This is going to sound sort of weird, but the thought came to me today that I've never heard of anyone using the "book club" structure to socially explore videogames. Maybe I've never heard of it because it's absurd, but right now, it doesn't seem all that absurd to me. I'm assuming that everyone grasps the idea of a book club (the thing that Oprah bastardized by taking it mass market). A bunch of people get together, decide what book to read, and then all read (or don't read, see Peter Griffin) the book, and talk about it during and afterwards.
To some extent, when new games come out, these things form themselves. Everyone buys the new game at the same time, and plays it at the same time, and the discussion occurs. But what about after that? What happens for the new gamers coming onto the scene who weren't around when the game came out? A lot of us just skip what came out before, and join up with the crowd buying the new games. But, I think this means we're missing out. When it comes to books, they're an established enough medium that something written hundreds of years ago can still be appreciated, and with movies, the same goes for those several decades old. If new readers only read the new stuff coming out, or people only saw new release movies, there would be a lot of lost culture, and a lacking common lexicon between the young and the old (the divide is large enough as it is). I have a roommate who has no interest in watching movies filmed or books written prior to 1995, and I think his cultural education is decidedly lacking for it. I don't want to make the same mistake when it comes to videogames.
Admittedly, gaming is still young. For those of you that have been around for nearly the entirety of the video game's cultural rise, you probably haven't missed much. But each day, someone new is introduced to the fold who lacks the common experience that you do, and the gap widens. There have been plenty of fascinating articles on this website which have helped to fill me in on the years that I missed, like Zork. But what happens when I want to discover some of these games for myself? It's often a little lonely, when no one else is discovering it anew, or one encounters a deeply entrenched, embittered fanbase of games that have faded since their heyday.
So, could a book club structure work for video games, and if so, how? And if not, what else might work to bridge the gap between the experienced and the naive? Articles are all well and good, but if an article were sufficient replacement for a video game experience, I don't know that we'd all be that interested to begin with.
To some extent, when new games come out, these things form themselves. Everyone buys the new game at the same time, and plays it at the same time, and the discussion occurs. But what about after that? What happens for the new gamers coming onto the scene who weren't around when the game came out? A lot of us just skip what came out before, and join up with the crowd buying the new games. But, I think this means we're missing out. When it comes to books, they're an established enough medium that something written hundreds of years ago can still be appreciated, and with movies, the same goes for those several decades old. If new readers only read the new stuff coming out, or people only saw new release movies, there would be a lot of lost culture, and a lacking common lexicon between the young and the old (the divide is large enough as it is). I have a roommate who has no interest in watching movies filmed or books written prior to 1995, and I think his cultural education is decidedly lacking for it. I don't want to make the same mistake when it comes to videogames.
Admittedly, gaming is still young. For those of you that have been around for nearly the entirety of the video game's cultural rise, you probably haven't missed much. But each day, someone new is introduced to the fold who lacks the common experience that you do, and the gap widens. There have been plenty of fascinating articles on this website which have helped to fill me in on the years that I missed, like Zork. But what happens when I want to discover some of these games for myself? It's often a little lonely, when no one else is discovering it anew, or one encounters a deeply entrenched, embittered fanbase of games that have faded since their heyday.
So, could a book club structure work for video games, and if so, how? And if not, what else might work to bridge the gap between the experienced and the naive? Articles are all well and good, but if an article were sufficient replacement for a video game experience, I don't know that we'd all be that interested to begin with.
(
