Is ‘Gaming Culture’ Truly Dead or Has It Just Evolved?

In the past three decades videogames have gone from being a niche market to being one of the most primary forms of entertainment in the world. Has the culture that has grown up with these games disappeared or has it simply evolved?

[Godmars290]

Its under attack by people who are trying to dictate what they think it should be.

[Roccetarius]

It's under attack by people with no interest in gaming at all.

[ShaunCameron]

It's under attack by people who before the 7th generation wanted nothing to do with gaming, but now that it has become a multi-billion dollar industry they're bitching about how it owes them representation and inclusion.

[Activemessiah]

Gaming would have been in deep waters if gamergate hadn't intervened somewhat... some shady non-gaming BS started to creep in and people got exposed.

simple.

Here's what Gamergate achieved to do: http://wiki.gamergate.me/in...

[wakeNbake]

Its simply become more mainstream, especially over the course of last gen. Were not all little kids or basement dwelling neckbeards anymore.

[Kenshin_BATT0USAI]

That was never the case to begin with.

[magiciandude]

Please tell me what bizarre world you lived in when you were younger.

[DragonKnight]

Read the article, read the first comment, clearly the term "gamer culture" isn't understood by the author or the commentor in the article.

Gamer culture isn't dead. It's been around for 40+ years and will continue to be around.

Here's what gamer culture is.

This site, the people who consistently visit it, the various conferences that only core gamers are interested in year after year, the desire to interact with gamers to form new friends/clans/tournaments, the fact that there are tournaments, cosplay of game characters, interaction between developers and fans or executives and fans (Shuhei Yoshida does Twitch streams for goodness sake). All this, and so much more, are gamer culture.

A mother playing a facebook game and yelling at it isn't gamer culture. Does she have an interest in going to a facebook games convention? Does she read up on the latest facebook games to come out and get together with friends to discuss the games on more than a "can you give me a life" level? Are there action figures and collector's editions made of Facebook games which that mother collects and talks about with her fellow facebook game friends? I haven't seen a single example of any of this myself, has anyone else?

No, gamer culture is not dead. No, it hasn't "evolved" into feminism and inclusion. Gamer culture had a change back when the PS1 came out and Sony showed the world that people of all ages could game and not be ashamed of it, today there is a change in that games are trying to be taken seriously as an eSport, but beyond that and the actions taken to guarantee game development has all the freedoms and protections of the First Amendment (and similar rights across the world), gamer culture has largely been the same. Anyone can game at any time. Pick up a controller, or a keyboard and mouse, and let's get together to save a fictional world from fictional evils then talk about it with each other and have some fun.

That's been the basis of gaming for 40+ years, it's not going to change any time soon.

[Godmars290]

The commenter to the article isn't wholly wrong. In their own way social elements and especially the chase after the graphics dragon have been as much detriments as benefits to gaming. For instance, its sad how character AI seems to have gone backwards rather than forwards in terms of development.

[rainslacker]

I agree with you. Keep in mind that there are different gaming sub-cultures within gaming, and some of them involve the mother playing face book games. They socialize and discuss just the same as we do. These subcultures very rarely ever interact with one another, and that's not a social issue that needs to be rallied against, it's just an interest in different aspects of gaming.

The culture may be different than ours, but that doesn't mean that it isn't a culture in of of itself.

However, given the premise of the article...you are right on point.:)

[Tex117]

Nah, we are still here.

[GokuSolosAll]

Gaming "culture" is still alive but it is certainly under attack, and always has been in some form. Similar to comic books, once you try to broaden appeal by spreading yourself thin you lose focus on what matters and shit gets ruined.

[Spotie]

Not even a question worth asking, let alone worth answering.