Gaming Culture

Throw away your misconceptions of what a gamer is, far are they from the loner in a dark room, for nowadays just about everyone has been influenced by video games in society, your kids, your parents, even your grandparents are a part of the global phenomenon and I do mean global!

In the past the lone gamer stereotype was created due to the games themselves, being for a single player only, thus forcing players to find escape on their lonesome. But these days gamers are connected to thousands of like minded people, allowing them to form communities around their favourite past time. For example, World of Warcraft (WoW) has thousands of players from around the globe, which has formed a community that is rooted in the game world and the game itself. The only problem with this, like all communities is that you need to spend time in it. I personally have been a part of the WoW community, but never really became an active participant, as I only played every now and again and only by myself or with friends.

But a gaming community doesnt just play games, there are entire communities devoted to creating content for said games, or creating entirely new ones. The Modding community is just as big as the other gaming communities, due to the fact that many games these days are released with SDK’s (Self Developer Kits), so that just about anyone, including myself are able to get in on the action.

But there is one thing that sets these communities apart from real life examples, in that many people that form these merry bands, might not have met in real life and only know each other through the Internet. I myself have had friends that I only knew online, but fell out of contact with them in the end, as while talking to someone across the world is all well and good, but face to face communication has its merits.