For all this talk of videogames infiltrating the mainstream, it appears there’s still work to be done.

After waking up this morning, I decided to take a look at the local newspaper (like I always do). I noticed in the Life section of this morning’s Daily Press (Newport News, Va.) an article detailing the next generation of videogame consoles, detailing the Xbox 360 and previewing both the PlayStation3 and the Nintendo Wii.

Which was all well and good, until I read the article and saw the dreaded “t” word:

Toy.

The newspaper called these machines toys. Not next-generation consoles, not high-powered interactive entertainment machines…toys.

A lot has been made over the past decade about the impact Sony has had on the videogame industry with the PlayStation brand. With the PSOne and the PS2, Sony has made the videogame a mainstream attraction, an entertainment medium accessible to both the hardcore crowd and the casual, everyday person. People who had never before considered videogames became gamers because of the PlayStation brand.

And one would think if Sony and Microsoft were investing time, energy, resources, and tons of cash into the industry that it would garner a little more respect than this. Not that mainstream media bias against the videogame industry is anything new—seems like we’ve been having the violent videogame debate forever now—but how can you dismiss an industry that makes more money annually than Hollywood by merely calling it a toy?

Boggles the mind.

Microsoft and Sony do not invest in toys; they invest in computer technologies and consumer electronics. Their inclusion in an industry once dominated by the likes of Nintendo, Sega, and Atari has given videogames a sense of credibility. In the 1980s, videogames were indeed considered toys, and the numbers seemed to back up that claim; the vast majority of gamers back then were under the age of 18.

But the minute Sony entered the industry and found some success, perception of the industry changed. Videogames were no longer the hobby of the young and the lazy. They were now a legitimate entertainment medium…to everyone outside the mainstream media.

Every time mainstream media outlets run a videogame-related story—be it an overview of E3, the launch of a new console, or the latest Mortal Kombat controversy—I am amazed at the level of ignorance the media displays. And I think some of that ignorance comes from the long-held belief that videogames are still nothing more than toys, something nobody older than the age of 16 needs to bother with.

Then again, the average age of gamers today is 28 years, so, as usual, the pundits are wrong.

But back to this issue of toys. Do toys offer BluRay technology? Do toys bring us an HD-DVD drive, complete with Ethernet connectivity and an online service allowing for community gaming and chats? If videogames are toys, then so are DVDs and any other device that can be plugged into a television for the purpose of entertainment.

There’s a reason the videogame industry has its own specific types of media—magazines, web sites, G4TV, etc.—because if we were to rely on the mainstream media for information about the videogame industry, said industry would be in sad, sad shape. Until the sheen of ignorance is removed, the videogame industry will be viewed from afar as nothing more than a children’s hobby.

Which, ironically, is an awful childish point of view.