Durkheim and the PC gaming Community
When asked to identify with a group I am familiar with there is only one group to which I can say I wholly belong to. That would be the collective group of online PC gamers. Now, to relate principles brought forth by a key late 19th century sociologist to the culture of an internet gaming community may seem quite obscure. When reading the literature and attempting to critically analyze it through the eyes of the culture to which I am familiar with, everything seemed to fall into place very accordingly. I am hoping I can transcribe this fresh paradigm perspective into this essay.
PC gaming has only recently reached the point of actualizing itself as a legitimate sport. Online Groups form what are called clans, or online teams that form play other teams through scrimmages or league play. Some people join clans and some don't, either way all have people that they have met (online or offline) and play with regularly. Durkheim says “What constitutes social facts are the beliefs, tendencies and practices of the group taken collectively.” Online teams, clans and guilds are social facts. Now when you think of a person glued to their computer, the image you conjure up does not seem intrinsically social by any means. In reality however, they may be voice and text chatting with hundreds of people simultaneously. This is by its very nature not a face to face experience, but generates a sense of community nonetheless.
There is certain culture among the more hardcore gamer collective that is dictated to newcomers. It “shows its presence through perceptible effects” as Durkheim says. The social fact is the absence or rare slight of communication from the player. The “perceptible effects” would be the profound impact the communication has when rarely expressed. In most online PC games that don't integrate voice communications, this culture is something the hardcore gamer collective abides to. The social fact is in essence to “Speak softly and carry a big stick” as quoted by Theodore Roosevelt. You do not talk much, only if spoken to (if that) and when you do it is quick and concise. This leaves everything said to be profound with great attention paid to it. You allow your game play speak for itself; in essence 'the proof is in the pudding'. This is not something that was initially acted and created by contemporary gamers, instead it has been social fact among the hardcore amateur and professional gaming community since online gaming was established. This would fall under “beliefs and practices which are handed down to us ready and fashioned by previous generations.” New gamers come into this culture, accept their environment and abide by it. They are not conscious of its constraining pressures until they resist against it or attempt to refuse its “external and coercive” restraints. “Hence we are the victims of an illusion which leads us to believe we have ourselves produced what has been imposed upon us externally”.
Another example of something “ready and fashioned” by previous generations would be the language in which we speak to one another online, whether it be through voice chat or text. This has progressed to the point where an outsider reading a conversation would be utterly perplexed by the words and phrases used. This can even be applied on a micro level to the to the community of a single, individual game in which the players have their own vernacular and definitions for words that only pertain to that one game.
The collective ideal shared among PC gamers would be that of community reaffirmed through game play with one another. A sense of belonging that many may otherwise never find in the real world. Players uniting to enjoy shared interests amongst themselves. It is their common sentiment to share time with people of interests parallel to their own, people that they may never find or have a chance to interact with 'offline'. What I just described in this paragraph could easily be read with the perspective in mind of a sports team with no flaws in its practical application. Although you don't think of the average computer gamer as being specifically socially adept or physically fit, the sense of contentment they attain through their collective activities differ only in the most minute senses from that of an athlete regardless of the lack of actual face to face contact. The social fact that gamers collectively play to attain fulfillment generated through community is not often realized.
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