Dungeons & Dollars

Gangs of New York

I think I'm beginning to see what he's getting at. He keeps going. "There is a great difference between 'Greater Gaming Community' and the community of the game industry. The industry makes the games, and the gamers like us are the ones that play them. I felt that if we organized the community, we as gamers around the world would have a significant voice."

Click.

It's because the system there has failed to do what it's supposed to do.

Beneath the verbally capitalized phrases like Greater Gaming Community and the militant talk of the different Empire "units" (pre-existing gaming cliques and groups that enter into the Empire fold) and Knights and Valkyries and all of this, lies something that makes sense, sort of. Just like gang life is more than just shooting people wearing the wrong color, gaming life is more than just playing games. By and large, however, it feels like Triforce is right; the community that makes games seems to be rather disconnected from the people who play games.

It seems so ludicrous, at first, to hear him talk about health, fashion, art and literature when we talk about videogames - but when I think about it, it makes just about as much sense as talking about, say, Asian American health issues, hip-hop fashion, queer community art shows or sports literature. Maybe he's not taking games too seriously at all. Maybe he's just taking them as seriously as people take everything else that matters to them, whether it's racial identity, sexual orientation or all-consuming hobbies.

By now, the interview is wrapping up; after all, I've taken up almost two hours of their time and they're busy people. "I'm a gamer, not a businessman," Triforce tells me on his way out. "My executive staff takes my vision, my dreams, and makes them into feasible marketing plans and services. Myself, guys like Justin, and the rest of us, we use our gamer skill to execute them." Instead, it's Justin who hints, lightly, at what I'm thinking. "There will always be people [who don't take games seriously], but they can't be like that forever. We'll show them that we're serious about what we do."

Don't worry, Marvelous, I think you already have.

Pat Miller has been doing this for way too long.