Progressively prevailing educational discourses foster the use of video games in schools and universities. At the same time, populist discourses persist, especially in print media, which criticize video games because of supposed negative effects on behaviour and socialisation. These contested discourses, it is proposed, affect the acceptability of games and restrict critical analysis of their effectiveness as pedagogic tools. This paper centers on the representation of video games in media discourse. It proposes insights from a small-scale study of the construction of video game discourses in the UK print media in 2013, and debates three areas that appeared. First, the assumptions inherent in the representation of the ‘video game’; second, the implied lack of agency in the behaviour of ‘the gamer’; and third, the way in which blame is manipulated. Finally, implications are considered for game-based education.