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Games As the Great Unifier
OGX writes "In this racially divided world, who or what can step up and bridge the gap among people? Oddly enough, the answer comes from pop videogame technology. The anonymity of online gaming has made personal characteristics secondary to a game skill set. Michelle Dalrymple explores how online gaming vaults the issue of race in this editorial at OGX." From the article: "The computer/video console acts as a filter, extracting out any issues of race and placing emphasis on how quickly one can respond by selecting the correct button. Let's take a look at how this plays out in the online gaming world. As with any MMOG - character selection is core to the game play, and while one may have a skin color choice, usually appearance is tied to some imaginary 'race,' an arbitrary figure generator pulled from fantasy and folklore. It gives the idea of race a whole new meaning. What do fellow gamers care what race you the player really are, as long as your elf ranger or human mage can complete the task?"
If this was really the case, why do I see so many racial slurs being thrown around in an average game of Counterstrike, not to mention the nearly ubiquitous use of "gay" as a pejorative.
I had a Human Warrior in WoW named "Rick James" (after my favorite musician), and everyone kept calling me "bitch." :(
Execute? [Y/N] _
I can't stand the smell of Orcs.
Disclaimers:
Yeah... about those schoolgirls... I met one of them in RL. Jimmy "The Iron Brick" Hoskins is now one of my closest friends - nice gal and all, but she didn't look anything like I expected.
need to be bigger than they are...they want to be this movement that somehow changes the world. Hint, it just isnt gonna happen. Gaming is not some noble endeavor that is unlike anything else that has ever happened. it is pure enjoyment, leave it at that
The phrase "more better" is acceptable English. suck it grammar Nazis
I've played a few MMORPGs in my time but, generally, my experience is that there are three player types. The offensive, who's lack of identifiability makes them think they can do what they want.
The passive, who keep to themselves or their guild. They tend to accept people who accept them. The vast majority of people lie in this group.
The aggresive. They are active. Tend to help people whenever they can. And they really do find ways to be involved.
The real reason people seem to 'get along' so well? There isn't even a fraction of lifes 'drama' running around in the virtual world. The worst thing that can happen to you within the confines of an MMORPG is that you miss out on some kind of loot, or you're late for/miss an event. If you can get worked up over that then you really must learn to chill out.
This sig isn't original enough, it's time to come up with something witty...
He has struck out with black chicks, asian chicks, white chicks, latina chicks, almost scored with a person pretending to be a chick. He is the model gaming citizen!
Monstar L
As far as I'm concerned, the world would be a much better place with a little less nationalism.
Diversity is way overstated. In America, if you go into an immigrant family's apartment, you're likely to see a PS2, a Dell computer, etc. Some people go to bars and drink with the good ol' boys, and some people go to coffee shops to blog, but there's not any crucial difference in what people want to do and buy.
The most crucial differences I have seen is what people in these groups are afraid of. Conservative Christians are afraid of Muslim terrorists and declining morality; young liberals worry about global warming; moderates worry about polarization; the underemployed worry about immigrants. I think it's important to understand that while the groups may find each others' fears unreasonable, all of these fears came about as a result of real concern that these problems would destroy the America that everyone basically wants.
It's hard for politics to be united since everyone wants government to solve problems, so it's natural to argue about our fears, but I think it's short-sighted to believe that this political split is indicative of a really fundamental split. We still have plenty in common, at least until the rising geek girl population leads to speciation, but that's another topic.
As for the statement that people are less and less willing to sacrifice for our country, I don't believe that's true. I do think that the political leaders on both sides have done a poor job of asking for sacrifices that the population is willing to make.
I have seen the future, and it is inconvenient.
No, you didn't specifically say that this was an American phenomenon, but your vernacular heavily implied it, specifically the "our great country" and "sacrifice for our country" bits (esp. without prior reference to your country of origin - seems a little pompous to me, but whatever). However, why shouldn't you be concerned about the global implications of a percieved problem? You're also living on this planet, I assume?
I made my reference to information abundance after reading your "increasingly becoming so diverse that we have nothing in common" bit. We don't become more diverse by just sitting at home in a pool of intellectual stagnation, we become more diverse by learning, which requires new information, new opinions, new points of view. Anonimity does not cause diversity. Anonimity protects you from any number of attacks on your person. It allows you to share and retrieve information without risk. It also allows you to be an asshat without fear of reprisals. True, anonimity allows you to detach yourself from ties to a region, but that's only if you chose not to share those interest about yourself - a personal decision. The tie to locality may be lost, but it is being lost in favor of a tie to ideals or shared interests or goals, which to me is more important and significant than being tied to, say, "Podunk, Mississippi".
Further, I didn't blame Bush by name for anything. Bush isn't the only leader. If you're a member of a community, then you have leaders on the local, regional, state, and national levels - and not just the President at the national level. We also have Congress and the Supreme Court. I see failures and lack of leadership ability at all levels of government.
And for the record, I'm not one of your "liberals", my values tend to allign more with the Democratic Libertarian party. Trying to dismiss me by labeling me is the height of ignorance and arrogance. I'm not some party-line spewing drone, I'm an individual with my own ideas and opinions about things.
There is no mod option "-1: Disagree" for a reason. "Overrated" is not an acceptable substitute. Post something instead.
Nations are becoming less and less important as the information age gets going.
Similarily, extended families became less and less important with the industrial era.
Before that, the hometown/village.
Before that, the clan.
Each been the central social group everyone identified themselves by, each had seemed a natural constant in the lives of people and still each was replaced by the next. Currently, nation states are being replaced by continent-size cultural zones; most obviously so in Europe and South America.
You can call this unfortunate, like you can call any natural process unfortunate. Or you can realize that identifying yourself as a citizen of your country is a cultural habit, not a necessity, so the value you are losing was virtual in the first place. Other social reference groups (say your family, or your race, or mankind) may be used interchangably. And some choices give you more options than others.
blow your mind already
If a dwarf and a night elf only had cosmetic differences and had the capacity to perform the same tasks equally well, then it would be racist to choose dwarves over night elves. But that's not the case, so this gets tricky.
If in real life, practicioners of a certain profession who are of a certain race have two magical skills unique to their race that members of other races cannot learn, is it racist to make hiring decisions based on those magical skills?
"There is one avenue of harmony that seems to pervade all people, regardless of race, color, creed and ethnicity. It is a unifying factor that calls to it men and women, young and old, from every stretch of the nation and the world beyond. It is the world of games - particularly video/online games."
Except the vast majority of gamers are white males. I like how the article writer's counter to this is that IN ADVERTISEMENTS AND MOVIES, there are a lot of non-whites playing video games... interesting metric there.
And except that most online gaming communities are fuller of racist swears than any real-world place I've seen - probably mostly from bored preteens trying to get a rise out of people by saying Something Naughty, but still.
And except that as soon as any actual evidence of race or ethnicity comes into the mix - as soon as people find out someone is gay or female or black or whatever "IRL" - you're stuck with the same old racial stereotypes and assumptions again. Usually amplified because of the aforementioned intolerant attitude of gaming communities.