S
Shadow Cypher
Guest
Not gonna kid you guys, it's a long read. However, I have put some thought into it and made it as easy to read as I can, so please stick through it and give your opinions. Thank you.
Today as I was waiting for my class to start, I was reading the New York Times and came across this
For those who don't feel like reading, it's an article about how some educators are thinking about using video games to get kids more motivated about reading.
At first, I was happy about it, but as I thought it over, I realized that this could potentially mean gaming being used for everything. Gaming is already increasingly being mixed with high art (Bioshock, Braid) fitness (Wii Sports) and advertising (Need for Speed games, Splinter Cell). Now it's going to be used for education?
This is probably a good thing for mainstream modern technological society, but I think that it also means the downfall of our current gaming culture.
Our culture is built on the fact that most of us are smart people, but are a bit isolated and socially off. We have for a long time been considered outcasts, and we usually welcome it because it is special to us. Everyone heard the stereotype about the fat kid in his parent's basement, but we laughed it off because we knew it wasn't true and we enjoyed the stupid misconceptions. I mean, who could truly understand the first time you beat Bowser, blew up a Death Star, or shot your first 1000 Nazis? No one but your fellow gamers.
Gaming has always been about the challenge and frustration you could pit yourself against, and laughing with your friends as you wreak havoc for hours on end. It also became about being COUNTERCULTURE, because people didn't understand us.
Now, EVERYONE games. WoW, Halo, and CoD4 all have millions of plaers, so everyone knows about them. And that's fine by me. But now, people are copying gamer culture into their daily routines! Now people have got this idea in their heads that geek is cool, and that they need to imitate it to be mainstream. So instead of getting just more gamers to battle, we have to deal with wannabes who don't know anything about it!
I mean, people who have never played anything beyong Wii Sports are slinging "Woot" around and using l33tspeak on their facebook pages! And not well, I might add. Another thing I have noticed is 4chan memes happening everywhere, from people who had it forwarded from 20000 other people and thought it was cool to repeat! And now we have the Rickroll hitting the European VMA's and American MTV...
Have we overextended ourselves? All we're doing is making everyone want to be like us! I mean, c'mon! The Rickroll was funny because only we knew what it meant.
I don't want to hear the Rickroll on the radio. I really don't want to hear someone mention a barrel roll in casual conversation.
Half of our culture is based on the social consequences of our collective hobby. You know, that as nerds, we're somehow special; the rest of the world just doesn't understand. As such, we've created a kind of "underdog elitism", and even though we usually disagree vigorously on a lot (see Cake vs Pie thread), we back each other up when it comes down to it. (Jack Thompson, the Mass Effect controversy)
I'm glad video games are accepted now. I am. The demand is forcing companies to make better games and compete for our time. It's easy to find a match, and there's a LOT less annoying babble from anti-gaming lobbyists.
But are we going to lose the roots of our online culture with this mass wave of acceptance and new blood? Where are we going to carve a niche next? PC's are super mainstream now. Gaming is getting there soon. Where can we install our unique brand of counterculture if we lose gaming to the masses?
We've told everyone about our secret club. Now everyone wants in. And I don't really know where we can go to start a new one.
Think about it and comment.
Today as I was waiting for my class to start, I was reading the New York Times and came across this
For those who don't feel like reading, it's an article about how some educators are thinking about using video games to get kids more motivated about reading.
At first, I was happy about it, but as I thought it over, I realized that this could potentially mean gaming being used for everything. Gaming is already increasingly being mixed with high art (Bioshock, Braid) fitness (Wii Sports) and advertising (Need for Speed games, Splinter Cell). Now it's going to be used for education?
This is probably a good thing for mainstream modern technological society, but I think that it also means the downfall of our current gaming culture.
Our culture is built on the fact that most of us are smart people, but are a bit isolated and socially off. We have for a long time been considered outcasts, and we usually welcome it because it is special to us. Everyone heard the stereotype about the fat kid in his parent's basement, but we laughed it off because we knew it wasn't true and we enjoyed the stupid misconceptions. I mean, who could truly understand the first time you beat Bowser, blew up a Death Star, or shot your first 1000 Nazis? No one but your fellow gamers.
Gaming has always been about the challenge and frustration you could pit yourself against, and laughing with your friends as you wreak havoc for hours on end. It also became about being COUNTERCULTURE, because people didn't understand us.
Now, EVERYONE games. WoW, Halo, and CoD4 all have millions of plaers, so everyone knows about them. And that's fine by me. But now, people are copying gamer culture into their daily routines! Now people have got this idea in their heads that geek is cool, and that they need to imitate it to be mainstream. So instead of getting just more gamers to battle, we have to deal with wannabes who don't know anything about it!
I mean, people who have never played anything beyong Wii Sports are slinging "Woot" around and using l33tspeak on their facebook pages! And not well, I might add. Another thing I have noticed is 4chan memes happening everywhere, from people who had it forwarded from 20000 other people and thought it was cool to repeat! And now we have the Rickroll hitting the European VMA's and American MTV...
Have we overextended ourselves? All we're doing is making everyone want to be like us! I mean, c'mon! The Rickroll was funny because only we knew what it meant.
I don't want to hear the Rickroll on the radio. I really don't want to hear someone mention a barrel roll in casual conversation.
Half of our culture is based on the social consequences of our collective hobby. You know, that as nerds, we're somehow special; the rest of the world just doesn't understand. As such, we've created a kind of "underdog elitism", and even though we usually disagree vigorously on a lot (see Cake vs Pie thread), we back each other up when it comes down to it. (Jack Thompson, the Mass Effect controversy)
I'm glad video games are accepted now. I am. The demand is forcing companies to make better games and compete for our time. It's easy to find a match, and there's a LOT less annoying babble from anti-gaming lobbyists.
But are we going to lose the roots of our online culture with this mass wave of acceptance and new blood? Where are we going to carve a niche next? PC's are super mainstream now. Gaming is getting there soon. Where can we install our unique brand of counterculture if we lose gaming to the masses?
We've told everyone about our secret club. Now everyone wants in. And I don't really know where we can go to start a new one.
Think about it and comment.
