Cyber Culture: My experiences with online gaming

My experiences with cyber cultures come from firsthand experience. When I younger (12 or so) I began playing games on PC. It started out as something I only did because my cousin also played, but once he started focusing elsewhere, my immersion into the world of online gaming began. It started out as playing with the same group of gamers repeatedly, but it evolved into what gamers call a “Clan”. Clans are groups of people who play together, usually in some form of competitive manner. 

I developed a rapport with my fellow gamers, and people began to even recognize my gaming tag ‘FuriousGeorge’. My game of choice? Call of duty. Playing in a clan allowed me to join leagues with my online friends to play for money and bragging rights. I became immersed with my social identity online, even though no one in my daily interactions knew exactly how good I was at playing a shooting game against people from around the world. 

(I`ve tried to find information about myself under my pseudonym, but to little avail).

I initially started a clan with people from Canada; none of which I knew, and yet we were all connected by the fact that we were representing Canada in the world of Competitive gaming. Being young at the time made me fickle though. I left this group after I had become well known in my community of competitive gamers, which allowed me to join with any clan that I believed would foster my abilities. 

Unlike what most people’s views are towards gamers, I was doing quite well in school, and I was also well liked by my classmates. Even though I played against some of the best gamers in the world, no one knew why I did it. It’s hard to explain why, and even harder to explain why I kept going back to online gaming after I told myself that I should stop playing, mostly due to the falling apart of several clans I had started with a core group of friends. 

I stopped playing competitively for several years, but went back to it during the summer of 2009. For some reason I felt obliged to go out and buy Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and to begin playing again. Within a month of playing again, a clan invited me to join them, and unlike my previous year’s experiences with clans, this one was very well run. I was again fully immersed in the world of gaming, and actually had some of my teammates come to Toronto so we could play in a competition here. The event left a sour taste in my mouth, mostly due to my thoughts on how seriously people taking competitive gaming. My teammates were much like me, and also become alienated by the community that was there. After the event we all shook hands and said “never again”. I formally left the clan, and on a good note unlike many times before. 

My experiences in this culture did not alienate me from my real life interactions, and in fact made me feel somewhat more confident. It’s hard to explain the world exactly, and I am left mostly with an anecdotal examination with little depth, but it’s hard to explain to someone who doesn’t know exactly what the goings-on with competitive gaming. All the people I met online were not the typical geekish gamers. Most of them were like every other person I met in real life, but just liked to play games for money alongside their daily interactions.

This has been my interactions with cyber culture, something that I think very little of now. I do not expect to ever play competitively again, and unlike many professional sports, I could retire when I was 18.

Gaming and Violence

After a class discussion today I have decided that addressing the idea of violence among youth being the result of playing video games.

The controversy has existed for as long as violent video games have existed. Why do games that have mature themes get the blame for a "violent" culture? Was it Doom that made the columbine massacre possible? Was it an addiction to EverQuest that made 21 year old Shawn Woolley commit suicide? Video games have been pointed at as the creators of violent personalities, but I believe that it is simple one outlet that someone with a violent mind will use to get out anger and frustration.

It is impossible to directly relate a persons obsession with video games; more specifically violent games, with violent behaviour. Almost all calls for the banning of a specific video game, or a way in which to regulate video games with mature themes have come after the result of a violent incident. After the Columbine massacre, Doom was to blame. After the Virginia Tech shooting Counter Strike was to blame, and the shooting of two officers by David Moore, who was apparently obsessed with Grand Theft Auto.

Individuals with violent tendencies have always found outlets for their anger. Whether it was through bullying, fighting, killing animals, and abusing spouses/children/elderly. It hasn't been until the release of First Person Shooters (FPS) that people have begun to take notice at how individuals can be easily drawn into playing a violent game (whether they have violent tendencies or not) and finally having a single source for all blame to be placed. A violent video game will not make someone with no violent background/psychological problems pick up a gun and murder someone.

There was a recent case where the psychologist, Carole Lieberman, said that the Newly released game BulletStorm could lead to cases of Rape because of its suggestive and mature themes. She believed that because the game referenced acts of sex when referring to killing single or multiple targets, such as saying "Gang Bang, Gag Reflex and Mile High Club", that it may entice young individuals to commit acts of sexual violence. Since her article was published on Fox News' website, it has been debunked by almost every video gaming website, and even Lieberman's credentials have been called into question.

Video games have become the scape goat for parents when something terrible befalls a community. Pointing the finger at an industry that has complied with almost every request when it comes to marking items in accordance to the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board). Things such as playing cowboys and indians, telling scary stories, and watching violent movies have rarely been called into question as much as video games have, and that is because each of these things have become imbedded within out society as something young people do, and something that is readily accepted as a social norm.