Forza 3’s Community Defies Online Gamer Stereotypes

I typically don’t spend any measurable time inhabiting online game communities and conversing with the residents , especially those with console houses. They’re often a mean sort, drunk off the anonymity afforded by the internet. Pitchforks, or rather, controllers in hand, they rally against anyone who doesn’t meet a predetermined set of standards. Their dialect  – slangs and slurs that would get any pre-teen a mouth full of soap should he utter but one. Well, you’d think so anyway. Join a multiplayer game of Halo or Call of Duty and you’ll inevitably hear a plethora of vulgarities from some uncouth young boy who has yet to experience puberty. Other, more civilized folk, live here too, but their pleasantries are muted against the blowhorn-wielding neighbors.

 
The infamous “gayboy” video.

But make no mistake, this type of behavior’s not limited to online shooters or even videogame consoles. It’s all over – favoring almost no genre. These people are ready to pounce as you build bases in real-time strategy titles and stab you in the back as you hone your skills with a fire-ball tossing hero in fighting games. They’re even ready to sink their teeth into your neck when you are at your most vulnerable – reclining back in your favorite chair, feet on an old familiar ottoman, and playing a simple, relaxing game of Uno. Sometimes, when I’m feeling energetic and sassy, I make it my mission to give these people a hard time. I rebel against the rebels, and grief the griefers. It’s a great time, and one I’ll be digging into much deeper in an upcoming post.

People are people almost wherever you go. Some qualities are universal across all cultures, but this one, this is mostly American. In one of the final episodes of videogame website 1UP’s now-defunct “1UP Yours” podcast, host Garnett Lee and guest Mark McDonald, a former editor for 1UP and former director of Gamevideos.com, discuss the behavior of Japanese gamers in online gaming environments. Mark, a Tokyo resident since leaving 1UP two years ago, explains to Garnett that online gamers in Japan are patient and polite people, when they actually speak. It’s customary to politely greet someone when they join your game, and it’s customary to politely say “goodbye” when they leave. Even more different from American gamers, if a teammate’s comparatively not doing well, the rest don’t get on his or her case, shout names, and belittle the gamer. Instead, the Japanese offer tips and encouragement.

Supporting Mark’s claim are many pieces of information coming from the top Street Fighter players from the U.S, such as Justin Wong and Gootecks. When they travel abroad, they notice the Japanese competition’s unified – helping each other overcome flaws to achieve greater individual, and group, mastery. But, for the most part, Street Fighter players in the United States remain divided and selfish – unwilling to divulge information for fear of aiding the competition and potentially triggering their own demise. With this in mind, there’s no wondering why Japan remains dominant in the fighting game scene to this day.

Read the rest at IPR's Multimedia Blog.