How important is the gaming community to gaming culture?

With the way the internet can be sometimes you would expect gaming communities to be bunch of Comic Book Guy’s from the Simpsons complaining about everything. While it is true there is no shortage of anger and criticism there are a ton of great communities that not only help the gamer, but the industry as well.

Since the beginning of the internet there have been places where people can go to find information on games from where to locate them, how to install them and even how to play them. From general information communities branched out to bring you mods for games so you can play custom maps or even a completely new type of game within an existing game.

User created communities have exposed us to the history of a game from the development process to behind the scene tidbits. We have seen games in a whole new light with special codes and bugs being found by communities. Through the eyes of fellow gamers we have listened to new versions of video game music and have seen player created videos from our favorite games.

That same criticism that is sometimes looked upon negatively has helped make games better. From FPS to RTS and even MMO’s, many companies look to players and their communities to test and perfect their games. They have taken suggestions from communities and even entire games have been created based on community feedback.

Beyond business there is the social aspect of gaming communities. They can be a place where even those who feel they have nobody that understands them can find comradely with someone else. Friendships can be built with people of all types from around the world brought together by the love of gaming and someone dedicated enough to create a place where they could meet.

There is no doubt that communities have helped gamers and gaming culture in extraordinary ways and we at Obsolete Gamer are happy to do our part which is why we will continue profiling communities in the future.

If you have a community or know of one you would like to see profile please click on the envelop tab on the side bar to e-mail us about it.

Let’s turn to our panel to see what their thoughts are on gaming communities.

Juan Gril from JoJu Games wrote: It’s very important. The fans and their passion are what have always driven us to make better games.

Jason Shankel from Stupid Fun Club wrote: There’s no mystery as to why user created content is becoming more and more important for the long-term shelf life of games. This is because, moreso than in other media, the audience is part of the artistic creation.  Successful games have to resonate not only with the audience’s tastes, but with their own interest and willingness to participate in the experience.

Players are co-creators of the gaming experience, if not the game itself, and the gaming community gives players as a group the voice they need to make that contribution.

Aaron Hunter from Playtechtonics Inc wrote: The community aspect of gaming is new for developers and a bit of a surprise. It is not our specialty, but the vibe of the community is probably as important as anything else to how much fun it is to participate in an MMO.

Mathew Anderson from Petroglyphgames wrote: For most games I’d dare to say that without a community, there essentially is no game, even single-player offline games. In today’s world of social networking, a game’s pulse is dependent on who talks about it, and a community around the game is this core discussion base. And since by definition “culture” is dependent on a community base of some sort, it’s as important as it can be.

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