For many gamers, playing video games serves a greater purpose than a side hobby, according to Esports Club President Linda Zhao. The club organizes frequent gaming tournaments and live streams, with prizes ranging from gaming equipment to cash, she said. Even for individuals who are neither professional Esports players nor game designers, gaming can provide many different opportunities, she added.
“I am actually deciding to pursue game design for my major, and a lot of that is because of games having such a huge variety of visuals and communities,” Zhao said. “I think it’s really interesting how different each game is and how different each individual who plays the game is, and that’s really inspiring to me.”
Depending on a person’s commitment to gaming, it is possible to go further and form a career, junior Ela Aquino, a member of the Esports Club, said. Gaming gave her something to be passionate about and work towards, and she hopes to build it into something more than a hobby in the future, she added.
“Gaming is not a waste of time, especially with all of the people who are successful from gaming, usually on Twitch,” Aquino said. “People become full-time streamers and make a lot of money, and other people play professionally,” she said.
One of the main reasons junior Son Nguyen, the Esports Club tournament director, started live-streaming video games was because of his desire to form a career in gaming.
“But, I have to be realistic at the same time and keep my school life going, even though I don’t like to,” Nguyen said.
For Zhao, playing video games was a way to help her venture out of her comfort zone, she said.
“A lot of what gaming is to me is about meeting so many new people and forming bonds that you wouldn’t have been able to form before,” Zhao said. “I met a lot of my badminton friends through gaming and without those friends, I wouldn’t have mustered the courage to join badminton during my freshman year.”
Additionally, Aquino met many of her current friends through video games, and strengthened her relationships by playing games together, she said.
“It was kind of scary to just talk to random people on the Internet,” Aquino said. “But now, I feel like it’s a lot more welcoming than it has ever been before and people are a lot nicer,” she added.
However, joining the gaming community as a woman can be difficult, Zhao said.
“At first, it was a little daunting,” Zhao said. “Especially since women are the minority in gaming, I felt like I couldn’t really segue myself into ‘masculine games,’ like first-person shooters and whatnot. So, it almost felt like I had to stick with the cozy ‘Minecraft’ or the cute ‘Stardew Valley.”
Playing video games tends to influence the way an individual views other people and helps them be more conscious of the example they set for others, Zhao said.
“I feel like (gaming) has definitely opened my eyes to diverse groups of people, and I think it has made me a better person from seeing some of the people that I’ve met through gaming,” Zhao said. “Gaming has toxic people and that’s a huge thing in the gaming community, so seeing people like that makes you think about yourself and in what ways you’ve been toxic too. But also, there have been people that are really kind, and they set an example for you to become a better person too.”
In video games, there is always a goal to work towards and accomplish, Nguyen said. Nguyen’s goals in the real world are more difficult and stressful to reach, which makes playing video games a temporary escape from reality, he added.
At times, video games may be a waste of time if the individual has other priorities in life that they are putting aside to play games, Zhao said. However, in many cases, gaming can build one’s self-confidence while creating fond memories, she added.
“If you find friends that make the gaming experience fun, it doesn’t matter what kind of game you’re playing because you’ll always have a good time with it,” Zhao said.