as gaming, especially PC gaming, is not exactly a cheap hobby
More then that: this very much applies when you start extrapolating it out to the professional career gamers (whether that means streamer or competitor) because even now the barrier of entry is quite high either to play/stream with the best hardware.
One of my favorite unintentional experiments and case studies that’s taken place is within the fighting game community, because unlike every other competitive scene its one of the very few that began and still in many ways resides in the arcades where the barrier of entry is measured in quarters rather then hundreds of dollars. Covid, better net code, and overall increases in internet speeds has changed things up more recently but even up until just a few years ago ‘online warrior’ was a term used relatively dismissively. Even though the games are generally not played on arcade cabinets anymore…they are still almost universally played and standardized on consoles rather then expensive gaming PCs.
Given that: I think its very interesting to note that young men of color overwhelmingly dominate the competitive scene.
Fighting games, even on consoles are much more social than shooters. Yeah you CAN do a LAN, but the preparation is higher than 2 controllers and 2 or more friends. I know there are also occasionally issues with multiple controllers on some Pc setups.
It’s true. This is also one of my go-to pushbacks again Christman’s thesis on gaming and it’s inherently alienating nature. Fighting games and their community are actually one of the things that finally got me out of my cave.
I miss being scrub at fighting games with friends. Even many online fighting games try to emulate the hanging with friends mode online where players cycle in and out of a group instead of everything 1v1.
It’s neat how games where is about 1v1 can grow a community around the craft that tends to be less rage toxic.
Maybe it’s because in co-op you can blame your allies for losing so you can hate them.
No one to blame but your decisions in guilty gear and you just need to learn and improve.
