When it’s a free for all, where you aren’t accountable for your actions it often leads to the worst of behaviors. I’ve admined for a gaming forum and server and the community was excellent, everyone was polite, helpful, and all of the best qualities i could hope for. The only thing we asked of everyone was to not be an asshole, otherwise they were gone.
I imagine this is hard to keep going once you reach a certain number of people in a community. I would hate to be a moderator for Twitter or for a super popular game or gaming community.
A lot of people do so, or find other ways around the 140-character limit to take advantage of Twitter’s instantaneous reach and scope (like writing an essay and posting a large screenshot of it). But splitting an essay into 30 14-character tweets is a feature, not a bug. It lets people read, favorite, re-post, and comment on sentences they like, and lets an essay expand outward quickly.
Agreed. Heck, it seems what was ‘edgy humor’ among elements of playerbases 7-8 years ago is manifesting as some concerning cultures among the communities of some games.
I’ve seen games like Europa Universalis IV spawn elements that warp from ‘lol crusades’ to ‘West is Best’ to full on white supremacy. Don’t even get me started on the weird fanboyism of Wehraboos…
I’m a gamer, but not part of gamer culture. I found it so toxic that I don’t even play multiplayer ones anymore because they’re populated exclusively by people who play that one particular game to the exclusion of everything else in their life and they expect YOU to be the same, or else you shouldn’t be there.
Every single online game I’ve played (with the exception of those with no chat) has had some population of players who are openly abusive and hostile to new players in varying degrees depending on the type of game. I can’t blame people for not wanting to stick around or subject their friends and family to that sort of toxicity.
I think a key part of We Happy Few making it work is launching in early access and also not showing up on Microsoft’s stage at every opportunity. Engadget had a pretty good article about this.
They have also had playable versions of the game for a long time on the convention circuit and the media groups interested in the game were able to actually play it.
I am a would-be middle grade/YA author. That Vulture article scared the hell out of me. I might never get any of this stuff published, and if I do, it might all go unnoticed by an uncaring world (sniff). But I would hate to be on the receiving end of this kind of campaign. It sounds just awful. Of course, I’m not on Twitter or Facebook, so maybe I could be a target and never know it!
Makes me think of Jeff “CJayC” Veasey (founder of Gamefaqs.com)… as far as I know aside from a single radio interview he never interacted with the fanbase.
Now that I’m older I can see how having a frothing mass of 13 year olds trying to dox you becayse You Are Literally Hitler For Saying I Can’t Flame Gaycube Owners must have been insanely stressful.
It’d be cool if someone could track him down for a behind the music style interview, especially since you can trace a lot of toxic gaming culture back to LUE
Hey, I don’t know what it’s about, or what genre it is, or anything else, but I’ll read your book. I’m not asking for a free copy - You tell me when it’s done, and I’ll buy an ebook copy.
I am a gamer but not really part of the “Gamer Culture”.
I do play a number of large multi-player games and have not really come across much boorishness – some suer but that is what the mute button is for. Professionally I am a Project Manager running development teams for large commercial organisations, usually, although I have also done public end user software. As such, I would never hold developers responsible for release of “buggy Software” or the choice in which major engine components. These decisions are taken by management, with dev input sure, but there are a number of other criteria that have to be considered. Typically a dev will never want to release software that is not perfect but that is very rarely an option financially.\
I am surprised to hear that it is difficult for devs to talk about their work and approaches. “Tricks” are one of the things that devs like to brag about and coming up with great simple approaches can give you some real kudos in the community. Unfortunately, the nature of the work means the team doesn’t get to brag that often, as most of it is Commercial in Confidence, but they love finding how other devs have approached and solved similar problems that they face.
Really, this applies to basically any software out there. I work in software development - but not games. Still, the DK effect from the user side is strong. Even if you understand the technical side of things, there’s a lot of stuff you probably don’t know as for why something that seems “simple” actually isn’t.
Okay I don’t even pretend to be technical when it comes to programming but is it right of me to kvetch about shit that won’t run on 64bit platforms when it has been a thing for 10+ years now. I mean I can’t figure other than sheer lazy from the providers.
My library is taking forever to get it ready for circulation, but Zoe Quinn’s book sounds like it will offer a lot of insights into this mess. Anybody here read it yet?
Kvetch away! I guess it depends on several factors. Are you talking 32 bit software that hasn’t been ported but otherwise works? Or is it like on iOS where a swath of old software literally stopped working when 11 came out.
In any case it’s always a matter of weighing if it’s worth the time and effort to port it. It’s not just a matter of recompiling with a /64 switch. Lots of things change when switching architectures. Some obvious (the kind that break the build) or the subtle that you may not discover for weeks or months.
So yeah, it may be laziness, may not be worth the effort (if going to 64 bit has no advantages), or they may just not give a shit.
Well, I was a part of the gaming culture before there was a culture (1970-80’s Yay Scott Adam’s Adventures!) and I have to say that the only thing that has changed is the Internet. The tragedy of the Internet is it allows teenage males (both chronologically and emotionally) to mix with non-teenage males. (And yes, the vast majority are perfectly wonderful human beings, but a significant minority of us were… let’s just say “not yet fit for human consumption”.)
(I can think of few things more unfortunate than having a genuine interest in the same thing that teenage boys like. You can educate them, but nature keeps creating new ones to replace them as they turn into people.)
I am thankful the rest of the world was spared me during my teenage years, where I knew everything and had a casual disdain for everyone not like me. The only people who had to put up with me were other like-minded teenage males. The idea of arming me with a platform would have been inordinately cruel to both me and even worse, the rest of the world.
Maybe I’m cynical, but I’m not at all certain that the Internet allowing 16 year-old boys to mix with the rest of the population in relative anonymity is a net positive. I know it’s a God-send to some, but, Boy, is the cost high to hundreds of millions of others.
O rly. I have misled myself. I guess I just assumed the purpose of multiple antennae when I noticed that my laptop’s WiFi signal strength would often change dramatically just by rotating it 90 degrees on the table. Or maybe these are two different concepts.
it’s still programming. you still have to sit at a desk for 10 hrs of the day. and, you don’t get to play games all day.
the best part is working with creative artists and designers; dedicated testers. it injects a different kind of collaborative spirit than seems to exist elsewhere. and it’s just plain neat to see what people come up with.
the worst parts are if you wind up working with people who think they are smarter or more qualified than the artists and designers. or, working crunch hours with no solid destination. or, the bro culture that creeps in from time to time.
