Disunity Among Gamers

[The Pezman]

Just wrote this for RPGamer. Take a look.

[DJMetal]

A good solid message. I agree with just about everything you say in there. People in general have a big superiority complex when it comes to "in-group" and "out-group" dynamics, whether it's online, in real life, wherever. People like to think that the group they're a part of is top dog, because that would mean that they are also top dog via association. I <3 psychology, by the way. But it is counter-productive. It's the stuff of flame wars and endless spam. But that's the internet working with the mind. Attempting to network, build a solid community foundation, and then reach out to other communities and networks is the only way to start conglomerating (I never thought I'd use this word) and solidifying gamers (or any other group) as a whole. It's hard road, but I think we can manage with a little work.

Ugh...work...

DJ Metal

[OceansAndrew]

Interesting editorial, but one very important aspect you are overlooking is site administrators and ad revenue.

If there was a huge mega-site, a lot of these guys running sites would be out of work, or at the very least, working in a reduced capacity. I'm pretty sure a lot of these people wouldn't want to go from the person who does things on their own terms, to the person who gets told what to do.

As far as ads, I'm not sure how many site owners are actually supported by their ads, but all of the sites have them, and that's a large sticking point, both with advertiser relations, and generated ad revenue. If indeed any of these site owners are supported by their ads, you can be certain that they would want to protect their livelihood.

[Katsurugi]

Gaming is simply another platform which people can now experience, discuss and thus debate about. The same sort of stuff happens in art, literature and other topics. But yes, the whole thing is spurred on by human nature, which never seems to change. Everyone wants to be the best (or believe that they are) and humility is quickly becoming extinct. This point has only been more emphasized through the instantaneous power of the internet. More people are able to communicate ideas, stir up debates and provoke conflicts with a touch of a button. In addition, hiding behind a pseudonym only makes it easier to do this. On the internet, accountability doesn't seem to exist or rather it's very thinly veiled. This loss of responsibility then promotes people to be uninhibited and act more rashly even if through text. Secondly, they are not expected to learn through their actions since they believe it only exists in a virtual realm. In a sense, the internet can be a place where bumbling idiots congregate and argue about trivial matters. It can also be a place to learn as well. But often times, people aren't motivated enough to read about global issues or the forefronts of science unless it involves them directly. They would much rather chat to friends they even see on a regular basis,

The internet, to me, seems like a giant social experiment. In the end, there really isn't anything new that we haven't already discovered about the human animal. Now, we just have gigabytes among gigabytes of proof that only we are very basic and common creatures that have too much time on our hands. We become jaded and are pigeon-holed into niches far too easily. It takes a special effort to understand something in its most abstract form. In the end, gamers are people too and people suck (especially when mob mentality takes over).

[zircon]

I agree on the broader note that consolidation is a good thing. I am always saddened when I see multiple companies, websites, products, or organizations doing basically the same thing, but as a result spending their resources in an inefficient manner. Some might argue that the differentiation allows for companies to cater to niche markets, or provide some kind of unique product or service that the others don't, but I don't think consolidation would hurt this. The primary issue with having too much differentiation is that you have a lot of redundant backend and infrastructure.

Look at XM and Sirius satellite radio. Each of these companies needs to spend resources to have proper delivery of their services, manage accounting, royalties, etc. I would be you anything that after they merge, their operating costs would be proportionally lower even though they'll have more customers.

[jayc4life]

I agree with this editorial, even though I'm part of a team that owns a fansite myself (Football Manager, fyi). Not being big-headed or whatever, but I'd like to think that the site I'm a part on is up as one of the biggest of a wider community (which we all kinda co-support through advertising threads and sharing a reasonable amount of the same member base as each other). I'll agree with the fact that there's more and more new fansites opening up with little or no new material or game resources upon opening, and they blame big sites like us for their lack of success, when it's down to their lack of pre-prepared content that's their real downfall.

While eventually I'd like to see other successful fansites merge with our own onder one single URL, and create a "supercommunity" as such, most of the other webmasters don't see things that way and like to keep to their own, even though we all get along with each other and we all talk on a regular basis.

[Poke'G]

Interesting editorial, but one very important aspect you are overlooking is site administrators and ad revenue.

If there was a huge mega-site, a lot of these guys running sites would be out of work, or at the very least, working in a reduced capacity. I'm pretty sure a lot of these people wouldn't want to go from the person who does things on their own terms, to the person who gets told what to do.

I've got to agree with this, especially in the case of site administrators. People sometimes build up sites well aware of their competition. They strike forward for their own ambition, the fact that they feel the competition should be operated differently, or both.

It's interesting that Pezman brings OCRemix forward in his article, when OCRemix is a standing example of community division.

VGMix exists because people out there do not agree that a small group of people can say what is and isn't worth listening to. I don't want this to delve into a judge debate; I bring it up because that is the reason my friends have given me for not using OCRemix, some of them with a tone of spite and/or hate. Sad thing is, one of them is the one who showed me this site years ago, right before the split.

I know this is what the article is arguing against (the "Our way/site/forum is better." mentality), but here you have two completely different ways of giving remixes to the masses. When VGMix went down was even an awesome chance for unification, but the site instead rebuilt on its own, dead set in their own method.

Not to be overly pessimistic, but people have opinions. While some can coexist and merge, others cannot. Pezman speaks of a dream that simply cannot be.

[Kanthos]

Some people even run a site simply because they want to feel ownership over something. The biggest problem with consolidation, both with fansites and businesses, is finding a way to keep all parties happy without having to discard staff (be they volunteers or not), and clearly working out who's in charge. If, say, OCRemix and VGMix merged, who would run things? DJP? Virt? How would they be run? Using the stricter standards here or the looser standards there? If the latter, would the judges get canned?

For small sites with small communities, this might not be as big an issue, but things don't always scale up well.

Edit: Bah, I should always refresh before I start a post. Poke'G said a lot of what I said.

[DarkeSword]

It's interesting that Pezman brings OCRemix forward in his article' date=' when OCRemix is a standing example of community division.

VGMix exists because people out there do not agree that a small group of people can say what is and isn't worth listening to.[/quote']

Isn't that a good thing? They fill specific niches, serve specific purposes, and operate under specific approaches to game arrangement. OCR and VGMix don't compete with each other either; in fact, there's a lot of cross-pollination (or at least there used to be when VGMix was still up).

If VGMix was just a clone of OCR, then yeah, you'd have a point, but honestly the two are very different websites with different ideas about how to do things.

I love being able to honestly tell people "If you don't like the way we do things here at OCR, go to VGMix." And I never say that derisively; it's the truth, and it's great that there's a place for people to still enjoy what the community has to offer without having to deal with principles and procedures they might disagree with.

Variety is good.

[Poke'G]

Yeah, I never said that VGMix was a bad thing, there's just some bad blood between some of the users. While those prejudices do need to die, the way the sites are run is a good counterexample against what Pezman seems to propose.

To achieve the unity he spoke of in his editorial, yes that would nip the allegiances in the bud, but would destroy the variety Darke mentions.

[The Pezman]

Note that I said that the only sites which should merge together are those which fill the exact same niche. I know that VGMix and OCR merging wouldn't work because Virt was a member of OCR first. Besides, there is allegiance between the two, with a degree of cross-pollenation and such.

What I'm asking is why these sites can't reach out with formal alliances with news sites, other game entertainment sites, and such. The idea is to create a network between fans. A large one.