Level 2: Ageism

Time to Max Out Experience!

A scenario: 

You’re in an online match. As people join the voice channel, a scream rings through your ears. Shocked, you begin to lower the volume, only to be bombarded by a kid’s voice yelling and asking if anyone else is in the chat. You leave immediately. 

Seem familiar to you? Is this fair towards the kid who only wants to communicate properly? 

Discrimination against age: How is it affecting those on the opposite side? 

For those who are not aware, Ageism is the discrimination and/or prejudice due to a person’s age. Let’s take a look into this issue. 

Within Steve Peterson’s article on Ageism, he discusses about the effects and reasons to older workers with in gaming industry are facing a turn of discrimination. Peterson explains how the numbers range for industry worker’s age, and that many younger workers are highly favourable. 

To note, he states that “the game industry has gotten older, and there are people who’ve spent their entire careers working in games that are now retiring” (Peterson, 2018). Due to “far more older workers with industry experience” (Peterson, 2018), companies are rapidly looking for new employees, despite having a perfectly fine and experienced worker at hand! 

These workers, who have dedicated most of their lives to video game development, are being laid off because the companies feel they MUST find newer, younger workers: this isn’t out of the ordinary. 

“The Issue of Diversity in Gaming” mentions a survey named “2017 Developer Satisfaction Survey by IGDA,” which stated that “24% of the respondents were 30 to 34 years old” and “5% of the respondents said they were older than 50 years old” (IGDA, 2017). 

The numbers get smaller as the age goes up, sharing the lack, or reduction of older workers. 

In addition, excuses like “’ability to hear clearly, see clearly, lift 40 pounds’” (Peterson, 2018) can get tossed around, despite developer jobs being highly computer based. Pretty prejudice huh. 

Well, let’s see the bright side. Many are attempting to pry back into the video game industry!

Sarah Dezelin shares her interview with “The Silver Snipers,” a group of competitive gamers over the age of 60. The group participated in Dreamhack 2017, a festival that hosts e Sport events. The Silver Snipers took part in the Counter-Strike event, a multiplayer first-person shooter. 

Despite not winning, the group was estatic, being able to freely participate in the event. 

One of the members, Wanja “Knitting Knight” Godänge, exclaimed how it was a great experience, and that “we have been received with such [a] great positive attitude. A lot of love from everyone, especially the gaming community” (Dezelin, 2017). 

They were welcomed warmly into the competitive arena, but what does that say? 

Well, prejudice against older game developers and workers, while people in the general public welcome their generation to actively participate in games! 

If there is more acceptance like so, then a group like The Silver Snipers wouldn’t be such a rare sight, right? 

Let’s hope so. 

Reference List:

Dezelin, Sarah. “Meet The Senior Gamers Who Take On Kids Globally In Counter-Strike.” The Federalist, 18 Dec. 2017, thefederalist.com/2017/12/18/meet-team-senior-gamers-take-kids-globally-counter-strike/. Accessed 21 Feb. 2020. 

Peterson, Steve. “Ageism: The issue never gets old.” GameIndustry, 4 Apr. 2018, www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-04-04-ageism-in-games-the-issue-never-gets-old. Accessed 21 Feb. 2020. 

“The Issue of Diversity in Gaming.” GameDesigning, 11 Nov. 2019, www.gamedesigning.org/gaming/diversity/. Accessed 21 Feb. 2020. 

“Developer Satisfaction Survey: Summary Report [2017]” IGDA, 26 Nov. 2019, igda.org/resources-archive/developer-satisfaction-survey-summary-report-2017/. Accessed 21 Feb. 2020.