Scott. Yes. I got a fact for you. Okay. You ready for a fact? For the average person in
the United States these days--mm-hmm--by the time they turn 21--mm-hmmm--they will have
played video games--mm-hmmm--for 10,000 hours. Yeah sounds about right. Oh you're not surprised?
No. Not at all. Your not like brain explosion? No, no, by the time I was 21 I was at like
50,000 hours. Well you're the right person to talk to then. Yeah, should be.
Scott Bromley host of Rev3 Games, thanks so much for coming on. Thanks for having me.
Glad we got to hang out in this alcove I guess it would be. Yeah. We're just rapping in an
alcove. We're just rapping, you know. Speaking of Rev3 Games--mm-hmmm--and speaking of Social
Studies, the show that you are on right now, I wanted to talk about this stereotype of
video-gaming being bad for your social life. That's not true. First of all, there's the
online aspect where you go online, you play games with people and you actually have to
talk to them. Now yes given there is a whole lot of racism, homophobia, trash-talking,
you know typical teenage, teenage stuff that happens but now with the new consoles like
the XBox One and the PS4, they actually let you decide which, which group you want to
interact with, like how you want to talk to people, people who talk a lot of trash, people
who don't, people who just have you know casual conversations with one another. Oh. I host
a podcast in the video game section--what is your podcast called Scott--it' called Comedy
Button, duh, plug, plug, plug--that show is, is for a video game audience not about video
games and because we do that it's bringing this, it's bringing all the kids together--yeah--who
just play video games but then they, they would go onto the forums and make friends
with each other because they play video games, they will start playing video games with each
other and now a couple of them are actually dating--really?--in real life, yes. You're--Brought
together through a show who played a video game together and then started having more
offline conversations, met in person, fell in love and now are dating. Scott, you are
a matchmaker. I--yeah. You realize this? Yeah. You're kind of a matchmaker. They need to
name their fist child after me. That right here in a nutshell debunks this entire games
as poor social skills because these people are not only making friends, they're making
lovers--yes, mm-hmmm--as well. Yeah. Gaming has a real stigma attached to it that oh,
gamers are these sheltered nerdy people that don't like to go out. The truth of the matter
is everyone nowadays has a smartphone. On their smartphones they are always playing
something like Candy Crush. I've never played Candy Crush. Just I haven't--Okay but--alright
good! Congratulations you're not addicted but there are a lot of normal people, normal,
I say that in quotes, not categorize themselves as gamers who play Candy Crush all the time.
Mm-hmm. You're a gamer. That is a video game. You are probably participating in micro-transactions.
That is something that most hardcore gamers don't actually participate in. They will play
the game for free so they're going a step above. The stigma of the video gaming being
you know, everyone is just kind of closed off it's breaking down especially with, in
the world of handheld gaming. There's still so many studies that you see being done particularly
on children's gaming behaviors and how they socialize and yet people like Jane McGonigal
who is an evangelist for gaming has said that video games actually promote social skills
in kids. The younger generation now even at three and four are being handed iPads. They
are learning how to game. Their brains are working faster now, they're learning social
skills with other kids. Gaming is bringing them together in the schoolyard, which it
kind of did in my day too. There was always the kid who was like my uncle works at Nintendo,
I've played Super Mario Brothers 5 and you're like you're a liar but I'm going to hang out
with you anyway because I want to hear about this thing. When are we finally going to give
this stereotype up? Uhhh, I would say this generation we're going to get closer especially
with systems like the Xbox One, you can watch TV, you can watch movies, you can play video
games, you can Skype with people, you can do everything with this one box. A lot of
more "normal" people will start getting those in their homes and you know dipping into video
games and then it's just going to become this thing that we all do. Just like we used to
gather around and play board games--or read books!--yeah how about--how about books? What's
a book? I know right? Who are you? Those dumb things. Well Scott thank you so much--thank
you--for coming on and thanks for myth-busting this because I feel like it is high time for
this video game stigma to just go away. Yeah. It's outdated. Game over man. Game over. Game
over. That's the perfect pun to close this thing out with. Bring it down. But I want
to know what you think, I mean do you think there is anything to this gaming socializing
stereotype or like Scott do you think that there's absolutely nothing to it and that
gaming can actually help you learn to socialize? Let me know in the comments and Scott, tell
folks where they can find you. You can find me at Rev3 Games, that's youtube.com/rev3games
or rev3games.com. Thanks again Scott. Thank you very much. And thanks for watching and
don't forget to subscribe.