"Gamers"- Are we a culture, or aren't we?

[Specter Von Baren]

I too think a better term is, Gaming Community. A community is, as per its definition.

1.a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common.

We don't have an overarching culture to us, but we do share an interest in games. Just like a community of people living in the same neighborhood, we have our crazies, our gossipers, our recluses, our social gadflies, ect., lot's of things that make us different, but we still share at least one common thread, we play games.

 

[Strazdas]

snip

I disagree with you. Average car owners aren't part of a culture, but enthusiasts, collectors and petrol-heads definitely have a culture. They have their own history, heritage and nomenclature that is pretty opaque from the perspective of the casual car owner.

Gamers, just like tabletop gamers, have a culture for all the same reasons. We have our own history, heritage and nomenclature that is pretty inaccessible if you're only casually involved, especially bearing in mind that like many other cultures, ours is fractured by specific genres and systems.

Yes, gamers belong to their own culture. And because there is such a thing as our culture, there must necessarily be those who are a part of it (gamers) and those who aren't (people who play games, but don't have any part of the culture in common, or, casuals). Simple as that.

What culture would petrolheads be? the culture of owning a car? i do that too. Yes, there are those that go to car shows, that could be the only straw to grasp here.
Besides, if its only the few "core gamers" that are the culture, a problem rises of who is part of the culture and who is not. lets take me for example. i play games for at least 15 hours in a week, sometimes going above 50 hours mark, yet i have never been in a convention, hardly play online if ever, never saw other gamers in real life (except one WOT meeting) and dont even talk about my hobby in real life. So would i be core just because i play a lot, or do you need to be aprt of gamer meetings to be one? where do you draw the line.
Another example as brough is music. I love metal and i could not live without it. however ALL of the aspects of metalhead culture are not what i would do. so would i be a metalhead for listening or must i dress in spikes and go beat somone?
What constitutes a culture if only "Hardcore" is allowed?

The whole concept "only core allowed" is flawed.

Capcha: whoa there

in reality modern "gamers" are as ubiquitous as "moviegoers".

where as self styled "gamers" are basically akin to "movie buffs".

...and we could probably do with some linguistic differentiation...

We alraedy have linguistic differentiation: core gamers and filthy casuals.

 

[Thr33X]

So this topic stems from my watching the latest video by Allosaurus Rex. In it he touches upon reasons why he believe that "gaming culture" as it's called is not necessarily so, and he makes some decent points in it.

There are a lot of outlets (of which include this one, truth be told), that use the term "culture" sometimes in a context that paints negative connotations to those who play video games. There's also a legitimate question as to whether or not we can even call this hobby of ours a culture at all in comparison to other, more notable ones.

Like say, Punk or Metal, or Car culture. Those are actual lifestyles centered around something...be it a music, an ideal or an affinity for something. So, gaming is something of an affinity, but what makes it a culture? It can't be simply the fact that a large group of people do it and enjoy it...there's a large group of people who listen to Justin Bieber, but would you call "Beliebers" a culture? Maybe more of a cult...but that's another discussion.

So yeah, it's easy to classify gamers or game enthusiasts as a COMMUNITY, but do you consider it a CULTURE? Let's discuss.

I dont. for one when one part of the culture does bad.(cod gamers for example) all of us hipsters who only play this or that rpg are somehow responsible for the douche baggery and that is just silly to me.

say could you link that vid?

Whoops, where are my manners? It'll also be embedded into the OP as well.

5oL5yoyBPVo[/youtube]

 

[ResonanceSD]

Gamers: Subculture.

I thought this was self-evident. =\

And then there's fractal subcultures below that. PC/console --> which type of pc configuration, which type of console.

 

[ResonanceSD]

Apply this very principle to gamers.
Its an eye opener.

Hardcore/Casual

PC/Console

Intel/AMD

AMD/Nvidia

XBox/PS/Nintendo

Madden/BF/CoD/

And on, and on. Best conundrum right now is the people complaining about the brand of RAM used on the latest AMD Radeon R9 290x. Is Elpida better than Hynix? WHO WILL BE DECIDED THE VICTOR? THE FIGHT GOES ON!

 

[Ghaleon640]

I had a college class where the teacher dove pretty deep into 'culture,' so that pretty much anything has its own culture. I think I even wrote a paper about gaming culture... or was it anime or just nerd culture? Whatever, far as I remember, its hard to deny that it is.

 

[Gamer_152]

Notice that the video outright denies that there's music culture, but your post mentions music cultures. Obviously not everyone who plays video games is part of a larger cultural movement, but among many games enthusiasts there are cultural reference points, in-jokes, commonly shared ideas, commonly shared interests, and other markers of culture, so I think it can be said that there is a gamer culture. While the video takes exception to the idea that there is a toxicity in gamer culture, I actively agree with the idea that gamers as a culture do have some deep-seated issues to work out. Not everyone may be overtly sexist, racist, homophobic, or whatever, but few are saying that everyone is. The real problem is that exclusivity, discrimination, and insulation are being allowed to prevail in the gaming community and it's an issue that needs to be tackled.