Over the weekend, the biggest names in geekage from all across the world got together to compete for more than 50,000$ playing Starcraft 2 on Saturday, and World of Warcraft on Sunday for the equivalent prize money. This event happens once a year and funny enough this year it came to Warsaw, Poland, so I said, "Why not, go there get some interviews, talk to some geeks."
Well, arriving at the location, it was a giant huge mall in the center of Warsaw, I went to the information; they had no idea what event I was talking about. I walked everywhere, in and out of the mall, a good hour or two, nothing!
Finally when I was on the verge of giving up hope, I spotted a geeky looking kid and said, "he'll know!" He was vicously testing out a golden permanent marker on the back of a piece of paper, (probably for some autographs). I told him "Do you know anything about the Starcraft 2 event thats happening?" he told me to follow him, we went to the top of the mall where a giant futuristic semi-circular glossy frame punched into the wall with neon letters about 3 meters high that said "BATTLENET INVATIONAL" I couldn't help but awe at the site of the room inside, the event itself was spectacular, the posters, the artwork, made me realize how wonderful the life of hardcore geeks must be.
But as far as interviews went, it was a bit harder then I anticipated. No other game company has a fan base as geeky and loving as Blizzard, who have the ability to make games so addicting players dedicate their livelihoods to those games. Yes, these players make money, they are considered celebrities in the geekworld and everybody (except me) knew them... They do this for a living competing against one and another, with cool names such as "Thorzain" or the "Drunken Terran". Anyways, I thought I'd make the most out of this event and get some words from the developers.
However, just asking for an interview with one of the developers was a real pain, "we get hundreds of these requests a day" the press coordinator told me after I spent about an hour just trying to get in touch with him. He gave me his card, shook my hand and told me to drop him an email, maybe I'll get a reply, maybe I won’t. He said if you wait till the games are over you maybe able to exchange words with one of the players, maybe...
Another lady working for Blizzard told me, "look, if your doing research you really should talk to the players, their super friendly and will gladly talk to you." Well, I decided I wasn't going to wait till 11PM after the games were over to talk to them, because I HAD A LIFE, I barged my way to the back found myself in the spotlight. I jumped at the opportunity to talk to what looked like the dorkiest kid there with logos of various computer companies. "Are you a player?" He looked at me like I should know him, I told him the research I was doing, that I wasn't from the press and that I just needed five minutes of his time when he can. No words, I told I am just researching about architecture in games to which he replied "I don't know what you meen about architecture in games," and walked off. To be honest I may have gotten a different reply from a world of warcraft geek, because being a starcraft 2 player which is really a strategy game, or maybe the word "architecture," was too not fun sounding, whatever it was, he wasn't very social towards me. Nonetheless, I was so furious at his remark, all the while thinking, "What does he meen, what do I meen Architecture in games?" I was also furious at the difficulty of getting one opinion from anybody there that I decided to sit back and review the spectacle from an anthropological stand. After all I was researching FPS and this whole event was really not a FPS event, so what the hell!
Anyhow, it was reviewing the reaction of the audience, the faces of the players when winning and the adrenaline, that I realized that this was indeed an amazing event. These players were merely tapping some keyboard buttons and clicking the mouse and making amazing things happen virtually. This was the modern day version of gladiators. Players killing themselves virtually, losing, winning the awe, the spectacle, the dedication of the fans to sit their for hours upon hours.
A famous historian wrote on an article here in Poland, that "History is about people and places, not dates of victories and defeats," -Woloszanksi.
And indeed Woloszanksi couldn't be more correct, this was all about these players and the places there were in, both in the real world and in the virtual world. They were making very spacial decisions inside the game, (like in any game) but what was speciel her was how their decisions extended past the screen spacially and reached to the crowd that would be cheering for the virtual choices these players were making at such a massive scale. This was proper social engagement, virtually, realistically, in every possible way. These virtual environments allowed such a social manifestation to arupt around me that I was very glad, that at the end of the day, I really got out what I neaded by just sitting and watching and talking to geeks around me. This wasn't a FPS and so it wasn't directly relevent to my research in terms of game typology. However what this did show me was the ability a game has to extend and to reach out in the spacial environments, from virtual to real. This was the carrear of these players, they spend most their lives occupying a world that is fictional (in their heads) and turning into money in the real world. These people are immersed in another world, and we, in this world are following their actions. This is a whole new level of social interaction. Players around me who I spoke to and I asked "Why do you love world of warcraft so much?" Replied, "becuase its so social! and the worlds are so creative..." These players are willing to dedicate their lives to these worlds, and I bet, if they could, they would jump right into the wolrd in their screens without looking back...
Anyways! I plan on getting more interviews, and I recently found a essay by an Australian architecture student specifically about architecture in games that I will talk about in the posts to come!
Below my friend print-screened me from a live stream of the event online. I'm inside that circle....
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