Gaming Companies, You Should Be Ashamed!

So here is the daily scenario, I’m guessing the same one that’s driving millions of families all over world into conflictual situations and relationship negativity with their kids.

My 12 year old son is unable to control his own gaming addiction and his parents are pulling their hair out trying to work out a screen time strategy that feels positive and respectful to all parties. Nothing seems to work!

It’s Friday night and the fifth time this week that our son is late to the dinner table because he’s in the middle of an online game that has no foreseeable end and no way to stop, pause or exit.

“Since when was finishing an online game more important than dinner with the family?”

Maybe I’m old fashioned and out of sync with modern life, but as a human centred designer, I was taught to design for context, as the best way to develop products and services that work well in their intended environment.

Now it’s pretty fucking clear that some of the worst offending gaming companies don’t care much for this important design principle. Seems like they completely forgot to include the family members of the gamer, and the possible situations that family may be in whilst the gamer is gaming.

Here, we have a classic case of designing for the end user, but ignoring the needs of the buyer. I think that’s a pretty stupid mistake, considering who is holding the wallet in this scenario.

Here is my message to the gaming companies! I’m close to the point where any more of this shit, and my wallet stops opening when it comes to more gaming stuff. I’m quite sure many other parents are feeling the same way.

So from now on I’m going to stop blaming my children for their bad behaviour and start blaming the gaming companies who are designing games with complete disrespect for the social dynamic of the family, not to mention the bigger social responsibility of how these kind of games impact our society and children longer term?

By the way, I don’t hate gaming companies, but I don’t think they are doing enough to counter balance the negative aspects of gaming, especially for young children and families.

Can you see the opportunity?

The opportunity that presents you as a gaming company is huge! You are loved by millions, your game worlds are incredible, and your players often prefer your game reality to their real world reality. You have so much power!

A request — why not go for the win/win with kids and parents and start designing transition games, timers, or modes that bring kids back out from the virtual world and back to the real world without the stress, anger and constant nagging from parents. The first gaming company to do that would be the one that gets parents lining up to buy more products. Makes good business sense I think. Please take that role.

As a parent I’m willing to spend a lot of money on gaming, if it’s good for both my children and our family. But at the moment you’re making parents lives harder by creating more stress on top of all the other shit we are dealing with.

Not cool!