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Video Game Fans as Textual Poachers
By Bobby Bokista - 01.01.05
Studying as a Fan
In an effort to be transparent about my methodologies there are a number of points I feel worth mentioning in relation to this paper. Firstly, I am a fan. I have been playing video games for as long as I can remember and bring my passion for games into my work. I'm also a critical fan who realizes that just because something is a game does not make it worthwhile. I a fan of EarthBound and in 2000 I was a member of the Starmen.net community. During this time I participated in forum discussions, chat rooms, and even submitted some content. Questions have been raised by scholars as to how close a person can be to a group to provide an unbiased study. Jenkins, in the introduction to Textual Poachers, answers that "there is no privileged position from which to survey a culture."1 In this same regard "newer ethnography offers accounts in which participation is often as important as observation."2 I find this new "ethnographic authority" to be liberating. Much like Jenkins, the freedom to be a fan and an academic allows me to read the text as any other fan might. In doing so I can understand how someone might internalize the text and become involved with its content. Video games can be read differently from person to person depending on their proximity to the text, genre, or gaming in general. The experience of a "casual gamer" will be quite different from that of a "hardcore gamer".3 The experience of the gamer who spends many hours with many types of games is not easily understood through the eyes of an academic bystander. Being a fan is a way of understanding a certain psychology that goes along with playing a game. It is this connection that has allowed me to appreciate the motivations for being a fan and to find the value in fan-produced objects.
1 Jenkins, Henry. Textual Poachers. Routledge, Chapman and Hall Inc. 1992. P 4.
2 Ibid., 4
3 "Casual" and "Hardcore" gamers are terms applied to the level of interest the player has for gaming in general. "Casual" gamers tend to buy the most popular titles and play for recreation. "Hardcore" gamers tend to buy a large variety of games in different genres and spend a large amount of time playing their games.
Home •
Introduction •
Studying as a Fan •
Textual Poaching •
EarthBound •
Forming a Community •
What Poachers Make •
The Perfect Poach / Conclusion
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