http://www.npr.org/2011/01/31/133371941/the-selective-subculture-of-fantasy-gamers
The other day while listening to NPR, a story came up about a “subculture” of gamers: those gamers that play Final Fantasy. The story mentioned that sporting gmaes or shooter games are more “mainstream”, while more complex world games require more dedication and therefore have a smaller subculture. However, one of the gamers interviewed believed that since controllers were becoming simpler to use (specifically mentioning the Wii and motion controllers) more people would play when they weren’t as into the game as the more dedicated gamers.
While this concern is understandable, to me the idea of gaming subculture doesn’t only describe what games people do play, it also describes the games they want to play. A kid who plays Mario on the Wii isn’t just going to go out and buy any game for the Wii unless it is a game they want to play (this is especially true if they have to buy the games themselves). Plus, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with making controllers easier to use. After my brother got an X-box 360, he took over the basement TV and got annoyed whenever I unhooked it to plug to PS2 back in. So I went out and bought a game for the X-box, and never played again after the first unsuccesful hour. The controller was too big for comfortable use, triggers (which I had rarely, if ever, used before) were now instrumental for play (in the case of the game I bought, they were necessary for movement). While I would have eventually gotten used to the controller changes, my brother was quite happy in his basement takeover, so I just went back to the computer (but not before earing him a game badge-First to be destroyed in an online multiplayer game!)
Good find, I think this is an interesting addition to the subject of hardcore gamers that I brought up briefly in class. The article seem to scratch the surface of what really drives these subcultures: a shared experience. Watching a good movie is entertaining, but watching a good movie with your friends and being able to quote it whenever you are with them is fun and addicting. There is not a single form of entertainment, no matter how reclusive the activity itself is that does not have the option for sharing the experience with others. Book clubs, movie theaters, gaming forums, concert halls, sports stadiums, and even facebook status updates are all ways in which humans enjoy sharing their personal reaction to entertainment.
Since people do not all react identically to different forms of entertainment these sub-cultures pop up. What the sub-cultures tend to value above all is that the integrity of the experience be preserved. This quote from the article: “But Rodriguez is worried that the secret is being given away. New technologies like the Nintendo Wii motion control make it easier for anyone to play; you don’t have to master a complicated set of buttons and joysticks. Rodriguez isn’t thrilled about just opening the gates to the uninitiated.” is an example of the desire to maintain the experience.
As a question to anyone who reads this, do you have any game subcultures that you feel a part of?
(I feel attached to the communities of EVE Online, Dwarf Fortress, and Minecraft)
I’m mostly a role playing gamer. One of my favorite games is Neverwinter Nights, and I currently have Neverwinter Nights 2 installed on my computer. But I will usually play just about anything, although I don’t like shooter games or sports games, as they just don’t appeal to me. And while I do get that some gamers may want to maintain the experience of the game, to me, controllers aren’t really all that important to the experience. In my case, they can detract from the experience, since I mentioned I found the x-box controller to be awkward for me to use. I think because I like role playing games a bit more than other types, I really like the story more than the other things that are involved, and so it doesn’t really matter what I use, the story still goes on.