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[Gsak]

Here's Leigh Alexander's piece on gaming culture and the end of "gamers" - http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/224400/Gamers_dont_have_to_be_your_audience_Gamers_are_over.php

Archive Today version for those who want to use that - https://archive.today/l1kTW

What say you, GAF?

EDIT: Kotaku joins in:
http://kotaku.com/we-might-be-witnessing-the-death-of-an-identity-1628203079/all
Archive Today version - https://archive.today/D1gGC

EDIT 2: Leigh Alexander's rationale:

Why do you sometimes mock ‘nerds’ and ‘gamers’ so virulently? Isn’t that the same kind of bullying you rail against?

A lot of ‘proud nerds’ are people who used the fact they were picked on for their interests as children to maintain, as adults and and fathers (they are most often privileged men, now) a ‘secret clubhouse’ that lets them victimize and oppress other participants — despite the fact games are now a multi-billion dollar industry, increasingly stigma-free, and desperately in need of the creative and professional participation of multitudes of new voices.

Self-identified nerds are often so obsessed with their identity as cultural outcasts that they are willfully blind to their privilege, and for the sake of relatively-absurd fandoms — space marines, dragons, zombies, endless war simulations — take their myopic and insular attitudes to “art” and “culture” with tunnel-visioned, inflexible, embarrassing seriousness that often leads to homogeneity, racism, sexism and bullying.

Nerds escaped high school. Some of them made millions making video games. Digital literacy doesn’t make you special, it makes you baseline employable. Fantasy is on mainstream cable.

Meanwhile, actual systemic oppression is punishing people not just where they wish to participate in games, but in every day of the rest of their lives. For many people, profound and violating inequalities show no sign of ease, and their “fellow outcasts” collude to reject them from the clubhouse when they try to join in .

My adult life in games and internet culture frequently involves brutal gendered language. Over video games. So if you want someone who feels sorry for you because your family grew up with a Super Nintendo, don’t ask me.

The fact you got a Game Boy for Christmas and liked it so much you stopped doing anything else doesn’t entitle you to a revolution. Your fandom is not your identity. Your fandom is not a race.

If you think it is, then you’re in our way, and the work I do specifically exists to dispossess you of your sense of relevance. If you don’t like it, good. I’m much louder than you. And we have an army.

 

[RE_Player]

This whole situation has just cemented my long time opinion of how the term "gamer" is dumb. Let's kill it now.

 

[nelchaar]

A summary of key points would be nice, OP.

That being said, I play games for fun. Games are supposed to be fun and not to be taken seriously. It always strikes me when you get "warriors" or "crusaders" for causes in the video game industry. It's just games. Why do we keep making a big deal of it? I just buy my games, play them, and put them away. It's an industry, and I'm a consumer. I vote with my wallet, and I don't really care about the drama.

 

[entremet]

Gaming culture is such a wacky term. Do we have book and movie culture?

 

[The Librarian]

I think it's a really good article that highlights the negative effects of the way the gaming industry treats women.

 

[Moofers]

I read this earlier today. I'm not usually a fan of hers, but I think she's mostly on point here. Not in complete agreement (mainly the stuff about being slow to accept not owning our games anymore, and the really broad generalizing about the culture around games) but there's a lot of truth in the form of hot fire.

For all the bitching I see about the sorry state of games journalism, I expect to see a lot of people checking in here to say they agree with her.

 

[LiK]

This whole situation has just cemented my long time opinion of how the term "gamer" is dumb. Let's kill it now.

Jeff Gerstmann said it was a dumb term years ago at Gamespot. It's finally back to the forefront.

 

[Abriael]

Sensationalist headline and article that well represents how antagonism and hyperbole can easily ruin and derail an useful and relevant discussion.

 

[Trey]

Gaming culture is such a wacky term. Do we have book and movie culture?

Absolutely.

 

[IncandescentPrecept]

How do you call these people:

http://kotaku.com/people-sure-are-mad-that-kim-kardashians-game-wasnt-wor-1608354710

 

[Tokyo Rain]

Started to read article. 15 seconds in I realized I couldn't give two fucks about what she's talking about.

Guess I'm not a gamer.

 

[gotstrangepowers]

Why do people care about headlines?

 

[ph00p]

There are a group of people out to classify everything and are attempting to destroy those classifications. It's the new lowest common denominator attention grabber.

See game journalism has EVOLVED! Now we've got schlock stories that should be in rags just like all the other forms of journalism! Woo! Progress people!

 

[The Technomancer]

I read it and as someone who's never really felt like "part of gaming culture" I agree

 

[GrizzNKev]

‘Game culture’ as we know it is kind of embarrassing -- it’s not even culture. It’s buying things, spackling over memes and in-jokes repeatedly, and it’s getting mad on the internet.

A form of entertainment is not a culture, and never was. Just because I love to play games doesn't make me associated with any of these so-called "embarrassing" people or the activities they engage in.

Gamers are over. That’s why they’re so mad.

Again... they never were. Finding a bunch of people who are both mean online and play games and calling them a group, community, or culture does not make them one. You're looking to place blame on a generalization instead of understanding the individual issues each person has that results in their behavior.

 

[James Scott]

I've never been too fond of the term "Gamer". Like, people that watch movies or read books don't have a special name as common as gamer.
edit: I said as common as gamer. I know there are names for the movie/book version, but you don't see it used nearly as much as "gamer". I watch a movie every other week, but I wouldn't call myself a cinephiles

 

[SerTapTap]

I don't know why all this focus is on the word "gamer" and I really hate the "gamers are terrible" narrative. Lots of humans are terrible, doesn't make me less of a human and doesn't make me terrible for being one.

Pretending not to be "gamers" does not fix any problems of sexism or harassment or anything. Nothing is changed, it's just trying to wipe your hands of it by rejecting a completely innocuous descriptive label. Personally I would rather stand and fight bullshit than run and say "gamer oh no not me sir! I'm just a person who plays games!"

I've never been too fond of the term "Gamer". Like, people that watch movies or read books don't have a special name as common as gamer.

Movie fans, bookworms, audiophiles, otakus, jocks, sportsfans. Plenty of descriptive words out there.

 

[gotstrangepowers]

There are a group of people out to classify everything and are attempting to destroy those classifications. It's the new lowest common denominator attention grabber.

See game journalism has EVOLVED! Now we've got schlock stories that should be in rags just like all the other forms of journalism! Woo! Progress people!

What

 

[hawk2025]

By the turn of the millennium those were games’ only main cultural signposts: Have money. Have women. Get a gun and then a bigger gun. Be an outcast. Celebrate that. Defeat anyone who threatens you. You don’t need cultural references. You don’t need anything but gaming. Public conversation was led by a games press whose role was primarily to tell people what to buy, to score products competitively against one another, to gleefully fuel the “team sports” atmosphere around creators and companies.

I found this particular quote to be scarily accurate.

 

[Colonel Nasty]

After that stunt with the Player One guys I'm not giving Leigh any clicks.

Spoiler

Im also not going to go to the other extreme and call her derogatory slurs on the internet either

 

[wonzo]

gamers are p. much the worst

 

[Reluctant-Hero]

Read the article and I completely agree. The term is dumb and should be left in the past. I enjoy video games. Playing them, discussing them, reading about them. But video games are in no means a dominant part of my life. Just a subsection. A hobby for my extremely limited free time.

 

[SeanTSC]

I went ahead and read the whole thing, but really this was all I had to read:

‘Games culture’ is a petri dish of people who know so little about how human social interaction and professional life works that they can concoct online ‘wars’ about social justice or ‘game journalism ethics,’ straight-faced, and cause genuine human consequences. Because of video games.

That's so amazingly full of pure Hubris and just plain old wrong and insulting. I am disgusted and sad that someone actually believes that and typed it out.

 

[lazygecko]

I do not like the sweeping generalizations and overall condescending tone of this article. "Gaming culture" is much broader and diverse than general purpose gaming communities that perpetuate the kind of bullshit highlighted by the author.

 

[Foshy]

Nothing but the truth in that article. Very good and interesting read.

 

[entremet]

Absolutely.

Explain?

Gaming is one of the few mediums where there has to be this weird club of sorts. Movies and books are way too broad for that.

 

[SolidSnakex]

I've never been too fond of the term "Gamer". Like, people that watch movies or read books don't have a special name as common as gamer.

People that are into car culture do have terms that they go by. Watch pretty much any car related show and you'll hear people referring to one another as gearheads or petrol heads.

 

[General_Frags]

So gaming is dead Leigh? click bait article need some money now, etc.

 

[Zombie James]

It’s clear that most of the people who drove those revenues in the past have grown up -- either out of games, or into more fertile spaces, where small and diverse titles can flourish, where communities can quickly spring up around creativity, self-expression and mutual support, rather than consumerism. There are new audiences and new creators alike there. Traditional “gaming” is sloughing off, culturally and economically, like the carapace of a bug.

This is hard for people who’ve drank the kool aid about how their identity depends on the aging cultural signposts of a rapidly-evolving, increasingly broad and complex medium. It’s hard for them to hear they don’t own anything, anymore, that they aren’t the world’s most special-est consumer demographic, that they have to share.

Gamers are over. That’s why they’re so mad.

What? I get what she's trying to say, but these are very wide, broad generalizations.

 

[The Technomancer]

A form of entertainment is not a culture, and never was. Just because I love to play games doesn't make me associated with any of these so-called "embarrassing" people or the activities they engage in.



Again... they never were. Finding a bunch of people who are both mean online and play games and calling them a group, community, or culture does not make them one. You're looking to place blame on a generalization instead of understanding the individual issues each person has that results in their behavior.

I feel like your missing the point...game culture as she describes it was and is a thing and it sounds like you weren't part of it

 

[gigantor21]

I don't know why all this focus is on the word "gamer" and I really hate the "gamers are terrible" narrative. Lots of humans are terrible, doesn't make mes less of a human and doesn't make me terrible for being one.

Pretending not to be "gamers" does not fix any problems of sexism or harassment or anything. Nothing is changed, it's just trying to wipe your hands of it by rejecting a completely innocuous descriptive label. Personally I would rather stand and fight bullshit than run and say "gamer oh no not me sir! I'm just a person who plays games!"

Pretty much exactly how I feel about it.

Pinning the blame on the term "gamer" itself is useless, and will do nothing except force critics to find another label on pin on people who enjoy video games. I, for one, have never had a problem with it or understood why so many people do.

 

[ReaperXL7]

I've never been too fond of the term "Gamer". Like, people that watch movies or read books don't have a special name as common as gamer.

Book worms, and cinephiles

 

[ActuallyHulk]

I can't think of many other industries that not only degrade their consumers but seem to take some kind of strange enjoyment out of it. The term gamer blows though.

 

[Manu]

Gaming culture is such a wacky term. Do we have book and movie culture?

Eh... yes?

 

[TheOddOne]

Right, let’s say it’s a vocal minority that’s not representative of most people. Most people, from indies to industry leaders, are mortified, furious, disheartened at the direction industry conversation has taken in the past few weeks. It’s not like there are reputable outlets publishing rational articles in favor of the trolls’ ‘side’. Don’t give press to the harassers. Don’t blame an entire industry for a few bad apples.

Yet disclaiming liability is clearly no help. Game websites with huge community hubs whose fans are often associated with blunt Twitter hate mobs sort of shrug, they say things like ‘we delete the really bad stuff, what else can we do’ and ‘those people don’t represent our community’ -- but actually, those people do represent your community. That’s what your community is known for, whether you like it or not.

When you decline to create or to curate a culture in your spaces, you’re responsible for what spawns in the vacuum. That’s what’s been happening to games.

Yet in 2014, the industry has changed. We still think angry young men are the primary demographic for commercial video games -- yet average software revenues from the commercial space have contracted massively year on year, with only a few sterling brands enjoying predictable success.

It’s clear that most of the people who drove those revenues in the past have grown up -- either out of games, or into more fertile spaces, where small and diverse titles can flourish, where communities can quickly spring up around creativity, self-expression and mutual support, rather than consumerism. There are new audiences and new creators alike there. Traditional “gaming” is sloughing off, culturally and economically, like the carapace of a bug.

This is hard for people who’ve drank the kool aid about how their identity depends on the aging cultural signposts of a rapidly-evolving, increasingly broad and complex medium. It’s hard for them to hear they don’t own anything, anymore, that they aren’t the world’s most special-est consumer demographic, that they have to share.

We also have to scrutinize, closely, the baffling, stubborn silence of many content creators amid these scandals, or the fact lots of stubborn, myopic internet comments happen on business and industry sites. This is hard for old-school developers who are being made redundant, both culturally and literally, in their unwillingness to address new audiences or reference points outside of blockbuster movies and comic books as their traditional domain falls into the sea around them. Of course it’s hard. It’s probably intense, painful stuff for some young kids, some older men.

Pulling to punches and it is great to read.

 

[bobawesome]

Overly dramatic as always.

 

[IrishNinja]

sorry leigh, you lost me when you said the classic sonic games weren't good

 

[kimtish]

Explain?

Gaming is one of the few mediums where there has to be this weird club of sorts. Movies and books are way too broad for that.

You don't know any movie buffs or bibliophiles?

 

[Harlock]

Microsoft has similar thoughts when focused on Kinect. We all know what amazing games arose.

 

[soultron]

This article is going to fly over the heads of so many people here who want to identify as "gamers," simply taking offense at the chance that they might be implicated by association. The article is not about the term "gamer," so I implore you to actually read it and ponder the entirety of her argument, given the context of the past few weeks.

 

[stolin]

More War on gamers ?

The demographics from here are indicating that Gamers like games..
From this thread..
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=884312

 

[Verger]

I actually found this quote kind of insulting:

It’s young men queuing with plush mushroom hats and backpacks and jutting promo poster rolls. Queuing passionately for hours, at events around the world, to see the things that marketers want them to see. To find out whether they should buy things or not. They don’t know how to dress or behave. Television cameras pan across these listless queues, and often catch the expressions of people who don’t quite know why they themselves are standing there.

Talk about generalizing a huge huge audience. People line up at these events because they are excited to be there. It's not just about gaming. Hell look at ComicCon or Comiket. Are the people lining up in those queues not knowing how to dress or behave?

 

[hawk2025]

Microsoft has similar thoughts when focused on Kinect. We all know what amazing games arose.

That's very, VERY far from the point being made.

In fact, I suspect that a lot of people are completely missing it.

 

[DeSolos]

I like playing games. I don't care about either side of this argument.

 

[soultron]

More War on gamers ?

The demographics from here are indicating that Gamers like games..
From this thread..
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=884312

This has nothing to do with her article. Did you even read it?

Spoiler

You're a wicked-fast reader if so.

 

[Mesoian]

Here's Leigh Alexander's piece on gaming culture and the end of "gamers" - http://gamasutra.com/view/news/224400/Gamers_dont_have_to_be_your_audience_Gamers_are_over.php

What say you, GAF?

I though about making this thread earlier today, but ended up making it part of the Anita Sarkessian conversation.

I think she's spot on, and furthermore, I think this is the only article to both actualize the fear and anger that the general target market for video games, "Gamers", feel when they hear things like more female gamers are coming in to the fold but not in the traditional way, how indies are taking over and the idea of the traditional game is becoming obsolete, how rah rah sensationalism ended up being the parenting assistant for the hobby that we all poured so much time into and how there's really nothing we anyone do to stop it from changing, and all we can do is adapt or die.

It's an EXCELLENT article, by far the best one she's ever written.

This line is FIRE

It’s young men queuing with plush mushroom hats and backpacks and jutting promo poster rolls. Queuing passionately for hours, at events around the world, to see the things that marketers want them to see. To find out whether they should buy things or not. They don’t know how to dress or behave. Television cameras pan across these listless queues, and often catch the expressions of people who don’t quite know why they themselves are standing there.

Because I have done this. I remember going to the xbox 360 launch in college with a bunch of friends, waiting in line for 5 hours, questioning what I was doing, why I was there, and walked away with nothing.

 

[SerTapTap]

More War on gamers ?

The demographics from here are indicating that Gamers like games..
From this thread..
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=884312

Those demographics do not perfectly represent "gamers"--it's...really hard to analyze any sort of breakdown, really. My Youtube channel focuses entirely on gaming, mostly flash and indie games, and breakdown is 50-50 gender wise, waffling back and forth a few percentage points either way on any given month. Indie PC gamer demographics are not necessarily wii u demographics are not necessarily...you get the point.

 

[The Technomancer]

You don't know any movie buffs or bibliophiles?

I can't say I know any that were part of the weird corporates consumer synergy of the 2000's that's being discussed, no

 

[lefantome]

I don't agree.

I consider myself a gamer, I don't recognize myself in her definition of "gamer" and I don't think that the vast majority of gamers does it either.
Also the article is counterproductive given the current situation, it's like bombing an entire country because a terrorist cell has been discovered.

She usually writes good articles for gamasutra but this is probably her worst one.

 

[G-Fex]

As long as it gets rid of that fucking word 'gamer' I'm all for it