Blog - On Gamer Identity and Culture
Monday, March 17, 2008This at first might not seem to have anything to do with games, but bear with me for a bit:
Always in search of extremely eclectic music I've become somewhat of a fan of some indie rap music that's far from the mainstream.
The Canadian rap scene (particularly from Halifax) is my favorite, and features many rappers who are, well, a bit on the geeky side. As such, their rhymes often feature video game, comic book and other 'nerdy' references.
However, I wouldn't say that's what their rap music is about.
Their music just happens to sometimes reflect this nerdiness that is a part of their identity, but is never advertised as the whole of it. They're real, serious rappers, who just happen to inject witty lines now and then about pop culture, and they happen to be fans of some fairly dorky pop culture. It's a part of their soul, but they're more than paper-plate deep.
On the other hand, though, Nerdcore rap (Yes, that's a real rap genre), seems to always be about nerdy things.
Songs where the sole topic is Star Wars, or a certain video game, etc. are found in that rap genre.
I notice a similar phenomenon occurring in gamer culture, particularly in the area of webcomics.
Why, exactly, are there so many webcomics about video games?
I'm sure somewhere out there is a webcomic by some film buff who satirizes upcoming films in webcomic form, or a comic by someone that really reflects their love of good literature. The point is though that I can't actually think of any at the moment, but the gaming comics are all over the place, and popular. I know some people who aren't even gamers who read some of the more popular ones!
All this seems, in a way, a reflection of all of gamer culture.
We feel the need to advertise our status as a gamer - But why?
An interesting reason I just came up with just now is that, because of their interactive nature, gamers are encouraged to, or at least feel the need to, do things more about what they love. We're encouraged to act, and create, and whatever, because games let us act and create, in a way other media does not.
Interesting, but I don't know if that's really the answer, or how big a part it plays if true.
If not that, is it because we feel alienated because the general population are not hardcore gaming fans? That by being fans of this 'alien' medium, it makes us unique, and we like to shout that out to the world?
It seems to me that this just breeds more alienation. We probably sound like raving weirdos to anyone who doesn't understand the game medium.
The Nerdcore rap scene is kind of lame because (well, the large collection of terrible, wannabe rappers involved aside) the constrictions they set upon themselves unintentionally by limiting their topics to video games, computers, etc. means that their songs, although often clever and funny, miss out on a lot of the human experience. You don't get a sense of who they are outside of the geek stereotype the person has set out before you. It feels like they've reduced the art to just a gimmick, or a gag. Even with the Canadian rapper The WordBurglar, who's lyrics consist almost entirely of really gimmicky dumb puns, I at least get a bit more of a sense of that guy's inner soul than I do through most Nerdcore artists, like when he raps about his childhood. See, he raps about his childhood... just through the medium of terrible puns that make you groan. ;)
The fact that a 'gamer culture' even exists is kind of depressing to me, because that just seems to say that we're not yet taken seriously as a medium, that we have to advertise that we are, in fact, fans of the medium.
With, say, film, it's pretty much assumed you, as a human being, are to some degree a fan of film. The point when you feel the need to advertise that you love film is probably the point where you become a film snob, which is the point when people start to think you're a bit of a jackass.
It just makes me wish games were just as 'normal' as every other media, and we didn't have to announce that we enjoy it.
Labels: culture, gamer identity, music
posted by Brian Shurtleff @ 5:09 PM
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