Mapping the Issue
Jonathan Lee
Eng 1302
8 March 2012
Thomas Tutt
What Makes a Community Worth Gaming for
Dear friends and students of UTA, I humbly come to you with a simple argument, one that is close to my heart. Though it may sound trivial, the argument has been raging on for three decades, and has grown to a nation wide debate. The question: is there such thing as a gaming community? Again, the question may sound inconsequential, but consider this fellow Mavericks, what makes a community? Is it just a group of people meeting and having a good time? Or is it more? Is something like gaming able to unite people from all across the world? Admittedly, the argument is rather close to my heart. I have been interested games since the age of five. I remember my uncle playing Starcraft fourteen years ago, and being transfixed by cutting edge graphics. It is a culture that existed before I was born, and continues to expand. Within the past few years, it has burst into the main stream of entertainment, competing with the likes of cinema and TV. How can a group of people who have never met, form such a complex society? How can a hobby inspire people around the world to this level of fanaticism? The gaming society can shine some light on societies and how they function as a whole.
The gaming community is surely a legitimate community. According to 1UP, a prominent gaming magazine, a community needs three things: culture, moral code and organization. The gaming community has all three. Its culture is rich and complex. To be a gamer, you must learn the gamer language: a language with roots in English Japanese, and many others. It includes a large amount of acronyms, and made up words such as DPS, bakka, 1337, and many others. A gamer most also have extensive knowledge of many important games such as Legend of Zelda, Pokemon, and Halo. The community also has loose, but universal laws that most gamers abide by. Trolling, or intentionally causing distress to other gamers for pleasure
Eng 1302
8 March 2012
Thomas Tutt
What Makes a Community Worth Gaming for
Dear friends and students of UTA, I humbly come to you with a simple argument, one that is close to my heart. Though it may sound trivial, the argument has been raging on for three decades, and has grown to a nation wide debate. The question: is there such thing as a gaming community? Again, the question may sound inconsequential, but consider this fellow Mavericks, what makes a community? Is it just a group of people meeting and having a good time? Or is it more? Is something like gaming able to unite people from all across the world? Admittedly, the argument is rather close to my heart. I have been interested games since the age of five. I remember my uncle playing Starcraft fourteen years ago, and being transfixed by cutting edge graphics. It is a culture that existed before I was born, and continues to expand. Within the past few years, it has burst into the main stream of entertainment, competing with the likes of cinema and TV. How can a group of people who have never met, form such a complex society? How can a hobby inspire people around the world to this level of fanaticism? The gaming society can shine some light on societies and how they function as a whole.
The gaming community is surely a legitimate community. According to 1UP, a prominent gaming magazine, a community needs three things: culture, moral code and organization. The gaming community has all three. Its culture is rich and complex. To be a gamer, you must learn the gamer language: a language with roots in English Japanese, and many others. It includes a large amount of acronyms, and made up words such as DPS, bakka, 1337, and many others. A gamer most also have extensive knowledge of many important games such as Legend of Zelda, Pokemon, and Halo. The community also has loose, but universal laws that most gamers abide by. Trolling, or intentionally causing distress to other gamers for pleasure
Cited: Watts, Steve. "http://www.1up.com/features/gaming-communities-analysis-fandom." 1up. 1-up, 17 Aug 2011. Web. 9 Mar 2012. <http://www.1up.com/features/gaming-communities-analysis-fandom>. Nigma, Markus. "The HoN community - how bad is it?."Nigma 's HON Blog. BlogSpot, 18 Mar 2010. Web. 9 Mar. 2012. <http://nigmahon.blogspot.com/2010/05/hon-community-how-bad-is-it.html>. Edwards, Tim. "Editorial: Why PC Gamer objects to SOPA and PIPA." PC gamer. PC editorial, 16 jan 2012. Web. 4 Apr 2012. <http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/01/18/editorial-why-pc-gamer-objects-to-sopa/>.