The history of video games has been littered with historic events. We’ve had the arcade market boom and then, well, the entire video game crash soon after. We had the creation of the ESRB and other rating systems to prevent government regulation and we’ve had video games becoming bigger than Hollywood.

There are also small events like, recently, a thirteen-year old kid who goes by the gamer tag Blue Scuti “beating” the NES version of Tetris by reaching its killscreen…. and then some news reporter from Sky News telling Blue Scuti to “go outside” because “beating Tetris is not a life goal.” I can’t find the clip on YouTube as it seems Sky News deleted it from their official channel. Thankfully, other YouTube channels clipped it for me and your viewing pleasure, so to speak.

Thankfully, a lot of other news organizations realized not to do this and actually gave props to Blue Scuti on this great achievement. After all, this is something that hasn’t been done by a human before. Sure, an AI specifically programmed to play the NES version of Tetris perfectly can do this. But for a human being, much less a kid who’s transitioning through puberty, this is quite the feat.

However, the snide comment from the Sky News news reporter didn’t really surprise me as, even to this day, a lot of people, more specifically, non-gamers still don’t take the video game industry seriously. Yes, despite it being virtually everywhere now, non-gamers still sneer at it all. Video games are still for nerds and huge man-children who have no life. The stigma is still there so, despite Blue Scuti correctly getting huge props from the gaming world, non-gamers can’t understand why this is big news. They can’t wrap their head around someone, despite doing something that was previously thought to be impossible, is something to be praised since it’s for a video game.

The sad truth of it all is because non-gamers still think Tetris is “just a video game” and getting it to crash shouldn’t be too hard. To them, it’s not like you have to innovate new techniques like “hypertapping” or “rolling” in order to move the blocks much faster than the game intended, essentially being creative and thinking outside the box. To them, Blue Scuti must be a loser because he spent around 40 minutes playing NES Tetris, having to look at the next block and know where and how to lay them in microseconds, testing his reflexes and reactions skills all the way. To them, having to play Tetris in “unfair” situations, like the blocks being almost invisible as they blend in the background or having to constantly tap your controller in a systematic manner while turning the blocks accurately while they move at a breakneck speed, does not involve any physicality whatsoever. Go outside and touch some grass, kid!

Non-gamers still can’t comprehend why Blue Scuti reaching NES’ Tetris killscreen is a big deal but, at the same time, will praise other people who are into “skill based games” like basketball, darts, chess and even poker. In the non-gamer’s mind, those things takes time and effort to get good at. Throwing a ball into a hoop from 15 feet away consistently is an exceptional skill. Tossing an object with a pointy tip at a board and getting it to stick inside a specific area of said board takes precision. Having to think of how to move a wooden horsey 5 turns aways takes planning. Basically lying to another person into thinking you have better cards is something to be applauded. Playing Tetris? You gotta be kidding me!

The really weird thing is they don’t really grasp the full extent of how gaming is something that’s being taken seriously nowadays as something you can get good enough to be called an athlete. They still don’t understand why eSports is a big deal and why thousands of people will fill a stadium to watch a League of Legends tournament, much less why millions of people around the world will stream the same event on their computer screen, cellphone or smart TV. They can’t take eSports seriously as, well, once again, it’s just video games!

Even the mere idea of gamers watching other gamers playing video games is just ridiculous to them! To non-gamers, it feels so redundant to watch another person play a video game when you could just play the same video game yourself. They are unable to fathom that millions of people go attend eSports events to see players, usually much better than them, do amazing things they are unable to do themselves like professional athletes in basketball. They can’t see the entertainment value of watching a gamer trying out a new game for the first time and either loving or hating it. It can also be enjoyable to just watch someone be terrible at a game and bask at the cringe of it all. Gamers, on the other hand, enjoy it because, well, it’s fun to see people doing things!

What’s even more remarkable is how these non-gamers will scoff at video games and then just turn around and enjoy video game related media. You know what was one of the most watched television programs last year? HBO’s The Last of Us, which is based on the video game of the same name. How about the second highest grossing movie of 2023? Well, that just so happened to be the Sumer Mario Bros. Movie, which is based on another video game property. There are also other examples like the Five Nights at Freddy’s film, Twisted Metal series from Peacock and Netflix’s Castlevania: Nocture. And that’s just from last year! Yes, this is all just silly stuff, huh? Nothing adults should enjoy, right?

In a weird way, I can’t really blame non-gamers for thinking this way. From the outside, playing video games is stupid and beating Tetris is stupid. And, frankly, it kind of is. However, it’s just as stupid to admire someone for being able to toss a ball through a hoop so that your team has more “balls through a hoop” points than the other team. Both requires skill but they’re both not going to revolutionize life as we know it today.

However, it is dumb for people to poo-poo on Blue Scuti they just think he played a video game. No, he did something no one has ever done before. He was the first person to do something. He deserves all the accolades right now. It was definitely an achievement he should be remembered for. In a way, I guess that is a life goal, huh?

What did you think of the news story of Blue Scuti “breaking” Tetris? What do you think of non-gamers reaction to it? Let me know in the comments section below!