A House Divided: The Gaming Community
Hello, again Nizulo readers! The Deadman is back with another little retrospective on another little point that I feel needs to be addressed as a whole and not picked apart by one or another.
See, I grew up in the generation of the original console wars Nintendo versus Sega. I was on the Nintendo side and many of my friends were on the Sega side. So the ‘our games are better than their games’ phrase was thrown around constantly and thus the first gaming nerds were born!
Our system has this many bits, better graphics, better sound and more buttons! Well our system has turbo graphix that can blow your cerebellum away! This was the fun we had and it was just that: Fun. Sonic and Mario were often at war in the thoughts and hearts of their fans back then, but there was one thing that we all understood: We are all Gamers. Plain and simple. We are Gamers. Not Nintendo fans, not Sega fans, not Mario fans, or Zelda fans. Gamers.
And now that the generations have changed and have grown up I have witnessed one of the most horrible things I could ever imagine: My community has divided against itself. That’s right, there’s now a rift separating the core of this community that runs right down the middle. Now there are teams vying for consoles and their games and downing and insulting the other camp with as much hate as possible. There are verbal, viral, and sometimes physical wars between these camps and this just upsets me in ways that I can hardly describe. I am the one in the midst of all this chaos calling for a cease to arms in this war. I have all the systems that I can physically have and I love and play them all as much as possible. I have a PSN account as well as an XBOX Live account and I have my ascii code that Nintendo calls their friend system. So how can I even begin to try and pick a side without making myself out to be a hypocrite? I couldn’t.
“I say that as a community we need to eliminate these camps and stitch the void between us and stand united as a community once more.”
I say that as a community we need to eliminate these camps and stitch the void between us and stand united as a community once more. I want us to eliminate the ones that seek to censor and destroy our hobby and way of life and for some their livelihood. We don’t really think of the consequences when we spout what game is better and that the opposition to it should close forever. Think of the families that would be affected if, say, Infinity Ward and Treyarch closed down to admit defeat to Battlefield. How many of those folk would have to seek other employment while their families suffered and vice versa? Think of the developers, writers and such that would suffer just to acquiesce to your preferred game or genre. Never really thought of it, have you? Hard to admit, I know. But the thing is this: We stand together, support each other, and the games for all the consoles there would be no foot hold for useless laws and ridiculous accusations of affected behavior due to our digital past time. If we stood behind facts and data and our own passion to keep this industry and lifestyle alive then studios wouldn’t close and people like Jack Thompson would have never had the opportunity to throw mud on the name of Grand Theft Auto.
We, as Gamers, should seek to make peace with each other. Talk all the trash we want during the game, but when the match is done admit defeat or congratulate the other players for even playing with you. As for the victor’s side be modest in that lobby cause if those other folks leave or give you a bad review on your account your options for servers and other players will dwindle to the point of running around a map throwing grenades at yourself to even try to get a score of some kind.
If I seem passionate about this, it’s because I am. I have gaming friends all over the world and the fact that you’re reading this on an Australian website should be proof enough.
So be the better gamer. Say “Good game.” and mean it. The next time someone starts an argument about what franchise is better smack them both and say ‘they’re both good’, next time a PS3 and Xbox debate fires up, douse it with the fact that the Wii outsold them both. Help me repair this rift between us all and get back to when gaming was a core and a force to be reckoned with in any media or forum.
Thanks for reading and if you have any comments please leave them below. And as always: Game Hard, Game Often, Game On.
