Understanding Gamers

We gamers are a misunderstood bunch. Ours is a group with a particular, indifferent sort of stigma attached to them, normally associated with unemployment and our mother's basements. This may not be completely inaccurate, but hopefully over the course of the next few hundred words, I may be able to shed a little light on the ever expanding realm of online gaming.

I, myself, have been gaming since... Well, for a long time. I remember playing my brother's Pokemon games before I could even read the text to know what I was doing. My tastes have evolved since then, so I now may be what some would call a 'hard-core' gamer. Though it's hard to be all that 'hard-core' when you're trying to keep your GPA up and get the fingering down for that next measure of Asturias. Gaming has ceased to be a mere source of amusement for certain people. Now, it's more of a hobby. Or, dare I say, a sport. My grandpa's thing was golf, my dad's thing was bowling, and my thing is Guild Wars 2, specifically WvW in the green borderland. Online gaming is no longer a fringe genre, generally reserved for the unshaven and unemployed. It literally has become a national pastime. Maybe not as popular or as televised as other national pastimes, but equally, or possibly more, in depth. What it lacks in required physical prowess and chewing tobacco it makes up for with strategic thought, and some very savvy combat tactics.

Now, most parental units probably view my previous paragraph with a somewhat cynical eye, given that playing computer games may seem like a waste of time. However, I ask you to bear with me a little longer.

RPGs (role-playing games) were once odd, I grant you. Images of people dressed as wizards and rolling twenty-sided dice may be coming to mind when I mention them. However, about ten years ago this perception was vastly altered when a small venture set in the world of Azeroth completely revolutionized our society's online experience. This game was called World of Warcraft. I don't know if this name holds any negative connotations with you, dear reader, but when recalling this famous (or infamous) name, we must remember one thing: it is one of the most accessed online apparatus in the history of the internet. Before this game, MMOs had success, yes, but none were able to reach the broad spectrum of access that WoW did. It mingled the antisocial elements of typical RPG games with the vast social outlet of unbridled internet. For a moment consider this, partaking in the biggest social event you can imagine (WoW currently has over 10 million subscribers and it isn't even in the height of its favor anymore) while sitting alone in front of a computer monitor. I don't think you can get more paradoxical than that.

WoW was only the beginning though. This new breed of totally immersive entertainment has gone viral. It's no longer about 'beating that boss' or 'getting that high score,' gaming is now as social as any network. Except on this social network, you're judged not by your six-pack, but by how leet you are. (Leet means: elite, or competent, or hip. Basically, if your giant sword sparkles, you're leet. If your giant sword  doesn't sparkle, you're not leet.) Both seem like extremely shallow forms of analysis, but both are true.

The fact is, life in the virtual world is quickly beginning to mirror life in the real world. So much that, in fact, I am hesitant to use the terms 'real world' and 'virtual world'. Yes, I can tell the difference between pixels and otherwise; but what I'm trying to say is that it's not about the games themselves, but about the gamers. Games are just that: games. People bring them to life. And people play games for different reasons, some do so to grasp at a proxy reality, some to find friends, and some, like me, are just content to have their own little Narnia to slip into now and again. But whatever their reasons, gamers are my generation. For better or for worse.  

So we should pretty much picture MMOs like Facebook, just with swords, epic treasures, and the ability to fry people who annoy you. Awesome, I know.     

Josiah Bell, Teen Blogger