Playing Devil's Advocate, gaming does discriminate in favor of people with money. People with money can get games sooner and start playing them sooner. Depending on how broke you are it might be years before you can find a game system used at a price you can afford or you might have to wait for ROMs (assuming you even have a computer that can run them). These factors give people who have money lead time to practice and "git gud" at a game before the people who don't have the money.

I have a coworker who grew up on the same games I did even though she's years younger than me because she grew up poor and bought systems used. Even I lagged a bit because, though a white male, I grew up without a lot of money and tended to have to wait for systems to come down a bit in price and sell my old systems to afford the new one.

So its not pure meritocracy. There is a financial barrier. People who can afford games immediately have an advantage.