Whether we like it or not, gaming as a hobby carries with it a host of negative societal impacts and associations that we unfortunately cannot dismiss or ignore. Being a consumer underneath the different societal mechanisms and global power positions, I am curious what you think and what you do in terms of the problematic aspects of playing and consuming video games. It is rare that the gaming press picks up on these issues or that they get included in their reviews of the newest console, graphics card, CPU, or even video game, so I thought it would be interesting to hear people's (hopefully well-argued) opinion on this topic. If there are too many topics mentioned at once, you can just limit your post to address one particular thing if you want. 
Some of these issues are stuff like:
And before anyone jumps in to dismiss every single thing listed, remember that these issues do not make you a bad person and that I am not trying to chastize or blame anyone. It is entirely fine to enjoy your video games while being aware of the problematic aspects in the culture and industry - these are very complex issues that only are a part of a larger system which are then reproduced in video games. So these are symptoms of wider structural problems that needs to be addressed and for that reason, we need to be able to have a conversation about them without shutting down the conversation or looking away.
Some of these issues are stuff like:
- Conflict minerals in the consoles, mobile and PC hardware:Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, Intel (less so), PC hardware manufacturers, and many other companies are contributing to the conflict mineral industry.
- Exhaustion of resources & lack of sustainability: Gaming consoles and PC hardware all rely on different natural resources in their production that unfortunately are limited.
- Environmental pollution from high energy consumption: Gaming hardware utilize a lot of electricity. Given how most of our energy production stems from fossil fuels, playing games contribute to greenhouse gases and global warming.
- Lack of recycling: Like technology culture, so does gaming culture propagate a consumer-driven environment where marketing and companies constantly tell you to buy the newest product. Unfortunately this means that the old needs to be replaced and thrown out, so a lot of old and dated hardware and consoles get shipped to countries like Nigeria or China as "e-waste", where low-income or poor citizens try to harvest the minerals out of these dated materials.
- Exploitation of cheap labor in the production of consoles: E.g. your PS4 is produced by FOXCONN, who exploit their workers to an outrageous extent. Yet this is ignored by most outlets when reviewing the console or when enthusiasts talk about the merits of the product. This goes for all consoles.
- Exploitation of the people who develop your video games: Most of your AAA games are produced as a result of exploitation of the developers who produce them. There is numerous evidence for how people dont get paid overtime, working under the dreadful crunch, evidence of poor and even abhorrent management practices. Even worse, in the end, the faceless publisher or developer get all the recognition and name brand, whereas the individuals, from QA to Junior Designer to HR Manager to Lead Programmer dont get any lick of attention or recognition. We often talk about Blizzard, Valve, or DICE, but rarely are the people actually responsible for your favorite games mentioned, despite the crazy amount of blood, sweat, and tears they have invested in those games.
- Association with weapon industry and US military: Video game companies that want to develop military-themed games or games involving guns have the support and consultation of both the military and the gun industry.
- Constructed as an upper class luxury hobby for people with sufficient disposable income: Gaming as a culture is a luxury hobby that only people with disposable income can afford. If you want the newest games (or the ones available at your nearest retailer), you have to have a new console or hardware if you want to talk, report, or review games, you also have to have the latest stuff if you want to be part of the conversation in gaming culture.
- Video games are mostly produced by Western companies (i.e. European and North American ) that often only center themselves/their perceived target audience within the games: This entails that often other countries and cultures are either made invisible or stereotyped to an eye-rolling degree. E.g. simplistic binary world-views are often levelled at countries in the Middle East, where a multi-million dollar project like Battlefield 3 can't even do the effort of spelling "hotel" in Arabic properly. More often than not, it is usually implicitly racist, sexist, heteronormative power structures that are propagated throughout mainstream video games with little to no characterizations of non-white, non-male, or non-straight groups of people. Combine this with a very hostile and toxic segment of the enthusiast gaming audience and you have a harmful cocktail that is not easily fixed any time soon. This is not exclusive to video games, but it is still part of gaming culture.
And before anyone jumps in to dismiss every single thing listed, remember that these issues do not make you a bad person and that I am not trying to chastize or blame anyone. It is entirely fine to enjoy your video games while being aware of the problematic aspects in the culture and industry - these are very complex issues that only are a part of a larger system which are then reproduced in video games. So these are symptoms of wider structural problems that needs to be addressed and for that reason, we need to be able to have a conversation about them without shutting down the conversation or looking away.
