The media loves a good yearly review. Any excuse to fill space with retrospective ramblings is bound to please editors as it’s quick and cheap to produce and gives the reader something simple to engage with. I hope you can ignore my sarcasm here as I too love an in-depth retrospective of the artistry and media I have consumed, loved and detested over the past year. This year has been no different and, as I surrounded myself with broadsheets, I began to furiously agree and disagree with the written conclusions of a year in literacy, music and film… but not gaming. The British broadsheet has yet to discover videogames it would seem.

It is a disappointment that I am met with year in year out and it never ceases to amaze me. Perhaps these goliaths of intellectual journalism do not value the ideas and creativity presented in Portal 2; perhaps they don’t think their readership is interested in why L.A. Noire was a minor disappointment despite such an impressive outlook. What is certain is that, despite its growing popularity, gaming is still viewed as a less important form of media than almost everything else. But could this change in 2012?

“Gaming is still viewed as a less important form of media”Luckily for me, I read more than just a handful of broadsheets to acquire the information I need on a day to day basis and I am well aware of what the year in gaming gave us; and what a year it was. Dead Space 2 refined the space horror genre providing an experience that was visceral, engaging and profoundly terrifying. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim raised the bar in environmental design, and created a world so rich and textured that the flora and fauna seemed at times to pour out of the screen. And let’s not forget Uncharted 3 pushing back the boundaries of character animation and visual design to a point where one must wonder ‘how can they top that?’.

These stand as wonderful moments in gaming, applauded at great length by the industry press and yet stoically ignored by the broadsheets. Are they just being pretentious or pragmatic? We have to remember that the broadsheets understand their target markets a little better than I do and because of that, and despite my assurances that it has indeed been a stellar year for gaming, the finger of blame must be pointed towards the medium itself.

The gaming industry seems to be fairly comfortable with its position in the world, and why wouldn’t it? It has been estimated at being worth $74 billion in 2011 and that figure is only going up thanks to the proliferation of mobile gaming and high profile companies either releasing or announcing exciting new products. The industry is seemingly struggling for mainstream recognition whilst wallowing in huge piles of money. I imagine many at the top end of the food chain would be decidedly less comfortable if the reverse was true and so probably couldn’t care less that the top end media reviewers ignore the medium altogether. Well, not me.

Videogames have always had an illustrious and difficult time in the popular press. Take, for example, the wonderfully bleak and woefully misleading headline ‘DEATH BY XBOX’ by one of the UK’s more infamous red top newspapers. The story about a young man dying of deep vein thrombosis was not much of a story until it was revealed that he played Halo: Reach for twelve hours a day. It has been made abundantly clear that sensationalism and scaremongering are the order of the day when newspapers decide to tackle a story about videogames.

“The gaming industry seems to be fairly comfortable with its position in the world”So how can this change in 2012? Videogames are developing at a steady rate, and the continued success of the casual market means many more households have a games console in them even if it is only to play Zumba Fitness in an effort to shed a few pounds. The growth and acceptance of games may be more of a generational issue; however, new statistics by the Entertainment Software Association has revealed that the average gamer in the UK is now 37 years old. As the medium ages so will its perception and so will the reception it garners from intellectual outlets.

I’ve never been too concerned with how people perceive me as a gamer. However, I remember once being asked if I was so comfortable and confident in the validity of videogames whether I would put the fact that I play games on my C.V. I said no, which is damningly revealing I think. Perhaps what needs to change is the overall perception of what embodies videogames. Despite the average age of a gamer being rather high, it is still perceived as the realm of the adolescent and the continued success of games which feature high levels of immature violence and overly sexualized images of women will only serve to strengthen this misconception.

So is there any hope for the medium to improve its reputation this year? I would say no. Whilst videogames are constantly being pushed forward by new and fresh IP, gamers of every age will always crave the juvenile excesses available to them from immature titles, and that’s fine. Film lovers can enjoy the subtle nuances of a Shakespearean actor as he ‘thesps’ his way through the next Oscar nominated performance or they can watch three hours of robots punching each other whilst Megan Fox screams in the background. It all adds to the rich tapestry and it has become the norm.

The problem I have is when the great games, the truly wonderful titles are utterly eclipsed by the headline stealing moron-bait that we see published with worrying regularity. A quick peruse of any game of the year run-down highlights the quality released in 2011 and many gaming media outlets are quick to point this out. I’m afraid gaming will remain an undiscovered wellspring of artistry and entertainment for yet another year; an industry unto its own.

I doubt this revelation will trouble anyone in particular. The broadsheets and the gaming industry will continue along their paths almost bound to be united at some point just as they did with pop music and film. Acceptance is not something easily attained along the hallowed halls and offices of Fleet Street and to be perfectly honest, it’s not something that will be a defining moment in the history of gaming. As long as the gaming is good and the money keeps rolling in, the videogame industry will progress and improve, and isn’t that the most important thing; besides, if those guys start writing about games, that might mean I’m out of a job. Scary.