Gaming as Participatory Culture 2

## Forums

A forum is an online messaging board where messages are also often archived. Forums are discussion sites where each question becomes a thread where people can answer the original question. They can be used for a variety of topics, including video games. These threads are there to help people understand the game that they are playing and for new users, they can easily access a specific thread and hopefully find tons of information. Of course, they are some gaming forums that are more popular than others and will have more foot traffic.

With that being said the more popular games world wide, like Pokémon and Call of Duty, have significant online forum sites where can have a wide range of discussions. People can air out their grievances with features in a game, pose questions, find teammates for multiplayer functions, and a huge range of other topics. And large game developers are taking notice. On the official Call of Duty Black OPS III site there is a forum where users have already posed questions. Forums are an effective way to spread information to millions of people and gather material to help better the game. One of the biggest gaming franchises in history (Call of Duty) has already implemented forums in their sites so they can learn from the people who play their games.

With the Pokémon Gaming forum (pictured below) threads are broken into topics or people can search specific questions. The third topic down titled Battling & Team Building is full of questions regarding effective ways to of course build the best team in the Pokémon world. Full of helpful information of course this certain topic will certainly be helpful for those just starting their journey in the Pokémon world.

## Youtube(Gaming Gurus)

In an ever changing digital world information has multiple ways of reaching people. Watching YouTube videos of people analyzing video games probably will not appeal to everybody. However, it happens to be a very popular faction in gaming culture. Specifically, YouTube gamers post videos of themselves actually playing games (various kinds) and adding their commentary while playing. Anyone can create a YouTube channel and post videos about gaming, which is very true, but the popularity of some YouTubers is truly astonishing. What makes gaming YouTubers so popular is the way they come across while playing these games. They present information in funny ways, whether it be changing their voices or having cool special effects. YouTube gamers like PewDiePie have a super outgoing personality and are really comical while he plays hundreds of video games.

These types of videos really appeal to gamers worldwide and major game console companies like Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony take notice.  They use the popularity of some of the famous YouTube gamers to review their consoles. Major video games companies also send out games early to these YouTubers to test out the games before mass market. Like Jenkins said “Most brands will need to court a range of different communities and travel across pools, webs, and hubs if they want to reach the full range of desired consumers”(Jenkins). Many different companies are taking notice of the popularity of these special types of gamers in order to connect with the gaming community and learn form what these gurus have to say.

Top 5 Youtube Gaming Channels

1. PewDiePie
2. MarkilpierGAME
3. RoosterTeeth
4. OfficialNerdCubed
5. VanossGaming

## **Sources**

1. Hjorth, Larissa. "The Game Of Casual Reflection: Gaming In The Twenty-First Century." Metro 164 (2010): 134-136. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.

2. Jenkins, Henry. "If It Doesn’t Spread, It’s Dead (Part Five): Communities of Users." *Confessions of an AcaFan*. N.p., 20 Jan. 2009. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.