Even before computers were common in middle class households, people were using them to play games. Back in 1961, one of the earliest games created, Spacewar, could only be found on giant computers in universities, computers that were larger than the room in which I’m writing this. When computers came into the home, games followed rather quickly, but a community hadn’t really been able to develop. All sorts of people played computer games, but they had no way to find each other. This changed, of course, with the advance of the internet.

After its founders, and those who used it for business purposes, the first home users who adopted the internet were the computer enthusiasts. These were the type of people who took apart their computers every day, who

Another key difference is how gamers play games with one another. PC gamers typically play online, as was discussed a few pages ago. While some console games have gone online, and many more will in the future, the vast majority of console gamers play each other in the same room, on the same television, with the same console, right next to each other. One could argue that this is more social or less social than playing online. It’s more social because you’re right there with the other people, face to face, and anyone who’s played a game with another person will tell you that you’re nothing but silent during the activity. On the other hand, playing online lets you play with those other than just your friends, allowing you to meet new people and play those who might not live close by. When console gamers want to play each other now, they need to go and find each other, which can be quite an undertaking.

Video games are, for all intents and purposes, my “thing.” They’re what I do. For the last fourteen or fifteen years, I’ve been a poster boy for the dominant image of video gamers: a young male who would rather play Super Mario Bros. than go outside. I’ve been a member of the video gamers’ community as long as I’ve had access to it, and I can tell you, the dominant image isn’t entirely true.

What have we learned today? Well, we learned that the dominant images of PC and video gamers aren’t very true at all, especially recently, with interactive entertainment becoming more and more mainstream (PC and video games are now a $6 billion industry, larger than movies or music). We learned that the dominant image of pen-and-paper role playing gamers, however, is more or less accurate, because of how the people often labeled as nerds lend themselves better to it. And finally, we learned about a new community, the Dance Dance Revolution community, which is too new to have its own dominant image, but clearly can’t be defined in terms of the video gamers’ image. Race, religion, and sexuality come into play in these communities rarely, if at all.

The fact that video gamers can’t yet play each other across the country doesn’t mean they don’t socialize online. Message boards for video games thrive, providing a place for video gamers to discuss games and the community. Usenet groups like rec.games.video also provide a place for discussion, but they generally don’t do as well, due to Usenet’s waning popularity and amazing lack of control (a large percentage of posts will be ads, pornography, or ads for pornography).

When you play the game well, you actually dance with the music playing. It’s easy to see how this would catch on in Japan, with the sake-and-karaoke habits of a good number of the Japanese population, but the success of the game and the community that followed in the US surprised everyone, especially Konami, the game’s developer.

As you may be able to see from the above examples, console games tend to have more instant gratification, while PC games require more time investment. Even with first person shooters, a player needs to spend hours upon hours practicing to get good enough to take on others on the internet. Of course, this isn’t always true; many PC games are quite short, many console games can overtake one’s life, and many of the most popular games appear across both formats.

Some topics in this essay:
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