The gaming community is finally coming into its own. You can see this evidenced by the number of people who proudly wear their
stylin gamer tees, customized jackets, and witty bumper stickers. There are a lot of different factors that have helped to demystify and devilify the gamer community. Here are just some of them.
The Invention of the Convention Conventions have been around for pretty much ever, but the inclusion of gaming into some of the bigger conventions as well as game-focused cons has only happened over the last decade or so. The biggest gaming convention, by far, is PAX or Penny Arcade Expo. Going into its thirteenth year, the convention that was little more than a hotel ballroom in the beginning now takes over the entire Seattle Convention Center and its annex across the street every Labor Day weekend and has two satellite shows: PAX East, in Boston and PAX Aus, in Australia (this is PAX Auss first year).
The Internet Makes It All Easier: Finding Fellow Gamers Loving games, no matter what kind, used to be something only volunteered after getting to know someone else really well. The fear of ostracism was huge. The Internet has changed all that. People have been able to create websites and bulletin boards about their love of games. Other game lovers find these web-based places and, by extension, each other. Finding people to game with is easier than ever now, thanks to these pioneers.
The Internet Makes It All Easier: Taking the Stigma Off Games One of the most popular shows on the Internet right now is a show called Tabletop.
Tabletop is a show that is hosted by Wil Wheaton (himself the poster child for gaming culture). Every week Wheaton and a group of friends sit down in front of the camera and play through a board, card or table top RPG (Role Playing Game). The show shows off the mechanics of the game, which helps people who are shy about learning new games in front of others see how those games get played. It also helps to illustrate how much fun playing these games can be.
Celebrity Gamers Do you remember those commercials for World of Warcraft that started to air a few years ago that featured celebrities like Ozzy Osborne playing the game? Or the Nintendo DS commercials featuring America Ferrera and Lisa Kudrow? Or how Vin Diesel came out as a lover of Dungeons and Dragons? Over time more and more
celebrities have admitted to liking to play gameselectronic games, role playing games, board gamesall of them. Mainstream Hollywood coming out in favor of gaming has helped the culture de-ostracize itself by quite a lot.