3 ms·

I actually think we're in a gaming renaissance. The gaming world has never been more diverse, more inclusive, and more creatively challenging than ever before.

• _delirium 12y ago
  I think that's true, and actually what's triggered a series of current backlashes. "Gamer culture" is no longer one thing and people make lots of different kinds of games, targeted to many different audiences with different values and interests. One backlash that triggers is from people who feel a need to defend "gamer" as some kind of turf being invaded, with community norms that can't be violated (people who make "casual games", "games about queerness", or any range of other things outside a norm of hardcore+fun are "not real gamers"). Some people observing the turf-defenders of "gamerness" conclude those people are unsavory, and take this as an indication that gamer culture is unsavory. I see some possible ways that could play out, but I'm not sure how it will. Gamer could expand, or people doing other-than-traditional things could just dissociate themselves from gamers and label their stuff something else. I personally am wary of wading into gamer culture, because I see a lot of 4chan-type people with a lot of time on their hands harassing people who they find objectionable, including some people I know. So I prefer to label my game-ish stuff as something other than "games", and culturally target it at other audiences (like technologists, or interactive-art fans), so I can hopefully avoid attracting the attention of the more toxic parts of the gamer community. In that sense I'm kind of pragmatically aligned on the "end of gamer" side maybe.
  • vezzy-fnord 12y ago
    "Gamer culture" is no longer one thing and people make lots of different kinds of games, targeted to many different audiences with different values and interests. Gamer culture has never been concretely defined, and the phenomenon you're describing is hardly new. The advances that easily accessible development tools and digital distribution have given us, however, has made this much easier. One backlash that triggers is from people who feel a need to defend "gamer" as some kind of turf being invaded, with community norms that can't be violated (people who make "casual games", "games about queerness", or any range of other things outside a norm of hardcore+fun are "not real gamers"). Some people observing the turf-defenders of "gamerness" conclude those people are unsavory, and take this as an indication that gamer culture is unsavory. I believe you're misrepresenting the views that you outline. The question of who is a "real gamer" and who isn't, is a red herring. What people are most likely trying to say is that the people who play smartphone games occasionally, and the people who are heavily invested in gaming as a hobby, have an extensive knowledge of its history and many genres, who consume gaming media, are two different demographics. Despite both ostensibly playing games, they are different. To present them as equivalent is a falsehood. Thus, people who play "games about queerness" are also different from the hardcore AAA gamer demographic. This is why "gamer culture" is not a monolith, it has many subcultures. The ugly stuff happens when the different sides clash into each other ideologically, with lots of gratuitous and often childish flame warring ensuing in the process. Ultimately, what you're doing is overloading the term "gamer". Your jab at 4chan also demonstrates that you don't really understand their culture all too much, either. There's toxic people everywhere, and your desire to strive away even from the term "game" and to target it to "technologists" and "interactive art fans" leads to me believe that you're either developing in genres like visual novels and interactive fiction, where again, the demographics and even core theses are radically different from AAA games, or you're partly pretentious.
    • _delirium 12y ago
      I mostly work on procedural generation and simulations. I think I could target gamers (esp. indie gamers) or I could target other demographics. Recent events lead me to be more wary of the game scene than others. There is weird stuff everywhere, but I have encountered as lot more weird stuff in my brushes with gamers than in my brushes with other areas. Some of it is just a matter of what community I want to be part of. I can make something called "a game" and sell it (or give it away) without worrying too much. But do I want to cultivate the game community as my main community, i.e. write blog posts targeted at gamers, participate in gamer events, etc.? One can only do so many things, so it's nice to pick a community in which one feels comfortable. It's possible I can find a niche within gaming where I enjoy the company and don't feel defensive, but recently I haven't, so I haven't engaged much. When I look at what the people I know who are committed to gaming as a community frequently have to deal with (which is what led to my interest in this topic), I wonder if it's worth it. I went to an interactive-art meetup at a hackerspace and found that community quite welcoming, and have not heard of anyone being "doxxed" or virulently harassed in that community. They might exist, but so far things look alright. Some of what I do could also be sold as just regular old (non-game) AI, and I like the AI community as well (even the "fringe" of AI tends to be eccentric in an interesting way). We'll see how it goes; I may change my mind, but for now I'm leaning towards just saving some angst and choosing another community.