Gaming

All play. All the time.

It's really amazing how video games have changed. When we were little, we used to stare at these huge tube TVs whose picture was shockingly small despite the size of the box. And blurred. Or on monitors that were tiny by today's standards, whether at the desk or on the road. Sometimes even without backlighting to save batteries! But so much has changed in just a few decades, whether it's technology, storytelling or gaming culture as a whole. Yes, games have made and continue to make giant steps forward - and every now and then small steps back.

Despite this, the fact that today millions of people watch, even fill entire stadiums in the real world to watch professionals play League of Legends ... if someone had predicted this thirty years ago, we would have laughed heartily and put our cool magnifying glass complete with lighting on the original Game Boy to better decipher the pixel graphics. But today, games make more revenue than Hollywood or the music industry. They are, what do they like to call it? Ah yes: arrived in the middle of society. With all the advantages and disadvantages that entails.

Games everywhere

The centre of society, that is. In other words: nowadays, everyone plays games. Which also means that the prototypical gamer has long since ceased to exist. That wasn't always the case. At the end of the 90s and beginning of the noughties, there was something like THE ONE gaming scene. At least that's how it felt. Everyone knew what was hot at the time. What to watch out for. People played on the PC or the consoles that were current at the time. And they played "real" games. Not those mobile phone games that not only looked pitiful, but also played like it. We exchanged ideas among friends and read at least one, often even several games magazines. We even had our own language, which still exists today, but only really affects a small part of gamers.

Time jump to today's world: Games are everywhere. More precisely: GOOD games are everywhere. On the PC and consoles, sure. But also on smartphones. In VR. In subscription services like Game Pass. On various retro consoles. Even the so-called "real" games we no longer play exclusively in front of the TV or monitor, but take them with us, for example on the Nintendo Switch or the Steam Deck.

Cultural abundance?

There are so many different gaming systems and platforms. The catchphrase "cultural overkill" seems entirely appropriate, especially since gaming is not exclusively about games. There are the eSports tournaments mentioned at the beginning; Let's Plays; communities that only deal with retro games; film and series adaptations. Yes, the offer, the choice, the variety is greater than ever - just like our current Pile of Shame. Excuse me. Mountain of Joy.

The time when everyone knew everything, when it felt like there was only one gaming scene, is long gone. The fixed boundaries of yesteryear have become fluid transitions. And even professionals like game editors, the heroes of our childhood, have long since lost track of the entire gaming cosmos. How could it be otherwise, when Steam alone receives around 10,000 new releases per year?

The question remains whether this abundance is a bad thing, after all it is no different with films, series and even books. No one would dare claim to know all the films of all genres of all vintages. And that's fine. But as nice as the comparison to films, series and books sounds, video games do not yet enjoy the same cultural status. Especially in this country, their development is not or not well supported, whereas films are. Games are typically found just as little in libraries as they are as a subject in the classroom. And it is still considered a stigma not to read. Not playing, on the other hand, is okay. In some circles, even respected.

Omnipresent, also thanks to merch

Luckily, at Elbenwald we are not affected by such old-fashioned beliefs. On the contrary, games are not only accepted, they are ubiquitous. In most conversations, private or not. In local stores anyway. Above all, they are constantly visible, which brings us to the topic of gaming merchandise. Okay, when it comes to fan merchandise for gamers, the industry hasn't quite reached the professionalism of the film industry yet, because there simply isn't the super-duper mega-merch package for every game. But a lot has happened in the last few years! Whether collector figures, T-shirts, Mousepads, Mugs, wall-pictures, lamps, plush figures or high-quality replicas - the choice is getting bigger and bigger, just like the range of games in general.

But since you're probably not looking for video game merch in general, even though it's a great source of inspiration for birthday gifts, it might be more exciting to shop for fan merchandise directly related to your favourite games. Our most popular gaming themes include the likes of Pokémon, The Witcher, The Legend of Zelda, Assassin's Creed, Minecraft, Super Mario, World of Warcraft, Dungeons & Dragons, Final Fantasy, League of Legends, PlayStation, Genshin Impact, Cyberpunk 2077, Animal Crossing, Nintendo and Elden Ring. But that doesn't mean we don't have plenty of gaming merchandise on other topics. A few examples of our favourites: Among Us, Atari, Borderlands, Dark Souls, Fallout, God of War, Overwatch, Okami, Pac-Man, Persona, Resident Evil, Sonic, The Elder Scrolls, The Last of Us or even Uncharted. If you're missing something like Call of Duty, don't worry, we've got stuff for that too. We just didn't want to list it among our favourites. After all, the boundaries of yesteryear haven't quite disappeared yet.