What is community?
After my post the other day about what it means to be a gamer and have a sense of community, something got stuck in my craw. I could not stop thinking about what it means for me to be a part of a gaming community. It means giving and gaining something from the community you belong to, right?
A community of gardeners share tips, share the ups and downs, and share the outcome of the fruits of their labors. All communities should work in a similar fashion, growing and changing, continually improving a hobby experience for the users that are a part of it.
So I kept asking myself what it meant for me to be a part of a gaming community. Sure I played games, and I took the content provided to me online as a consumer, but I did not have anything to give back really. I am not a coder, I am not programmer, so what could I give back? Heck, how would I share any sort of contribution? I have spent years coordinating LAN parties in the local community of gamers, I have tried networking through local gaming cafes, but the fruits of those efforts have not paid off as much as I would have liked.
So I went looking. I created a community for Colorado gamers in Team Fortress 2… maybe that would spark something.
It did, I had a couple locals join. And that lead me to a small community of TF2 gamers called 3-pg. So I decided to give it 3-pg a try. I decided that I would try to turn gaming into more of a hobby, with its own trappings and contributions. Instead of a one sided experience, I would see if I could do something more with it. Something a bit more worthwhile.
So I have been trying to contribute. So far, results are good.
Granted the experience is still anonymous. That is the greatest dehumanizer of any online experience. Maybe that will change too. Something to work towards I guess.
I think community in gaming is really the greatest challenge facing gamers. You see many different approaches in gaming to try to address how community works. Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft have all deployed community spaces on their online component of their consoles… there are literally thousands upon thousands of communities online for different games.
Most I think fail to deliver that local sense of community. There is a gap there. A significant gap.
How could we address it? How could one make a living at it? Hmmmmm.
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