Mini-ethnography On Gamer Culture Essay -- essays research papers

Man, Fragged by the LPB Sniper again That may drop dead like nonsense to the average person but to the seasoned attack veteran it speaks volumes. Today, millions of muckle of all ages argon coming together on the Internet to postulate against all(prenominal) separate in a figure of online secret plans. The or so popular of which is an online modification of the game Half- life history entitled attack. Counterstrike itself is comprised of thespians broken up in to two police squads, terrorists and counter terrorists, who wherefore compete against each other(a) to achieve a range of goals in a variety of levels. People from anyplace in the valet de chambre can lumber in to one of the hundreds of Counterstrike servers running on the Internet and team up with and function against anybody anywhere. To play the game doers manipulate their characters movements inside the simulate scenario they see on their monitor. They do so by using the keyboard and mouse in tandem to move around the level, find opposing players and then frag or kill them with whatever weapon they currently have, there by eliminating them for the remainder of the round. However, in most cases the teams goals are more complex than provided eliminating the other team. For instance, in one level one player assumes the map of the V.I.P. and his counter terrorist teammates try to escort him to a helicopter on the other side of the level. The terrorist teams objective is to find and assassinate the V.I.P. before he is sufficient to escape. This and other missions like it create an exciting and adrenaline filled purlieu that are part of the reason gamers just can not quit.For the most part people team up with and compete against people they havent met and probably never will meet in a face-to-face manner. This yields some very interesting results. I was able to regain two peers of mine playing Counterstrike online in the same path on their separate computers on several occasions for extended periods. Also, I installed Counterstrike on my computer here in my dorm style and played online myself a number of times. The first thing that I note and the first I am going to talk about is the players ability to create and maintain their own online identity. Every player in an online game of Counterstrike or any other game for that matter has his or her own handle or call sign. They are nicknames that the players come up with themselves and adopt as names ... ...10 dollars to gain coming to an online server that acts as a simulated finite serviceman for each person to place their character in. Players manipulate their character and basically acknowledge that persons live in that finite simulated world that contains other players. They buy property, get a job and interact with other players. I was unable to actually observe anyone playing Everquest or play it myself. However it seems to take the level of interaction to new levels. For obvious reasons I find that a little unsettling. I think that is safe to claim that many people actually prefer their simulated online personas and friends to their real life ones. That may pose new problems in the next. At the pace that technology is currently developing I think that soon the number of people who find more satisfaction and fulfillment in their cyber lives will besides grow. Also, to speculate a little I think that in the future it will probably be possible to immerse yourself in a totally simulated environment. Will be people totally isolate themselves and spend years inside life simulations oblivious to the real world but still perfectly content to live out their years in a Matrix like cyber dreamscape?