A 2030 Vision for Gaming Culture

• Young gamers are having fun, learning from each other, and learning to be good citizens of gaming and online communities. They are able to transfer some of their skills and citizenship sensibility to other aspects of their lives.
• They are connecting and mentoring each other in online gaming spaces that are safe, mixed age, and centered on creation, exploration, inquiry, and friendly competition.
• Youth and their parents have a deeper understanding of digital citizenship, supported and taught in a robust way by their schools. They are finding reduced anonymity across all online spaces which brings new challenges and opportunities for how they navigate and craft their digital personas.

The collective visions, while varied, had much in common. Prosocial game behavior would be celebrated and incentivized, participation diversified, and minoritized voices elevated. Youth would not only be supported by schools, parents, and peers to develop necessary skills to survive and thrive online, but would also take on active roles as mentors, moderators, and role models. Online communities would be inclusive and provide a diversity of ways to belong and participate. Experiences would be tailored to be age/developmentally appropriate, intentionally moderated to build positive communities, and scaffolded to teach social and emotional learning in the process. Any approach would necessarily need to engage youth as key agents of change in defining, shaping, and sustaining the culture and climate of more safe, inclusive, and supportive online game communities.