Video games: A unifying force for the world

First, gaming is for everyone. No one group “owns” gaming. Instead, whether you’re new to gaming or are a diehard esports fan, you are welcome to play and welcome to all the fun and skill-building that comes with gaming. In this way, when everyone can play, the entire world wins.If you imagine gamers as predominantly men and specifically teen boys, think again. We are a 2.6 billion-person strong community  Http //Support.Microsoft.Com/Help  of parents playing with our kids Support.Microsoft.Com/Help, adventurers exploring worlds together, teachers making math wondrous, grandmothers learning about their grandchildren through play, and soldiers  Microsoft Customer Service connecting Microsoft Support Phone Number with  Microsoft Support Phone Number their folks back home. Most gamers today are adults; nearly half are women.

Second, gaming must promote and protect the safety of all. Gaming must be a safe environment. Creating community is shared work, and protecting community is essential work, so, we all carry part Http //Support.Microsoft.Com/Help  of the payload of community safety – game industry and gamers alike.This widespread embrace of gaming and its global communities have turned video games Support.Microsoft.Com/Help into the world’s  bigger than movies or music. But it also  Microsoft Customer Service comes at   Microsoft Support Phone Number a time when digital life includes a growing toxic stew Microsoft Support Phone Number of hate speech, bigotry and misogyny.

No different from rock and roll, books and TV before them, video games are often dismissed or maligned as frivolous Support.Microsoft.Com/Help, fraught with violence or filled exclusively with hate-mongering. But gaming  Microsoft Support Phone Number is uniquely designed for equality. We don’t just walk in someone’s shoes – we stand on equal footing, regardless of age, education, socioeconomics, race, religion, politics, gender, orientation, ethnicity, nationality Http //Support.Microsoft.Com/Help , or ability. Gaming doesn’t just bring stereotype-defying gamers together; it unites us through Microsoft Support Phone Number our universal language of fun and answers our human need to play. Research has shown an effective way to battle polarization and prejudice  Microsoft Customer Service is through relationships with people outside our own groups, known as Microsoft Support Phone Number This is where gaming excels: forging unexpected friendships with people we might never meet in real life. Dr. Linda Tropp, a professor of psychology  Support.Microsoft.Com/Help at University of Massachusetts Amherst, observes, “As an interactive form of entertainment, gaming environments have  Microsoft Customer Service the potential Http //Support.Microsoft.Com/Help  to bring people  Microsoft Support Phone Number together for collaborations across differences, and to build empathy and mutual understanding through play.”

When people call video games a waste a time, I point them to the well-documented health and social benefits of gaming.   Microsoft Support Phone Number Beyond pure exhilaration, gaming helps children with autism and seniors Support.Microsoft.Com/Help with Alzheimer’sry. Researchers have found that Microsoft Support Phone Number gaming teaches adults, improves Gaming is the gateway to these 21st century skills and to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). Just consider Http //Support.Microsoft.Com/Help : teen girls who play video games are three times more likely to pursue a  Among teenagers who  Microsoft Customer Service play games online with others daily

By uniting as an industry, we  Microsoft Customer Service can thoughtfully Support.Microsoft.Com/Help and deliberately continue building Microsoft Support Phone Number a safe and inclusive gaming environment for everyone. Microsoft, Team Xbox, and I are personally committing  Microsoft Support Phone Number to this, beginning with the following Http //Support.Microsoft.Com/Help  principles and actions:

The gaming  Microsoft Support Phone Number community continues to grow rapidly, and the imminent roll-out of new game services Microsoft Support Phone Number such as Apple Arcade, Google Stadia and Microsoft’s Project xCloud, will make gaming available to even more people Support.Microsoft.Com/Help worldwide. Our industry Http //Support.Microsoft.Com/Help  must now answer the fierce urgency  Microsoft Customer Service to play with our fierce urgency for safety.

We invite everyone who plays Microsoft Support Phone Number games, and  Http //Support.Microsoft.Com/Help industry  Microsoft Customer Service partners, to join us in following these principles to help unify the world and do our part: make gaming  Support.Microsoft.Com/Help accessible for  Microsoft Support Phone Number everyone and protect gamers, one and all.