Understanding the Individual Views and Experiences of Gamers: Guild Wars 2

Abstract

The gaming subculture is a not so looked into subculture that tends to be admonished from negative views, more so the subcultures that focus within a genre of video games called MMORPG’s or Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game. To understand the inner workings of said subculture, specifically of the MMORPG variety is to give voice to these individuals, as the notion to understand is to broaden the knowledge on the various subcultures that currently exist, none more so than the residents of the online space. The research was done through the interview of individuals and participants who exist within the MMORPG gaming subculture within the game Guild Wars 2, The 5 participants are individuals who have spent a majority of their time within the game space and have shared their own experiences to better piece the puzzle that is understanding the MMORPG communities that exist. The results indicates that the participants shared experience showing how they are not as glued to their computers as most outsiders would think, that they feel a sense of belonging within the chosen community, and that they don’t really change their identity much and still reflect their own self the same as how they would act outside of the game. This shows that to understand the gaming subculture, we see how they are still functioning members of society with a heavy hobby of playing such games, still have and chase their real world a