I wrote a couple of months ago about being a female gamer in her 30s and why it is important from a wellbeing perspective. This second part that some might find controversial will focus on the bias of non-gamers towards the gaming community and the industry overall. I decided to separate this topic with the original continuation that I had in mind about the skills you obtain from gaming and how they can be applied to the workplace. I feel that bias is an important topic that not a lot of people advocate about and whoever is brave enough to champion a discussion like this is usually vilified. Story of my life I guess!

Conscious bias against gamers and the gaming industry

“Gaming is a waste of time, it doesn’t give you any skills”. “Pro gamer is not a real job.” “Gaming makes you not focus at work”. “Gaming can make you violent and irritated at the workplace”. This is usually the reaction from people at work – at least where I worked in the past -, especially the ones that weren’t allowed or haven’t grown up with gaming in their lives in any shape or form. It is a very last century mentality, thinking like that. Gaming in your spare time doesn’t make you inferior compared to the ones who don’t “waste” time playing video games. In fact, gaming is a legitimate and diverse form of entertainment that provides a range of benefits at work and can be enjoyed by people from all walks of life. Of course, there is the gaming addiction that can lead to negative effects on your mind, your body, your work performance, your social life. But you also have drinking addictions, drug abuse, workaholism, and so many more things that can develop as an addiction that stem as a result of a stressful work or family environment. Humans can be fragile like that; anything that can give us that hit of dopamine that regulates our “feel good” emotion can be addictive.

People laugh at me when I talk to them about gaming in this way. They think I am not acting my age (yes, I have heard that comment in a gaming discussion before by a 60-year old male sales director). I believe those people allow their conscious and unconscious bias take over based on their existing knowledge of what a gamer is, what gaming is in the modern society, what games can offer, and compare it to their own childhood, what they were allowed to do based on societal norms then, and what was available to them at that time. I don’t blame them for the knowledge they acquired through the years, I do expect them though to catch up with this century and learn more about the subject. It is essential to recognise and address those biases as gamers, whether pro or casual, to promote inclusivity and a more accurate understanding of today’s gaming culture. I won’t lie, the things I heard about gaming and the way people excluded me because I am enthusiastic about gaming are just despicable at times.

• “Gamers are lazy and obese”;
• “Why can’t you do something else, like baking , gardening, or dancing?”
• “Gaming is for teenage boys who haven’t got any interest in doing something with their lives”;
• “These games where you kill each other are just for kids with low IQ”;
• “People who are obsessed with games come from broken homes, they never had a mom and a dad to care for them”;
• “Video games can give you ADHD”;
• “Playing video games is haram and I don’t want to interact with anyone playing them”;
• “Why would anyone waste time watching people play games? It’s not like it’s a real sport”.

Yes, these are actual people’s quotes. And yes, I have many more to share. I was writing them down in my Notes app every time I heard someone’s reaction to me saying I love playing video games. Not only those type of comments are unacceptable, they show that small-mindedness and bias are real in our society. And that sucks the passion out of all of us who game, whether it is on a pro or on a casual level. I can’t talk for everyone else, but it makes me feel like I don’t want to be around these people who will judge me because I like different things. I am also at an age where I feel that type of toxicity and audacity needs to stay away from me and I don’t have time for that kind of behaviour. I am trying my best to accept everyone as they come, but some just make it too hard for me to do that; and as one of my favourite memes says, “ain’t nobody got time for that“. And before you say it, yes, that is a conscious bias which I have worked on quite a lot in the past. I still interact – minimally – with everyone, even with the people who don’t “get me”. I just won’t accept to move my boundaries and my values and reduce my happiness to accommodate someone else’s disrespect. Because when it comes to things said like the above, it is pure disrespect.

Examples of conscious bias that I encountered

Here are some instances of conscious bias that happened to me in the workplace the past 20 years that I have been working in the UK. I remember the first one being during a team building exercise around 10 years ago, where everyone started talking about their hobbies. The first comment I heard from my female manager when I said that I am a gamer was “Gaming? Isn’t that just a way to waste time? I expected more productive interests from our team”. I have also been the joke of the same team during project meetings, when the marketing manager we had at the time would ask me to take on a new task and would proceed with “let’s hope this doesn’t turn into a gaming session for some of you; we have no time for childish activities”. Being as enthusiastic as I was about my work, that killed my creativity – and my overall vibe in that team.

I will continue with a gender stereotype situation I encountered, this time not towards me but towards a work friend of mine. We had a marketing brainstorm session for an awareness campaign around a new financial SaaS product and she suggested incorporating gaming elements into the marketing campaign. Our female manager responded: “are you sure that’s a good idea? Gaming isn’t really our target demographic, especially not for the female ICP.” It was the same manager who told me in the office breakroom when I mentioned that I was looking forward to a gaming marathon that weekend to relax “Seriously? Can’t you find something more mature to do with your time?”.

Another one I remember vividly was during a last-round job interview, where the CEO noticed I listed “PC Games” on my CV as part of my hobbies. He then proceeded to ask me whether I believe I have the necessary focus for that position based on my extracurricular activities.

One of the last ones I remember was when I was in a meeting with the director of product and the product team and we had a meeting after lunch. I was playing Takenoko on my mobile for 15 mins and I mentioned that at the start of the call when we were warming up. The director interrupted me abruptly (not the first time she did that by the way) stating that gaming is not relevant with what we do here. She then proceeded to assign marketing parts of my job to her team, when it was clearly my responsibility under my job title, without consulting with me or my manager. She stated she believed that the product team needed more “facetime” within the company, I was just a supporting function, and that would give me more time to enjoy more lunch activities.

What about the unconscious bias against gamers?

Portraying gamers as socially isolated, lazy, or lacking real-world skills, can contribute to the stigma of the community. Assuming that gaming is a male-dominated activity and girls should go bake or dance leads to overlooking and, subsequently, excluding such a vast and significant presence of female gamers in the industry. Daring to perpetuate judgements about maturity, intelligence, or values based on gaming choices actually shows more about that individual’s IQ and EQ than the gamer’s. And let me write these (usually) conscious bias down with their names: gender stereotyping, social stereotyping, character stereotyping, cultural insensitivity, ageism. These are just some of what I personally deal with on a daily basis and I am sure that I am not the only one. Let us not forget though the unconscious bias, too:

• Implicit stereotyping – where people unconsciously associate certain behaviours and characteristics with gamers, even without explicit awareness, leading to unintentional bias in judgement;
• in-group favouritism – where unconsciously people give preferential treatment toindividuals who share similar interests or backgrounds while unintentionally marginalise those with different preferences; this also happens to non-gamers, too, but I will cover this a little bit further down;
• Microaggressions – engaging in subtle, unintentional behaviours or comments/jokes about gamers that convey bias without realising the potential impact on those who identify as such;
• Perceived lack of productivity – unconsciously assuming that employees who engage in gaming are less productive or committed to their work, leading to biased evaluations and decisions in the workplace;
• Confirmation bias – tending to notice and remember information that confirms existing stereotypes about gamers, while overlooking or dismissing evidence that challenges those stereotypes;
• Tokenism -unconsciously viewing gamers as another tick in the box when hiring for example rather than acknowledging the diversity within the gaming community; this also happens with other minority groups, from religious to gender, race, and many more.

Examples of unconscious bias that I encountered

Unconscious bias are harder to pick upon, they can be present even in people who genuinely believe they are committed to equality. Everyone has unconscious bias, the issue stems when those bias start becoming a pattern by the same people in different situations.

I had a colleague some years ago that made a passing comment about another co-worker’s gaming hobby. He said “you must have a lot of free time on your hands”. This is a type of microaggression and unconsciously reinforces the stereotype that gamers are lazy or unproductive. And mentioning productivity, I had people think that I am not productive at work because I game in my spare time and I can get “tired and not as focused next day”, even though there was no evidence to support that assumption, and they were not inviting me to meetings that were first thing in the morning even when I was already at the office half an hour earlier than everyone else (don’t forget I was a workaholic at some point, then I learnt it doesn’t pay off). Just to mention that I hesitated to share that I have a gaming hobby in other jobs I had since that comment just in case I am being judged again or ostracised just because the social norms and peer pressure to be “normal” like everyone else was there.

At my last job, we had an older individual who liked to casually play video games, and one of my female colleagues asked him if he means that he plays the Wii with his 20-year-old son. That was an assumption from her part that he was out of touch with modern technology and that gaming is an activity that can be enjoyed with or only by younger generations.

I think one of my worst encounters was having people making assumptions about my academic qualifications and my work performance based on my video games interest. It was that same product director that deprived me of my own work to prop up her team to look good. As she knew I liked gaming, she gave me what I called the ‘parable of the good marketer’. The story went along the lines of a marketer being good at their job because they listened to everyone else and did what they were told to do by others instead of taking initiatives that noone wanted internally. She then proceeded to say that business is not a game, “you don’t get many lives”. That speech inadvertently impacted my confidence as a 20-year-experience marketer and also made me feel like I was bullied by someone with power who only wanted people to do as they are told by her. Yes, I went to HR to complain but HR told me that there was nothing they could do at that time and I needed to have more occurrences like this to be able to get her to stop. In a nutshell, let the bully bully you a bit more and take notes.

Addressing unconscious biases requires ongoing awareness, education, and a commitment from all parties. It requires to challenge preconceived notions about individuals, gaming as a whole, and its community. Recognising and actively working against those biases contributes to a more inclusive and equitable environment for individuals who enjoy gaming; but everyone, gamers and non-gamers, need to commit to it.

But don’t gamers have bias against non-gamers?

Yes, gamers are also biased against non-gamers, whether they are at work or outside. Let’s not forget that gamers, having been bullied and mocked for being “different” than the individuals they work or study with, they feel more comfortable around other gamers. They speak the same language and feel safe, understood. But it is important to recognise that biases exist in any community, gaming or not, and it is crucial to note that individual attitudes can vary widely based on factors like age, experience, and even gender.

Potential biases that gamers might have against non-gamers usually start with the assumption that a non-gamer is uninformed or lacks understanding about the gaming culture, and making comments against them like “out of touch”, “dinosaur”, even “boomer” comes to mind. Instead of gamers like us educating the non-gamers in a structured way, we usually hesitate to engage in conversations assuming they won’t be open to discussions about gaming interests. We also think that non-gamers won’t appreciate or understand cultural references, language, or the humour related to gaming, leading us to make them feel excluded.

I found gamer unconscious bias during team building activities. I am fortunate to be in a team that are all gamers, so sharing similar gaming preferences helped us naturally to gravitate towards each other. During the team building activities, we made inside gaming jokes while unintentionally excluded others from those jokes who might have different hobbies. Because that wasn’t on purpose, we explained the jokes to everyone so we get them all to feel included. Yes, we understood there was a bit of bias going on there and we wanted to make things right. Everyone appreciated it and we laughed about the jokes a lot.

Yes, common interests are necessary for meaningful connections within the workplace but as gamers we should not exclude people based on non-gaming unconscious and conscious bias. A gamer might struggle to relate or appreciate the hobbies and interests of non-gaming colleagues, building themselves a barrier to diverse and inclusive workplace relationships, but this can change with an open mind and a different attitude. We should treat people the way we want to be treated; this is the mantra I personally live with. And this is why sometimes I had people telling me I am too happy, I am too chatty, I explain myself too much, even that I am too nice. I am a people pleaser in general, but it is the principle of me wanting to have everyone happy and not mind about trivial things in life. Promoting understanding, open communication, and respect for diverse interests can help mitigate biases and foster a more inclusive environment, both in real life and in the workplace.

Expect part 3 of how gaming is a great tool for obtaining skills to use in the workplace very soon.