[su_heading]Click here for a timeline of video game history[/su_heading]

An avatar walks through a lush green forest with tall grass blocking his path. The trees are impossibly tall, and the sky is a fantastic bright purple hue. Insanely large mountains and strange animals dot the path ahead.

The avatar can call upon the might of a thunderstorm in one breath by playing an instrument.

By simply smashing a clay pot, he can acquire all the money he will ever need. Suddenly, a bright “Thanks for Playing!” message appears on the glass screen.

These are only a few images and experiences one might find in Nintendo’s popular Legend of Z elda franchise. According to the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), 58 percent of all Americans play video games with an average of two gamers per household.

Students at Brookline High make up a significant number of these gamers.

Junior Julian Gordon said that he considers himself to be a gamer with an intermediate level of experience. He said he enjoys the intensity and competition involved with video games.

[su_quote cite=”Kate Richardson, sophomore”]For one thing, a lot of people assume that girls play games just to impress guys. I don’t like that people assume I’m playing games for attention.[/su_quote]“To play at a high level in any game, you’re going to need skill and experience,” Gordon said.

He said he enjoys competing in online racing games or in FIFA 14, playing online simulations of the soccer season. FIFA is a soccer game that simulates professional games wherein one can play against friends as real-life professional athletes.

“I play online during the week, and then on Fridays I usually play with friends,” Gordon said. “We play more often, and then we also hang out more often because of video games.”

From their experiences of playing video games together, Gordon and his friends decided to create their own futsal team in the outside world.

“We all played fall soccer, and I knew a couple of people on the team, and we all found out that we all played FIFA,” Gordon said. “On Fridays we would play FIFA together and fall soccer we decided that futsal would be cool if we basically kept the same team.”

However, Gordon said, there are both positive and negative aspects to video gaming in everyday life.

“It is a huge distraction and decreases time to do homework,” Gordon said. “At the same time, it’s beneficial, because it’s a good source of entertain- ment and a great way to connect to and meet new people.”

Sophomore Kate Richardson agreed with Gordon and said that video games are more of a positive force than a negative one. But she also said she feels that people have many false preconceptions of gamers.

“I would say that most people assume that gamers are gross lonely people who live in their mother’s basement and spit when they talk, consuming unholy amounts of Mountain Dew,” Richardson said.

Sophomore Jovani Garcia-Yung agreed that gamers are often wrongly stereotyped.

“I may not like sports, but that doesn’t mean I should be seen as lazy, or as a closet gamer because of it,” Garcia-Yung said. “To be honest, I just find sports to be boring.”

Richardson said she often finds it troubling to be both a girl and a gamer and that women are sometimes stereotyped in the community.

“For one thing, a lot of people assume that girls play games just to impress guys or try to get them interested,” Richardson said. “I don’t like that people assume I’m playing games for attention.”

According to Richardson, girls who play video games are considered worse at them than the male majority, but the ESA states that 45 percent of gamers arefemale. “I’m not going to pretend that I’m some gaming god. I’m not very good at a lot of [them], and it isn’t because of my skill set,” Richardson said. “Apparently, it’s because I’m a girl.”

Richardson said the gaming industry often encourages these biases against female gamers to sell to the male audience.

“It’s annoying that whenever I play as the female character, the armor is usually skimpy and there’s always a view of really tight fabric against her a**,” Richardson said. “I’m not offended by it, but it’s frustrating. I feel like the female option in a game has the right to be taken just as seriously as the male option.”

According to Richardson, the gaming industry holds a lot of sway in the everyday lives of normal people.

“I would say that gaming is becoming one of the most important forms of media. It just doesn’t have the same limits on it that movies and shows have,” Richardson said. “Stories are bigger, and it’s all about taking part and experiencing it with other players. The gaming industry has a lot of power, and I don’t feel like they really know it.”

Richardson said gaming has made her a more confident person and more open to things in general.

“What makes gaming great is that even though people may not know it, anyone can be a gamer. It doesn’t take insane skill or obsession,” Richardson said. “It just takes someone who wants to have an experience and enjoy a good story.”

Conor Amrien can be contacted at [email protected].