all done for today

Here is what I accomplished over the course of the night.


Gamers vs. the world
The title isn’t appropriately named because it isn’t like there will be a war between such factions. However, I do want to highlight the differences in this subculture alone. But before I dive into the differences in personality I would like to highlight the most notable difference between the “gamer” and the rest of the world. The reason they are coined gamers is because they play video games. Within this subculture there are two subcategories and one of which I will be concentrating on, they are the casual gamer, and the hardcore gamer. If we are to note any differences between gamers and other people we should concentrate on the hardcore gamers, where their playtime has been a major part of their life. The reason we concentrate on hardcore gamers and classify them as a different subculture is because the majority of people are now active in playing video games for entertainment. In 2007 a report from the NPD Group stated that 72 percent of the U.S. population played video games. (Antonucci) That being said it is hard to make a distinction when the majority of people are gaming. So we must concentrate on the individuals who devoted the time to earn the title hardcore or “core” gamers.
There isn’t a clear cut definition for the hardcore gamer; however, there are some generally accepted practices of core gamers. For one, hardcore gamers usually dedicate their leisure time to the practice and perfection of video game playing. Also, most hardcore gamers have some sense of competition that plays a role in the dedication that they have to their particular game. They will participate in tournaments, leagues, clans, guilds, or any type of gamer community. Note that these practices are not a 100% accurate definition of the core gamers because they vary in scope as much as the number of video games out there.
The differences in lifestyle choices that dictate the separation of core gamers from societal norms is a simple one, but within that divide a unique sub-culture is created. As mentioned in the introduction, the early years of video games, core gamers were the majority of the gaming population.
“Online-gamers are often exposed to generalizations and stereotypes in public media as well as in the scientific community; furthermore deviant behaviors and emotional problems are attributed to them. According to the recent findings it could be revealed that most gamers – 84% (n = 395) of all participants in the current study – show neither problematic gaming behavior nor depressive tendencies, even though the percentage differed regarding the type of game”
These stereotypes have resonated within American culture and have been subject to jests by popular media and gamers themselves. A unique trait of the gamer community is the acceptance of such jokes as a point of pride. When participating in a competitive online community, users will frequently be judged on their performance and a common insult is to call someone a noobie, a new person at the game with no skill. This suggests that when playing for sport, one must attempt to play like a hardcore gamer or else risk being chastise by the hardcore gamer collective.
Nowadays, core gamers vary in ways such as what games they play, what consoles they own, trollers (see the index), true gamers, etc… But even though there are major differences even within the core gamer community most share similarities that put them apart from the standard culture collective.
In order to understand the differences between gamers and the rest of the world one must first identify what motivates gamers to the continual practice of video games. One suggestion that speaks to the character of gamers is their natural affinity to boredom. “For example, impulsivity might predict computer game play due to its correlation with boredom. (3)” Such implications of impulsivity only link to the launch of play but not the continuation of it. The ‘addictive’ qualities of games, which will be discussed later, may retain the attention of impulsive people causing them to become a hardcore gamer. The cause of which may be the result of the impulsive personality turning to video games when boredom occurs during, but not limited to, leisure time.
It should be noted at this time that there is no definitive answer to the question “Why do gamers play so much?” because each individual’s needs dictate what draws them to dedicated game play. However, it has been said that we can break down each individual’s motivations into a few psychological needs. “Self-determination theory (Ryan and Deci, 2000) suggests that every individual has three innate psychological requirements that have to be met to sustain prolonged participation in an activity which are autonomy, competence and fulfillment.” Within this theory lie the requirements for hardcore games to exist. Gaming, for the core gamer, generally meets such prerequisites regardless of individual differences. From these building blocks, one can explicate motivations that are crux to the hardcore gamer.
One theory that is applicable when concerning hardcore gamers’ motivations is intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is the act of participating because the activity yields excitement and an enjoyable experience. “…motivation is created by four individual factors: challenge, fantasy, curiosity and control and three interpersonal factors: cooperation, competition, and recognition. Interestingly, these factors also describe what makes a good game…"(1) If we accept these as fundamental components of avid video game play, then hardcore gamers must derive at least a few of these components, probably more, from games.
The two interpersonal factors competition and recognition are what drive the competitive hardcore gamer. As mentioned above, these competitive players will participate in leagues, matchmaking, and other sorts of communities to achieve a sense of position, ranked on skill level and competence of their respective games. Males in particular play games like FPS (First Person Shooters) and RTS (Real-Time Strategies) for the competitive aspects embedded in the theatre of the game.
A study conducted by Thomas et al. showed that the males in the study ranked FPS’s as their most played type of game while the females ranked them the least. This may derive from the males’ primitive need for dominance suggested by the male-warrior hypothesis. This hypothesis suggests that, “an ancestral history of frequent and violent intergroup conflict has shaped the social psychology and behavior of men in particular. (vugt et al.)” Combined with evolution theories that state the correlation between the territorial protection of male chimpanzees, our closest genetic relative, (Boehm, 1999; Wrangham & Peterson, 1996) it makes for a compelling argument as to the reason virtual competition is one of the leading causes of fervent game play.
Another fixation that core gamers take pleasure in is the development and connection they have with the individual avatar. “The relationship between the player and the avatar is described by the players’ affection to the character, which leads to negative feelings if the avatar is under attack or dies (Wolvendale, 2006).” This quote, speaks to intimacy gamers develop with virtual characters, because of the increase of customizability of the avatar, individualization has a more prominent effect on the “immersion factor” within games (7). Due to realization of the relationship between customization and immersion, companies pay keen attention to how this affects gamer loyalty.
Immersion as defined by Witmer and Singer is, “a psychological state characterized by perceiving oneself to be enveloped by, included in, and interacting with an environment that provides a continuous stream of stimuli and experiences.” This immersion factor is developed by the use of avatars and customization and has been shown to increase gamer loyalty (7). Immersion plays a major role in game types as RPG’s (role-playing games) and MMORPG’s (massive multiplayer online role playing games) where story and character development take precedence over competitive play and over all skill assessment. Some of the key components of immersion have been best stated by McMahan saying gamer personality through the mediums command input, commentary, and fraternity affect the overall immersion in virtual world.
The social nature of the gamer community adds to the unique qualities of this sub-culture. As with any group, sub-culture, or faction, there are interactions within the given community that distinguish it from others. The hardcore gamer community is a society that hinges on a virtual environment. That being said, what draws gamers to participate in an intangible environment speaks to the personality of gamers. Jesse Fagan commented on the unique nature of MMORPG’s by saying,
Still, distinct from social networking sites, massively multiplayer game-worlds like WoW set the stage for collaborative and simultaneously shared play interactions that seem as real as they are fun, unfolding as they do in a meticulously rendered fantasy world and via avatar-characters who, in many instances, come to feel like second selves.
The development of the avatar in this community provides a sense of belonging to the online gamer and is not specifically restricted to the hardcore gamer. This autonomy that is generated in a virtual sense allows for a disassociation from reality. “It is this anonymity that gives those with low self-confidence, the chance to create a virtual life for themselves on the Internet (Ng and Wiemer-Hastings, 2005).”
The properties of this microcosm have seemed to attract the attention of persecution from scholars and varying kinds of outsiders due to the amount of time dedicated by some to the online social communities. Their arguments do have validity when dealing with ‘addictive personalities’ or persons who have pre-existing deficits in real-life relationships (Fagan, et al). However, the case study done by Kryspin-Exner et al. stated that 84% of their participants had, “…no problematic gaming behavior nor depressive tendencies.”
Interactions within the community, depending on where participation is conducted (whether it be online forums, within the game, or over a VoIP service), gamers truly have freedom of speech threw their intangible characters. These ‘conversations’ can range from philosophy to flaming which, as defined by urbandictionary.com, means “To engage in an online argument usually involving unfounded personal attacks by one or more parties.” These engagements are possible because irrespective of how one acts online, one’s personal, real life can be unaffected.
Because of the unstable nature of how communication can be, gamers develop relationships based on similar goals in-game and players social aptitude. Nycterelis, a WoW player said this,
The social aspect is extremely alluring because, arrogance aside, everyone is more or less viewed as equal until their actions define them as otherwise. It’s a system genuinely based on merit. Your skills, whether it’s pvp, pve, or even mere social skills, dictate your image in the public eye. You can’t really get that anywhere else.
As a former player of WoW myself, building a social life online was completely up to the user. Incentive is given to those who seek companions to complete tasks that are impossible to do alone such as better equipment and new content. But as for the most popular type of online game to date, MMORPG’s, the social element of them resonates as a fundamental part of the game-play experience, hence why massive multiplayer is the defining part of the acronym.