JumpButton: a manifesto*
"Gaming was in the news again today.
VIDEOGAMES TO BLAME, they wrote. FOR MURDER. FOR SEX. FOR TRAIN SURFING. FOR GENDER IMBALANCE.
FOR GRAFFITTI and VANDALISM, they said; their voice-over scripted to a b-roll video of choreographed hysteria. Or bemusement. Or outrage. (Quick. Cue the stereotypes. Cue the anti-social adolescents. Cue technologically inept parents with concerned looks on their faces, because they work best. Reinforce the idea that only children play videogames.)
I am a gamer:
I am female. Male. In my thirties. My forties. Hold two mortgages. A doctor. The curator of an art gallery. A mother. A television celebrity. The tax-paying, middle-low-high income-earning employee you see on the train. Coming home from university. At night in the café/bar you hide in.
I am a gamer:
What you don’t see is my world. A world without boundaries. An interactive playground that transcends time, location, nationality, geography, age, experiences. A realised fantasy. A challenge. A universal pilgrimage.
My language is one of identity. Of nostalgia. Of titles and characters, moves and finishes. I speak in leet, geek and mistranslated Japanese. HUDs, health bars and lives. Abbreviations. I am well educated. But not always the way you think I should be.
My domain has evolved. Matured. Advanced. My social circle is international. My community, viral. My friends, my companions, my adversaries, the invisible wall that borders my universe-these are my scholars. I know something, because I made it happen.
I am a gamer:
This is my choice. This is my passion. My expression and my recreation. My culture. My art.
Gaming was in the news again today.
VIDEOGAMES TO BLAME, they wrote."
(*This piece was originally created as a 1.6 metre wide piece of digital art for the GamePaused exhibition in the UK. The manifesto was incorporated into the design and the entire piece was intended to look like a piece of editorial art taken straight from the pages of a future issue of JumpButton.)
Words: Drew Taylor
Special acknowledgement: The Mentor's Hacker Manifesto
I am a wanted criminal…I have killed millions, wantonly destroyed billions of dollars worth of property, ruined countless lives, families and relationships, careers…I am the best racing car driver in the universe and even played for Australia in their magnificent upset victory over Brazil in the World Cup final recently. These days due to major digit arthritis and other controller related injury I tend to stick to a bit of golf consistently making Tiger Woods look like a fluffy Persian cat regularly beating him to the Grand Slam of Golf, winning all four majors by 30 or more strokes. Occasionally I am hired by the US, British and other world powers to help defeat entire armies, rescue vital artifacts, important leaders, explore the depths of space gathering critical information, such is my genius, infinite skill and godlike strength. When I’m relaxing I like nothing more than enjoying an intimate dinner and evening with Lara Croft in Paris, or hanging with my buddies Mario and Donkey Kong, Gribbly, Tal, Rockford, Solid Snake, Abe, Master Chief, Tommy Vercetti and The Stranger to name a few…
I am a gamer and I always win, eventually.