In 2016 we just had one amazing year for gaming. From seeing some of the largest E-Sports events to having gaming conventions reach an all-time high of guests, one would say that gaming is now mainstream. Just think about that for a minute here, most likely you are in the position that I am. Where you grew up with video games all your life and now they are the "popular" thing to do. From the same people who were making fun of you in High School for focusing on gaming over sports, they are now the ones streaming League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and Overwatch. So what happened?
Thinking about it, we could look at the popularity of Pokémon in the 90's, which really kicked off the millennial generation into gaming. Before that time, gamers were really cool people meeting in a basement to play Dungeons and Dragons or some type of board game. Maybe they might have had an Atari 2600 and Pong, but those were the lucky ones. Getting back to Pokémon, this game er excuse me, this series of awesomeness took the world by storm. From having Pokémon Red & Blue, Anime, and trading cards this series was the first domino for gaming to change. Then came the Xbox original with Halo, this was the biggest kicker that moved gaming closer and closer to stardom. Now it wasn't that Halo was such a fantastic game to boost gaming up, it was the mechanic that you were able to sit at home and play against your friends online.
Our next piece after Pokémon and Halo would be Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. These two games kept the millennial generation directly in the heartbeat of gaming since the attractiveness of becoming a YouTube star! 2009 was really the year that gaming had become broader among many and that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was the catalyst. Sorry grandma but it is time for you to stop watching those cat videos and move on into the world of gaming. But we are not done here since we have still yet to reach a peak.
That's right, gaming continued to grow more and more. With the power of the internet and YouTube, larger tournaments became more known throughout the gaming community. Instead of hearing about rumors of an upcoming tournament at your GameCrazy/GameStop now we have video coverage of a large Street Fighter/Mortal Kombat/Counter Strike/StarCraft/etc. tournament. Now gamers across the globe are gaming for a reason, to become the best in the world. Seems simple enough but we are still not at our peak.
As my generation got older our responsibilities and influence expanded. It is not that gaming was never accepted it was the fact that the primary gamers from 2007 and before were in the middle school to high school grade levels. Now dare I say the millennial generation is reaching it's adult form, where we have an impact and influence in the world. Think about it, this generation was born before the internet and then was molded by that technology. We are one of the heaviest users of social media, which in return changed the overall market from being anti-gaming, to now small families bonding over something we all love.
Now that was how the millennials started supporting gaming but that is not the whole market, the main market yes but not the whole market. Thanks to E-Sports and Facebook gaming became accepted to older generations. Yes, Farmville and competitive gaming have broken into the hearts of the older generations. It makes sense since big businesses started to support gaming which then affects their ads and ways they communicate to their customers. Which does bring us back to the mass production of pop figures, Loot Crates being made, gamer gear, and E-Sports jerseys being created.
In conclusion, gaming being in the mainstream is a blessing and a curse. We have large E-Sports events that span the globe but, we lose how we had gaming as our own.
