Gaming in public

A bit of a story and some thoughts about why there seems to be a stigma against playing videogames in public for some of us!

When was the last time you were standing somewhere public, took the phone out of your pocket, scrolled on some app for a while, and then left it, and moved on?

When was the last time you did that while still walking? perhaps almost crashing on someone in front of you?

Even if you haven’t done that yourself—I’m very sure you have seen some other people staring at those phone screens, even when others are present, without really thinking much about it.

It is normalized behavior. At the end of the day, one shouldn’t really care about it very much.

However, it seems like when it comes to videogame handhelds, things feel a little different…

After all, when was the last time you played on a handheld console in public, or saw someone else doing so?

It’s like something in our heads tells us that you shouldn’t be gaming when others are seeing. Is it a sense of cringe? as if it would ruin our public image? making us seem childish or immature?

Obviously things have a time and a place, but it does seem like even people who are otherwise big into gaming can get self-conscious about others knowing that’s the case.

Yesterday my family went to the supermarket. My father and I went to the clothing section. I was done putting my stuff on my cart, so I was waiting on the others to be done. That’s when I remembered I had my Play Station Portable on my pocket, since I suddenly decided to return to Final Fantasy IV on the car trip there.

So I pull out the device, I flick up the power switch, and in a second, I was able to resume my exploration of the Lair of the Father, located somewhere on the Moon, experiencing the quintessential ATB combat the series is known for.

I continue playing, defeating some of the toughest enemies in the game, teleporting out of the dungeon to heal up and venturing back into danger, almost managing to reach the last boss. By the time I realized, I was standing there, looking down at my PSP and having the time of my life, even walking back and forth on the aisles with the victory fanfare playing at full volume while I reap my rewards.

And you know what? Nobody cared that much, and I don’t care about what they say either!

Looking through the shirts in the aisles, I saw a couple with cool graphics, one of them had design of a retro-looking NES controller, even my dad pointed it out it was there, but nah, wearing that in public would be way too embarrassing for me ;)