A Sky News presenter has attracted criticism for appearing to belittle a 13-year-old Tetris record breaker during a live broadcast.
Last month, Oklahoma teenager Willis Gibsonbecame an internet sensationafter he was crowned the first known person to ‘beat’ the original Tetris game on the NES by reaching its true ‘kill screen’, wherein the game crashes.
Previously, it was believed that only AI could reach Tetris’s kill screen, but teenager Gibson managed it, and this weekfootage of his stunned reaction attracted mainstream coverageacross the globe.
“It’s never been done by a human before,”saidVince Clemente, the president of the Classic Tetris World Championship. “It’s basically something that everyone thought was impossible until a couple of years ago.”
However, one broadcaster attracted more attention than others on Thursday, for how its presenter appeared to mock Gibson’s achievement.
It is the Year of Our Lord 2024 and@SkyNewsis still telling people who play video games to go outside and get some fresh air, notably on the same day they’re praising a 16-year-old darts playerpic.twitter.com/QoPpWGQ0fr
51-year-old Sky News journalist Jayne Secker covered the Tetris story during a live broadcast on Thursday. At the end of the segment, Secker appeared to break from script, stating: “As a mother, I would just say step away from the screen, go outside, get some fresh air. Beating Tetris is not a life goal.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, footage of the Sky News broadcast – captured by VGC’s Chris Scullion – attracted criticism from many high profile members of the video game industry on social media.
Bhavina Bharkhada, head of comms at the UK’s games industry trade body UKIE,wrote: “What’s bonkers about how this has been covered is if it was, say a child chess champion, we’d all be celebrating – they’d even be invited to Downing Street to play chess.”
Rare’s Becky Frostcommented: “’Beating Tetris is not a life goal’ …yeah, for YOU, Sandra. How many world records had YOU set at 13 years old? What a small-minded, smug & horrible way to belittle this kid’s achievement. As A MoTheR I’d be super fucking proud. This took skill & determination, brilliant job!”
There’s something so disappointingly smug about this. I bet that kid had so much boss battle style adrenaline from doing this - and it’s so cool to see a 13 year old playing a game that’s more than double the age he is.https://t.co/WiTpemZJTm
This may have been intended as a light hearted throwaway line but I hate itGaming is one of the ways I manage my mental health. It’s been invaluable to me in the last 12 months. And believe it or not I still exercise and get fresh airThis is SUCH an old-fashioned attitudehttps://t.co/LS7nVk2YGv
They made a Hollywood movie about Tetris, and yet when a 13 year old who wasn’t even born when it released does what no one else was able to do, and beats it..He’s told it’s not a life goal to be proud of and to go outside.https://t.co/2U6Zk3W793
Sumo Digitalcommunity manager Jimmy Bowerswrote“As a Dad, I can safely tell you if Kit beat an unbeatable game and set a world record at 13 I’d be incredibly proud. That comment was so outdated and in such poor taste to basically punch down on a child I’m almost lost for words.”
Many users noted that Gibson’s own mother, a school teacher, had already commented publicly about her support for her Son’s competitive Tetris career.
“I’m actually OK with it,” she told theNew York Times. “He does other things outside of playing Tetris, so it really wasn’t that terribly difficult to say OK. It was harder to find an old CRT TV than it was to say, ‘Yeah, we can do this for a little bit.’”
