Gaming Merchandise

So, a while back, I picked up a pair of the above pictured Halo branded Globe skate shoes. As you would expect, I was quite pleased with my purchase as, being a huge Halo fan, it gave me the opportunity to wear a nice comfy pair of shoes which also happen to be related to one of my favourite series. I’d like to think that if Master Chief were to wear skate shoes, these are the one’s he’d wear.

My day carried on as normal until a relative of my girlfriend (a non-gamer) called over for tea and a chat. When she saw my shoes, she said something to the effect of “those are stupid, why would you buy something just because it has something to do with a video game”. This sentiment has been echoed by other people including members of my own family and, aside from irritating me, it has got me thinking – is gaming merchandise a good thing? Or, like so many people think, is it really just a waste of money?

These days, there’s just about any kind of merchandise you could imagine for just about any game, be it T-shirts, bags, accessories or even iPhone covers. Websites such as Insert Coin Clothing help satisfy the demand for gaming-related clothing, whereas sites such as Amazon and ThinkGeek sell all kinds of gaming-emblazoned items. Then, of course, you have the official stores, usually run by the company making the game which tend to offer a huge variety of things to choose from such as clothes, toys/action figures, posters etc. With all these items to choose from and all these outlets to buy them from, showing that gaming merchandise is both popular and successful, it’s a little difficult to understand why it’s viewed so negatively.

Creep-y iPhone case.

I believe this negative attitude is an extension of the generally negative portrayal of games in today’s media. Non-gamers are easily swayed by these mainstream reports as they’re unlikely to truly understand gaming and so generate their opinions based on what they see, hear and read in the news. The biggest problem here is that quite often these outlets don’t have any idea – or perhaps don’t take the time to find out – what gaming is really about (as evidenced by the recent 2DEES incident on ABC News). Instead, news outlets fall back on the established shtick of gaming being the poster child for laziness, anti-social behaviour and, in some cases, even acts of violence. Now I’m not going to get into that here, as it’s neither the time or the place; but when a large portion of popular opinion is based on the reporting of people who don’t really have a clue what they are talking about, we begin to have a problem.

How much do you want these?

I know there are many people, mainly the ones who think gaming is a frivolous hobby and a waste of time , who think that game merchandise is a total waste of money. They are entitled to their opinion – however, I put this question to them: how is me buying these Halo shoes or someone else buying a Call of Duty T-shirt any different from someone buying their team’s football jersey? You buy a jersey to show your loyalty to a certain team and gaming merchandise is exactly the same. I don’t see them and say “OMG HALO SHOES!!!”, I buy them because I love Halo and I like the shoes and, if I didn’t like the shoes I wouldn’t buy them. It’s as simple as that.