My Son Wants To Be A Gamer
“My son wants to be a gamer . ” Does this idea continually resonate in your head, and also does it sound like Chinese to you? You don’t even know what a gamer is ? Does everything related to video games and “unconventional” jobs terrify you?
Whatever your situation, do not despair! It may not be as tragic as you are imagining, since the reality is that video games and new technologies are the future. What else do we know about gamers ? Are there different types? Does everyone charge to play? Can you make a living from this? Discover it here!
My son wants to be a gamer
Our children, as free and independent beings that they are, choose what they want to be (or not be) when they grow up. It is not an easy decision and we will know it because surely we go through the same thing. Therefore, here we can use a good dose of empathy to accompany them in their decision and help them objectively assess the pros and cons of everything they choose.
That your son wants to be a gamer is not so bad news. In fact, there are many guys who are specifically trained in it and who never lack work (although then, by boat soon, you do not consider it a job). In addition, video games also present a series of benefits, as we will discuss below. But first we will define what it is to be a gamer .
What is a gamer?
Perhaps your son has told you that he wants to be a gamer and you don’t quite know what this concept consists of. The word gamer is an Anglicism, that is, it comes from English, but it has been assimilated to the Spanish language and literally means ‘player’. This term is used to refer to people who play video games very frequently.
On the other hand, this term has been acquiring meaning and can already be considered a job in many cases because there are gamers who earn money (some a lot) for playing. Thus, a gamer is a person who knows a lot about video games and who has the skills and training to play excellently, that is, professionally.
But what exactly does a gamer do ? The gamers are recorded themselves playing certain video games to teach others who are learning, as well as to reveal strategies, hints and clues to move forward in the game and be the best at it.
Types of gamers
The gamers can be classified into different groups:
- Gamer professional or pro gamer : have a lot of skill and have trained hard to be part of teams and professional in this area, which is already considered a top sport.
- Gamer hard or hardcore gamer : they are regular players who aspire to challenges conquests of different level of difficulty. Unlike the previous ones, these still do not win by playing.
- Gamer regular core gamer or midcore gamer : the intermediate player between hard and casual. Looking for valuable experiences, but still prefer more accessible games. He plays because he likes it.
- Gamer casual : the player who plays only possible way.
- Noob : this is the novice, the one who enters the world of video games, but who still does not know the hierarchies of the circuit.
Enhancement of soft skills
Do video games offer something positive? Many studies affirm that yes, yes, always without abusing! Thus, one of the benefits of playing video games is that many of them enhance soft skills. These are the so-called “soft” skills, which are increasingly important in the workplace.
These are skills that combine social and communication skills, social intelligence, personality traits, attitudes, professional attributes, and emotional intelligence. All of them empower people to move around their environment and help them to work as a team, to obtain good performance in their area and to achieve their objectives.
You will find much more complete information on soft skills in this work developed by Lippman, L. et al. (2015). Well, a study published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience suggests that gamers could have advantages in these types of skills.
According to the study, habitual gamers show higher performance in work tasks related to retention memory and manipulation of information in the mind to produce a result. Other studies have also provided favorable results in this area and point to an increase in the speed of information processing in so-called gamers .
“Work hard in silence and let your success make all the noise.”
-Anonymous-
My son wants to be a gamer: is there a future?
The data speaks for itself. Spain is one of the ten countries in the world with the highest volume of business in the video game sector. On the other hand, according to the Spanish Association of Videogames (AEVI), in 2019 the videogames sector generated 1,479 million euros in Spain.
In other words, it is a sector where there is a lot of work. So, if your child wants to be a gamer , it may not be such a bad option at the work level. Furthermore, according to recent data, annual employment growth related to video game production is estimated at 12% to reach 11,000 jobs in 2022. Within this branch we find multiple types of employment, including of gamer .
Many gamers decide to train specifically in this field beyond “being gamers “, to obtain the necessary knowledge to design and program video games, and that could also be the case with your child. Thus, the more trained they are, the more likely they will be to enter the sector and, in addition, they will be able to aspire to positions with better conditions.
On the other hand, training in a passion will always be rewarding for oneself. Motivating your child to continue training and dedicate himself to what he likes will help him on this path.
Accompany him in his decision
Be that as it may, if your son has decided to be a gamer , the best thing is that he sees you as an ally and not as an enemy. Logically, each specific case should be evaluated, but in general it can benefit him a lot if you support him in his decision, although that also includes evaluating with him if he has really thought about it, if he has evaluated other options, if he knows exactly what it is…
In other words, it is about teaching him to be critical and to decide as freely as possible. On the other hand, you have to convey that with effort it is very likely that you will achieve everything you set out to do. The important thing is that you can dedicate yourself to something that makes you happy.
