which, and just to prove my point, last year people actually spent more on video games than on movies. You heard me, MORE. Yet there are hundreds of news stories and entertainment shows glorifying the cinema every day. Why is it a major news story if Hannibal makes $100 million? The Final Fantasy games for the Playstation made over $100 million each, without eating anyone, and nobody put that on the news anywhere.

The common misconception is that video games are "fringe" entertainment, that nobody plays them except a few pasty geeks locked in their bedrooms. This is clearly not true anymore. There is a Playstation in 1 of every 4 U.S. households. There's also a Nintendo in 1 of 8, and a Sega something-or-other in 1 of 15. There's a PC in fully half the homes in America. In an IDSA (Interactive Digital Software Association) poll last year, 60% of Americans over the age of 6 reported playing some type of video or computer games.

In another poll, Americans chose 'computer and video games' as the most fun entertainment activity. Games got a full 35% of the vote, while the distant runners-up were watching television (18%), surfing the Internet (15%), reading (13%) and going to the movies (11%). So why isn't gaming taken seriously?

If I tell a cute girl that I played video games last night, she will look at me funny and probably find another guy to talk to [unless she's your wife, right Duke? - Ed.] If I tell her I watched TV last night, she'll say "Oh! Did you see that episode where…?" Apparently, it is socially acceptable for me to plunk my ass on the couch for six hours a day (the actual U.S. average) and stare blankly at the tube. But if I want to interact with it in some way, control the events happening on my screen, now I'm some kind of weirdo adult who can't stop playing with kid's toys. Huh?

He sure looks like a gamer to me!

Like any decent raving lunatic worth his salt, I blame the media. Remember last year when the latest Harry Potter book came out? Of course you do. It was on the front page of every newspaper and magazine in America. I'll be damned if that pimply little wizard can't sell a lot of books. Remember seeing anything about Diablo 2 in those same newspapers and (non-gaming) magazines? No? Well, it came out the same month and, at least in its first week, made just as much money as Harry Potter! There were over 1 million pre-orders for Diablo 2.

And despite the fact that these two powerhouses were equally popular amongst consumers, one got the cover story while the other got a blurb on page 3.

N'Sync sells 5 million copies of a CD, and they become super-mondo-hypa-mega-stars I can't have killed no matter how hard I try (they can't prove a thing...legally). Meanwhile, Gran Turismo sells 10 million CDs at twice the price, and it doesn't get a ten second sound byte on the local evening news.

The New York Times does a bunch of top ten lists every week: Top ten selling books, top ten TV shows, top ten albums… but no video games. They do the top ten box office movies, even though video games make more money. They do the top ten 'pop singles,' even though nobody has bought a 'single' since everyone threw their record players away in 1985. They even do the top 10 software titles, games specifically excluded, even though games outsell all other software products.

It's pretty simple: People are prejudiced against games. Like black actors who can only get jobs playing pimps and drug dealers, the only time you see video games on television is when some deranged teenager huffs a bottle of Pine-Sol and shoots up his homeroom. "He played video games!" the pundits all cry.

Of course he played video games! Most teenage boys play video games! Might as well say he ate hamburgers. It would have been more interesting if he didn't play games.

Lead us to the promised land - you evil dictator, you.

However, I hold out hope to you, my brothers. We won't have to sit in the back of this metaphorical bus forever. Where others kicked us and held us down, one saw the promise (well, actually he probably saw the money). That man is the mightiest nerd of them all, Bill Gates. The Microsoft X-Box will be released this year, and there is power in that name: Microsoft.

I hope the system succeeds wildly. Not because Mr. Gates needs more money, but because perhaps no longer will people be able to say to you or me, "What are you wasting your time with that stuff for?"

Because you can answer, "What? Microsoft is wasting its time? Microsoft is doing something frivolous and silly? Well, I better stop playing video games and watch Who Wants To Be A Millionaire: Washed Up Celebrity Edition, instead."

Sure, people say Microsoft is an evil monopoly, but they are a respected evil monopoly, and respect is what this is all about. I'm not claiming that video games are a positive force (I'll save that for another rant). I'm making the indisputable statement that they are a force. And if gamers aren't sick of being ignored, they should be.

Give it a little time. Money talks, and usually wins. Maybe then the industry, the games and the gamers will start getting some of the respect they deserve. And if we don't, let's just say Game Revolution isn't simply a name. We're people, there are millions and millions of us, and we play games.

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