DarksideEric
Call me "Hadouken." I'm ââ fierce.
First question I'm going to throw out to you guys:
When did you start online gaming? Doesn't matter if it was on PC, console or even mobile, just would like to know when you started to be exposed to online gaming because I think (at least for me), the earlier you started gaming online the more open you are about things changing in the community. And perhaps a bit more knowledgeable on how to treat trends and such in said community.
I myself started gaming online in 1998 with the PC FPS Starsiege TRIBES (one of the best FPS games I've ever played), so I've been around the whole gaming + anonymity thing since it started.
So let me lay out a few topics to be discussed in here, if I might, and I'd like to see some of your thoughts first before I input my own into the conversation (though I will admit on many things in the gaming culture I'm somewhat "liberal").
- The continued separation of girl gamers and gamers (as "gamer" is still often meant to mean male).
- The continued separation of "casual" and "hardcore" and if people even still know what the differences between these two are.
- While multiplayer gaming has expanded thanks to the internet, are the social connections gaming used to have (such as playing next to someone in an arcade) being dropped out? Are gamers not getting the same social skills or is it actually increasing?
- Will gaming ever be taken seriously by not only the media, but gamers themselves? Many, many times I still see gamers degrade things like MLG where gaming is actually being turned into a profession.
So, is it Leveling Up or Devolving?
When did you start online gaming? Doesn't matter if it was on PC, console or even mobile, just would like to know when you started to be exposed to online gaming because I think (at least for me), the earlier you started gaming online the more open you are about things changing in the community. And perhaps a bit more knowledgeable on how to treat trends and such in said community.
I myself started gaming online in 1998 with the PC FPS Starsiege TRIBES (one of the best FPS games I've ever played), so I've been around the whole gaming + anonymity thing since it started.
So let me lay out a few topics to be discussed in here, if I might, and I'd like to see some of your thoughts first before I input my own into the conversation (though I will admit on many things in the gaming culture I'm somewhat "liberal").
- The continued separation of girl gamers and gamers (as "gamer" is still often meant to mean male).
- The continued separation of "casual" and "hardcore" and if people even still know what the differences between these two are.
- While multiplayer gaming has expanded thanks to the internet, are the social connections gaming used to have (such as playing next to someone in an arcade) being dropped out? Are gamers not getting the same social skills or is it actually increasing?
- Will gaming ever be taken seriously by not only the media, but gamers themselves? Many, many times I still see gamers degrade things like MLG where gaming is actually being turned into a profession.
So, is it Leveling Up or Devolving?