Video Games Are Child’s Play
Oftentimes, if a gamer isn’t portrayed as some anti-social adult dwelling in their parents’ basement, they must still be a child. An entire episode of American Dad was dedicated to this premise as Stan did his best to pull Steve and his friends away from their video games. The idea was that it was time for Steve to spend more time outdoors so he could mature into a “real man.” To be fair, there are a lot of young gamers out there, so Steve in and of himself was not necessarily a flawed portrayal in terms of age.
The problem, however, comes from the lack of alternatives present in mainstream media. This is particularly troubling, considering that the average gamer is actually far older than Steve and his friends. The Entertainment Software Association published a report in 2016 that revealed the average male gamer is 35 and the average female gamer is 44.
