The Gaming Community

“Spacewar” was a game that was credited as the first video game that has been created. With this video game, it started the rapid growth of the video game industry, and the video game community assisted in its growth. Throughout video game history, people have united with their similar interests in video games to build a community. Those communities would help promote and expand video games for years to come. Like any other community, there are different branches of gamers. The two larger groups being arcade gamers, and console gamers. Although arcade gamers and console gamers are two different groups of the gaming community, they are still involved with the gaming community, but have different values and beliefs when it comes to game play, and having social interaction with each other. With gaming changing with new technology and different ways to play and socialize with fellow gamers, both arcade and console gaming are caught in change too, and the evolution of gaming has always altered gaming in a small way that creates a larger impact in the gaming community, and possibly the world of technology.

Even though “Tennis for Two” was considered to be the first game in video format, it wasn’t exactly considered a video game, due to the fact that it was actually played on an oscilloscope, but with the creation of “Spacewar!” it exposed people to video games and the endless possibilities one can do to create and evolve video games. Over the years, people have united from just meeting to local game stores, to large gaming conventions like the Electronic Entertainment Expo and it brought communities together, from home console gamers, to arcade gamers. Although arcade gamers and home console gamers are two different, both are basically in the same community, except both have slightly different values and beliefs of their own, and different ways of interacting with each other from meeting up with a group in a well known place, to communicating with fellow gamers over the internet.

With the continuous evolution of gaming, it’s fairly easy to see the differences from the hardcore lifestyle of the arcade and console gamers of the past to the more casual and people-friendly style of gaming today. Being a part of the gaming community, and witnessing the start of the casual era of video games has opened my eyes to the bigger picture of the gaming community and to community in general. In the future, another person might even write about today’s gamer’s lifestyles and communities, and compare and contrast to theirs. Even though there are other mediums that cause change in a community, time is the biggest contributor to change in a community. As long as innovation in video games and technology in general keeps growing, the gaming community will also be more innovative and larger in numbers.

It’s still difficult to discuss the difference between the two since both have made such an impact in technology, and how both have the same beliefs. The only thing that would differentiate the arcade and console gamer is their preference. Being a part of the gaming community opened my eyes to the vast amount of changes that happened over the years. Nothing could replace what the gaming community has experienced, with every change in the gamer culture always evolving into something beautiful. To think that something as simple as a tennis game on an oscilloscope would evolve into something so complex is amazing, and none of this would have been done if it weren’t for the gaming community. As long as both sides keep their interests, but have the same beliefs and values of each other, both communities will always be seen as one.