Looked down upon by much of the older generation, “gaming” continues to fuel motivation for many youngsters around the world.
By: Swarit 11.2
A photo of a twitch streamer’s gaming set-up
In the October of 1958, an American Physicist created a program that would revolutionize the way that people would spend their free time in the decades to come. This program seemed to do nothing of the sort that would aid in the development of important social matters, like combatting the fiscal crisis that had struck at the time, but rather it supplied a pass time for the physicist that made him spend hours and hours pondering at a computer screen.
In the few months that followed, a few lines of code that were written in a small laboratory situated in the infamous long island, were being mass-produced to please the curious public that demanded the first ever video game ever made. A few lines of code that turned into a multi-billion-dollar industry which only continues to grow over time and shows no signs of stoppage whatsoever.
Since 1958, technology has ascended to be more respected in people’s perspectives, but certain parts (video games) are still looked down upon by a lot of people, as they are “distractive and irrelevant in making a career” for yourself. Companies that focus on producing video games combine to be worth over 170 billion dollars (about $520 per person in the US) and combine to collectively prove that statement wrong.
Nowadays people, mainly kids, want a lot more than a 2-Dimensional shape being flung from one side of the screen to another. “A fire’s been lit inside the newer generation” says TFB07, a popular streamer, twitch, who capitalized on his biggest passion and now plays video games for a living. “People can form a deeper connection to what’s right in front of them, rather than the jobs and salaries that you are supposedly promised by going to school or going to college”.
When further questioned on his choice to play video games for a living, my source explained how having a passion to do something is the biggest factor in becoming good, and possibly great at that specific thing. A lot of students that are starting to realize the burden they bear on their shoulders, wish for nothing else but to relieve themselves of the pressure they feel, the pressure that they obtain from school deadlines, examinations etc. Playing a video game for an hour or two a day doesn’t seem like a lot, but for that one hour, they’ve found a way to escape. A way to forget about their worries.
“A game can suck, but it can have one good moment that’ll have it be remembered for years”, says a popular Twitch streamer, ToxicFireBlood07. Due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the entire global population was forced indoors for weeks, and in some cases, months. Isolation proves to be a massive buzzkill that ruins the motivation for people to get up off their couch and go do some work. Gaming provided a way out of a dark pit for many during lockdown. It not only gave people something to do, but it also helped a lot of kids connect with their friends from across the city, even across countries.
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