jwbennet_mu_infrough

Joshua Bennett Dr. Archibald English 110.50 29 Oct. 2008 Coming out of the Basement Today’s technology is a powerful tool for all kinds of serious endeavors, but nobody can seem to resist putting computers and the Internet to work entertaining us. It grows increasingly hard to find someone that does not take a short break from business for a relaxing game of solitaire, or kicking their brain into gear with a free online game of Sudoku. While a bit less universal, we all at least know a good number of people that play games with multiple other people over the Internet, whether online gambling, casual board games, even games using console systems instead of a computer. At the same time, despite single games with millions of players, the ‘gamers’ unlike serious sports fans, still seem shut off from a society even as they influence culture significantly. As more and more people get into these large gaming environments, they become more conversant in the existing sub-culture there. YouTube, at first, gave us more images of overweight, pasty skinned, young males as the hardcore gamers. People that do not fit the stereotype were stuck in an odd spot of not wanting to give up a hobby they love, and not wanting to be associated with a caricature. However, the Internet which brought so many embarrassing images has also made being a gamer truly normal, because of the growth and success of visible gamers in the public eye.

Trying to define a gamer is ultimately something that leads to references to the famous quote by Justice Potter Stewart, “I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it…” Like trying to separate a person that likes a sports team from a person that shows up in freezing weather shirtless painted in the team’s colors takes actually seeing it in progress. We could look at hours spent playing, hours spent thinking about playing when not, non-game activities still related to the game like conventions and forum discussions, and a host of other metrics, but passion is really when you notice the difference. If you want to see passion in sports fans, you go to events like the World Series and the Superbowl if you only get one event a year to see. If you want to see that for gamers, you head to the Penny Arcade Expo, also known as PAX, held in Washington each year since 2004. To set a bit of perspective, the Gen Con annual convention which is largely seen as the more traditional ‘off-line’ gaming convention tops out around 27,000 attendees and the E3 convention, which represents the video game industry, hit its peak attendance around 70,000 and has shrank in recent years. PAX had 58,000 attendees this year, and seems to still be growing, despite largely being a fan created event started by two guys that made their names (or really, their alter egos) famous doing a web-comic about gaming humor. If you were to hop over to http://www.pennyarcadeexpo.com/, taking a brief detour to look at the big name sponsors, and then click on the forum link to the left, you can easily find a thread titled ‘PICTURES! PICTURES! PICTURES!’ You do not see the stereotype of ‘gamers.’ You see lots of normal people at some sort of massive party.

PAX is a large example of how gamer culture is normalizing thanks to the Internet; however it isn’t entirely in the mainstream. A past guest at PAX, Wil Wheaton, helps show more mainstream appeal. Wil, also affectionately nicknamed ‘that blogger kid from Star Trek’ for his most famous acting role on Star Trek: The Next Generation and his blogging, is also a regular personality on VH1’s retrospective ‘I Love the…’ series. While he is certainly seen on the nerdy side of things, he’s also a well known face that still does plenty of work as an actor and certainly does not appear the stereotype if you do not read his blog. Likewise on television these days, fellow Star Trek alum Bill Shatner not only is doing ads for Priceline, but they still run World of Warcraft ads he did along with recognized actors Laurence Tureaud (better known as Mr. T) and Verne Troyer (famous for playing Mini Me in the Austin Powers movies). Those might not have been the first television ad for video games or even online games, but it is the first time who was playing the games online was really made the central point of an add instead of the virtues of the game itself.

Wil Wheaton is an avid gamer, but not necessarily a great divergence into normalcy for most, and paid actors in advertising only really show advertisers sensing opportunity. The strongest evidence of hardcore gamers becoming more mainstream is the informally crowned ‘Queen of PAX’ Felicia Day. A successful, if somewhat minor, actress most recently on the show House and the web-show ‘Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog,’ she is a self-proclaimed hardcore gamer that is not afraid to show it. In fact, she made a ten episode web-show through YouTube all about it. ‘The Guild’ is a series of shorts that highlight many humorous aspects of the sub-culture, as well as showing the plight of someone that wants to spend six hours a night playing a game with people she never really sees and wants to have a normal life. YouTube, like Google and Wikipedia, has enough broad spectrum viewers that it says something when her show about gamers wins an award from YouTube for being the most view series on the service. Perhaps more importantly though, from a cultural perspective, is not her success, but that she is a she. Unlike Wil, she shatters the stereotypes. She’s an attractive, socially adept, well dressed and groomed woman. Gaming of all stripes is generally male dominated, but online gaming’s male stereotype is often mocked for being unable to deal with women. To have a woman standing up and being a strong figure head for the hobby might not be a huge step in feminism, but it is a major step is breaking preconceptions.

It is not hard to understand the appeal of playing games online, or even to see why people love games far more in-depth than the ones most people indulge in. What is harder to see how easily the Internet allowed people deep into the culture of gaming segregate themselves into their own corner of the web, encouraged by the type of mocking that can easily cross the line between good natured and uncomfortable. It is good to see the Internet also being used to get these people out of their shells. Coming together through the digital reality of today has allowed them to contribute to all aspects of our culture: art, literature, videos, humor, slang, music and even charity work. Passion is something easy to recognize, but it is even better when someone else’s passion can help you enjoy things you have never experienced before.

Krystal Murphy's Review on Josh's Paper
 * **What is the thesis?** The thesis deals with out the internet, and how it has allowed gamers, no matter physical differences, seem normal.
 * **How is the essay organized?** There was a good structure when it came to organization. The points were clear and easy to follow. The conclusion really wrapped everything in the essay up nice.
 * **Was the organization logical?** As I stated in the last part, it was logical.
 * **Were any parts not relevant to the thesis?** Everything in the paper dealt with the topic and was well written.
 * **What examples and types of evidence were most convincing?** Being a gamer, this essay explained great examples of how the internet is allowing different types of games come together and not be looked upon as 'freaks' like back in the day. With examples such as PAX, it allows the reader to see different things that have evolved from gamer organizations online.
 * **What two places could use more development?** I think the introduction could be a little clearer as where you are going with the paper, but other than that, everything looked great to me.
 * **Did the introduction catch your attention?** Although it was slightly unclear, it did grab my attention with the example such as youtube.

Jennifer Henderson's Review on Joshua's Paper: What is the thesis? It deals with the internet and how alot of people use the internet (gamers) with no relevance to who they are and how they look! Stereotypes of the internet world.

How is the essay organized? Each point was laid out well and I was able to understand which point was coming next.

Was the organization logical? Yes it was.

Were any parts not relevant to the thesis? No, everything went with the thesis of this paper.

What examples and types of evidence were most convincing? I feel that the writer did give great examples in his paper. He talked about PAX and talks about how people are able to play video games online and not teased and talked about as an old stereotype would.

What two places could use more development? I actually do not feel that any part of the paper need major work, just simple things like strengthening key points.

Did the introduction catch your attention? Yes it did !

> > Kelly Culbreth's feedback for jwbennet's 3.1INF: > > > Back to my INF home.]]
 * **What is the thesis?** The thesis in this paper dealt with overcoming the stereotypes that come along with gamers.
 * **How is the essay organized? The paper was well organized. Each paragraph lead into the next which made the paper easier to follow. At no point during the body was I confused where the paper was heading.**.
 * **Was the organization logical? yes this paper was logical.**
 * **Were any parts not relevant to the thesis?** The body and conclusion dealt with the thesis, however, the introduction had me thinking you were going to go into something completely different. I thought you were about to start explaining one particular game site instead of stereotypes.
 * **What examples and types of evidence were most convincing? By giving examples of well known individuals who are gamers helped to see the break in the typical stereotype of the skinny guy held up in his room with no life playing games.**
 * **What two places could use more development?** Like mentioned earlier, maybe start with the example of the sterotyped gamer.
 * **Did the introduction catch your attention?** I really did like the way the intro was written, it caught my attention and was interested in reading.[[jwbennet_mu_infhome|