Because demarcations of merit are built into the game, educators can easily track the performance level of each player; once a student has demonstrated a certain level of knowledge, they can move on to higher categories of knowledge (West 2012:47). While schools already utilize methods of motivation that correspond to a meritocratic ideology — such as class rank and honor roll — the next generation of the educational blueprint is a direct response to the proselytization of the GAMER HABITUS in the minds of America’s youth.

 

As AAA games geared towards younger people become more popular and widely-available, especially cooperative games like Fortnite (which hide their meritocratic designs behind bright colors, groovy skins, and the occasional community event), the more that this competitive, structural-inequality-obscuring habitus becomes ingrained in their psyche. While bringing with it all the negative aspects of meritocratic thinking, it also makes this younger generation more susceptible to gamified marketing and business strategies.

 

With many regions throughout the United States doubling down on their stay-at-home orders, the reinforcement of this habitus will continue uninterrupted. Because AAA companies will keep pursuing their existing model as long as it is profitable, the only foreseeable solution to mitigate the effect of AAA game design is to support indie developers such as Toby Fox. Innovative, small-scale yet effective games like Undertale can dilute the concentration of meritocratic offerings available to even the most casual of players.

 

While many outsiders joke about gamer culture, they are not entirely wrong. The built environment of video games — structured from the ground up to reward “merit,” which upon further inspection has little real meaning outside of the boundaries set by the game — reinforces a way of being that defines the self through its superiority or inferiority to the skills of the nebulous other, and is evident in gamer-specific behaviors such as grinding, doubling back to get all the collectible items, or in more subtle attitudes such as "I can't let anyone onto my Animal Crossing island until it's full of the best items/flowers/villagers." AAA games are structured from the ground up —  whether through a dynamic, engaging physical environment, or through the inner workings of how the game chooses to recognize advancement and skill —  to reward meritocratic behaviors and attitudes. The GAMER HABITUS is self-replicating, profitable, maybe even helpful in engaging students or trainees, but above all furthers the individualist mindset already so prevalent in Western society. 

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Video games provide some sorely-needed structure, control, and excitement in our lives; for many young people, defined roles, relationships, and objectives within a bounded world are so much easier to understand than the messy rules of reality. As we tread carefully in this virtual territory, we must also remember to look around every once in a while and appreciate the breathtaking vistas it can provide.

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