[-empyre-] week 2: user-based innovation VS the crystallization of a bro-world?

Sun Dec 12 11:53:46 EST 2010

Gabriel,
You bring up some great points. Through the process of competition, as we strive for mastery in a craft, are we discovering more about ourselves, or simply defining certain characteristics more clearly? Are these ideas one in the same? Is the process of self-discovery just further definition of one's own skill set and abilities? 

Gaming, like any other craft, allows the practitioner to seek higher levels of operation within the system. An expert coder has to set boundaries on what he can and can't do according to the programs he works with, an expert artist has to work within the confines of accepted norms of aesthetics, or risk treading the line of "bad art," just as a gamer has to work within the confines of the play system, or risk a negative play experience. Perhaps in the same way new artistic styles evolve, the gamer that defies the system in creative ways establishes new methods of "playing." An example that comes to mind are RPG servers for First Person Shooters. While the rules of most online FPS games are simple, such as, kill the other players as fast as possible to have the highest score, users have altered the playspace and created communities surrounding older games. Half Life and Half Life 2 Death Match (along with numerous mods) for instance, still have role playing servers up, where users ignore the preset game types and established rule sets in favor of their own set of rules, that are often times more constricting. Some servers outlaw shooting altogether, ironic for a game with "Death Match" in the title. 

>is mastery really a process of self-discovery, or
> would it be a process of self-definition – one that, paradoxically,
> depends on the accordance to a pre-defined system?
As Gabriel mentioned, these users that delve deeper into their respective games are confined by their systems, and interestingly enough, sometimes the system is defined first by the users to better fit their style of play.
To further address the issues that Gabriel raised regarding the growth of a subculture, I think it's best to flesh out some of the background surrounding the fighting game community and the issues it faces as it expands.

Underground VS. Mainstream

“Culture is a site of the secret, of seduction, of
initiation, of a restrained and highly ritualized symbolic exchange. Nothing
can be done about it. Too bad for the masses...” Jean Baudrillard [4]

This is a point of contention for most everyone involved in
one way or another with a gaming subculture. The idea that a once “underground”
scene is now permeating mainstream gaming culture completely polarizes the
community. This change is currently happening within the Street Fighter
community. With the recent release of Street Fighter 4 in February of 2009 (after
almost a 10 year wait from the last entry in the series) the fighting game
market has been completely revitalized [5], so much so that it has now entered
the mainstream spotlight [6]. So what happens to a subculture when it has
existed in relative obscurity for 10 years only to be brought forth and
introduced to mainstream audiences the world over?

Well, there are eight documentaries in production, along
with three web series, three street fighter dedicated live streaming companies and
more web sites devoted to street fighter related news, strategies and
discussion then I dare to count. All of those, of course, are secondary to the
effects on the actual scene itself. 

The underground nature of the scene was originally appealing
for its intimacy and secrecy. The idea that there is a gaming community that
exists that few people know about, let alone have the skill to be accepted into
is very alluring. Its secretive, off-limits nature fosters an aura of mystery
and elitism. Those in the inner-circle feel venerated; those on the outside
looking in feel that much stronger about the community when finally accepted.
All of this was compounded before the information age, when communities were
local, much smaller and more reserved. As information spread, the games grew
more popular and time went on, more and more players infiltrated this once
secretive society of gamers. Now veteran players are upset by the influx and
acceptance of new players to a once secretive and selective society. They are
upset by the size of the scene, the relative skill level has decreased,
although there are the same amount of good players, there are more bad players
than ever before, so it becomes difficult for players to level up. Other veteran
players see this as welcome change; they realize that the community cannot
survive without “new blood,” that the growth in the scene is a welcome
evolution. With the loss of intimacy and secrecy comes the potential for
expansion into commercial markets, the possibility of pro-gaming, and of
course, more new games to keep the scene alive.

Status

Much like many other competition based communities, the
fighting game scene is a meritocracy. Race, socioeconomic status, or creed,
none of that is important. How you are perceived in the community is based upon
what you have done in or for the community. People aren’t judged on their
personalities, looks or status outside the community when playing or competing,
what matters is your skill level. Separate from other sports, where sometimes
you just have to have hit the genetic lottery, or have played/trained since you
were a child, anyone can pick up Street Fighter, or for that matter, any
competitive game, and spend the time to learn the mechanics and develop the
experience to play at a competitively level. There is no physical entry barrier
to compete or grow as a player; your only limiting factors are your competition
and yourself. This allows for anybody to observe, become interested, pick up
and compete with the absolute best in the world that they had just been
observing, something that you can’t claim for almost any other activity. For
instance, an enthusiast can watch LeBron James and have a deep passion for
basketball, but the chances of him getting into the NBA and playing alongside
or against LeBron are one in a million. This of course is not unique to just
fighting games, but because of the virtual and intellectual nature of games in
general, many other competitive communities share this structure – real time
strategy in particular [7]. 

Psuedo Celebrity

With the fighting game scene straddling the space between
underground and mainstream, an interesting situation starts to occur, thanks to
the meritocracy that the fighting game scene is built upon. Players who
previously enjoyed elevated social status amongst their friends and peers
thanks to their exceptional skills have entered the realm of
“pseudo-celebrity.” This is completely new for the fighting game community and
has only happened within the past couple years now that the scene has expanded.

Due to a combination of new players from the resurgence in
the genre from Street Fighter 4, increased connectivity thanks to the Internet,
and a push towards legitimacy in both the competitive and casual nature of mainstream
gaming overall, these previously unheard of “top players” now enjoy a certain
level of celebrity.  This is part
of a much deeper discussion as to what celebrity really is, and how celebrity
is created, since almost anyone with a camera and a youtube account can
experience a certain amount of “internet fame,” but what’s interesting about
this particular situation is that it has one foot in reality and one foot in
the virtual space, thanks to the nature of the content (gaming) and the age
group of the viewing audience (generally late teens to early twenties). I’m
constantly reminded of an Intel commercial that uses the tagline “our rockstars
aren’t like your rockstars” [8]. In it, an actor playing Ajay Bhatt, the
co-inventor of the USB, struts into work where he is treated like a superstar.
When I saw the commercial I was struck by how similar the fighting game scene
is (of course, not as over the top). Players like Daigo Umehara and Justin
Wong, names that most everyone is unfamiliar with outside of this particular
community, are revered for their transcendental abilities. In reality, Daigo
Umehara, who is universally regarded as one of the greatest fighting game
players on earth, works in a nursing home to make ends meet [9].

Due to the nature of gaming in general, there is an
interesting duality that occurs, players separate their “real lives” (jobs,
non-gaming relationships, family) from their alter egos, their aliases that
they assume when they compete and interact within the fighting game scene. The
conflict occurs when this previously online related practice gets taken offline
and mainstream. For instance, when players, competing under an alias, who are
previously unknown get seen by 48,000 viewers on an internet broadcast, at that
point there is no more anonymity. The boundaries between a player’s tournament
life and personal life start to blur as he gains more acclaim within the
community. This is in stark contrast with the StarCraft community, where Korean
players are superstars within their own countries and can’t leave their homes
without being mobbed [7]. The strange transition that is now occurring to the
fighting game community as it drifts towards the mainstream is not just
something that viewers and fans are contending with, but the enthusiasts and
hardcore who previously thought nothing of their tournament placings and are
now struggling to find their place and establish their identity within a
community that is rapidly evolving.

[4] http://www.amazon.com/Simulacra-Simulation-Body-Theory-Materialism/dp/0472065211

[5] http://g4tv.com/evo

[6] http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/58546

[7] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/6252524.stm

[8] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1B6ReUj8w8

[9] http://kotaku.com/5593304/what-is-daigos-day-job

 I agree that growth does help define a subcultures identity, the new players that make up the scene are in part what define it. More than anything, communal growth is a necessary, and often times, welcome process that fuels the evolution of the community, especially if the identity has been pre-established for a number of years and begins to stagnate. Growth helps keep the community alive, without out, time and lack of interest kill the scene.

- Ian

> From: gabriel.menotti at gmail.com
> Date: Thu, 9 Dec 2010 23:57:12 +0000
> To: empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> Subject: Re: [-empyre-] week 2: user-based innovation VS the crystallization of a bro-world?
> 
> Thanks, Ian, for this closer view on the history and environment of
> competitive gaming! From your report, it is clear how the community
> engaged in this sort of activity share the same values and behaviors
> across different levels of organization. Your description of fighting
> games competitions suggests that the development of the community
> structure coincides with the increasing self-preservation of certain
> modes of playing – so that, as you said, participation “becomes
> cyclical in nature.” This is particularly interesting if we consider
> that this community is born from a deviation in the regular mode of
> playing console games (e.g. playing in public, for an audience, what
> was meant to be played in private).
> 
> So, what I'd like to do is to compare this idea of cyclical practices
> with the notions of identity that you evoked in your text – both
> individual and collective. At the beginning, you highlighted the
> nature of competition as a process of self-discovery (that is, of
> one’s own self). I suppose this could be compared to the kind of
> character formation fostered by martial arts – which, to a large
> extent, is carried through the disciplinarization of the subject – the
> apprenticeship not only of certain skills, but also the
> internalization of an ancillary code of ethics. Hence, my first
> question would be: is mastery really a process of self-discovery, or
> would it be a process of self-definition – one that, paradoxically,
> depends on the accordance to a pre-defined system?
> 
> Likewise, you finish your post wondering if the growth of a subculture
> would cause it to lose its original identity. According to the same
> perspective as above, I would ask: isn’t this process of “growth,”
> which structures a community and consolidates certain practices,
> precisely the process of formation of a communitarian identity? In
> other words, is there any original identity to be preserved? Isn’t the
> resistance to new players and modes of playing the affirmation of an
> identity that didn’t exist before them?
> 
> Finally, I think it would be really interesting to hear more about the
> “transitionary state” the fighting game community is passing through.
> Maybe it can shed some light on the way these socio-technical systems
> are constituted.
> 
> Best!
> Menotti
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre

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