Generation Zombie

Culture is a wondrous thing. It evolves, spreads, infects, going nowhere and everywhere all at once leaving steaming piles of strange references and weird societal behaviour.

We could talk all day about how urnial etiquette is different from one nation to the next (eye contact, from what I understand, is universally banned), but I’m here mostly to talk about popular culture.

At it’s core, culture is something that is experienced by, if not all, the majority. You’d be very hard pressed to find an avid internet user has not seen a lolcat or been rick rolled in one fashion or another.

In North America, at least, culture is very heavily defined by our entertainment. (I expect this is the same anywhere you go in the world, even places that still rely entirely on oral stories.) Maybe it was radio, or TV, or whatever the latest popular flick was, but as long as two people were not complete shut ins, they always had something in common to talk about.

Star Wars, for instance. Harry Potter. Lord of the Rings. Star Trek, in all it’s forms. The Beatles, Elvis Presley.

They defined the culture of their time, whether they revolutionized it or represented it.

It’s impossible to find someone who hasn’t seen Star Wars, let alone someone who hasn’t even heard of it. Dark side jokes about, Yoda impressions never fail to be understood.

It’s extremely hard to find someone who doesn’t get sad when Steve Irwin is brought up. Even then, the people who don’t know who Steve Irwin figure it out immediately when “Crocodile Hunter” is mentioned.

Maybe it’s possible to find someone who hasn’t heard a song by the Rolling Stones, but everyone has heard of the band.

TV has been around for a while, as have movies and books. These have become accepted as part of our culture. Hell, you can spout the words “Snape kills [insert anything here]” and even people who’ve never read the book are going to understand what it’s referencing.

Gaming is the new kid to culture, in this regard. Here I’m going to have to use the grossly inaccurate term “my generation”, because no other word really fits it.

Screw it, this is english; I can invent one. We’re now called Bittens.

Chances are, if you’re reading this blog, you are a bitten. A gamer. Someone who has, at some point, experienced the culture surrounding video games for better or worse.

Larísa rues that her experiences and stories within the bittens world isn’t really sharable to those outside. She goes to work, and can’t really relate to her coworkers that aren’t part of this (our) culture.

Just to prove my point, she then decides to talk about a TV show instead. It’s something they have in common (entertainment).

Gaming is the next thing. Where my parents could always strike up a conversation about this sitcom or that talk show, I’ll always be able to strike up a conversation about this RPG or that FPS.

Consider how much gamer culture has already pushed itself into the public mind.

Movies like Doom, Tombraider, and Final Fantasy, have exposed the greater public to our lore, however ludicrous it may be.

Consider the immense popularity of World of Warcraft, where even those who have never even used a PC know what it is.

Consider that everyone with even the remotest of connections into the gamer world have heard of Leeroy Jenkins or know that the cake is, indeed, a lie.

I live in a culture where two guys on the bus can complain about what the new expansion did to their druids, and a little old lady in a wheelchair across the aisle joins in, lamenting the nerfs to her precious Lifebloom.

Consider the reach of Mario, of Pacman.

40 years from now, I’ll be able to say to anyone on the street “yeah, I played a troll mage”, and statistically speaking, the vast majority of random strangers will know exactly what I’m talking about.

Consider the young checkout girl at Safeway who accused her coworker of being a “noob”.

Consider the elderly janitor who dropped his cleaning bucket and said “Noes! Ma bukket!”

Consider that it is now acceptable to site leadership in an online video game on a resume.

Like it or not, our generation, what we’re doing now, this whole gamer/internet culture, this isn’t restricted to us.

Hell, even the definition of an “us” is flimsy. Geekdom, nerds, gamers, whatever you want to call it, is far from being removed from the rest of society.

We are the rest of society.

Gaming is rapidly becoming common ground. A lot of us share this, and there is an army if millions following in our footsteps to join us.

And hey, we’re reproducing now, too. Our kids are growing up in this cultural environment we created.

Consider that Gnomeaggedon’s son is gaming already, and he isn’t even three.

Edit:

Gnomeaggedon’s son, I mean. Three, that is. Or less than. Gnomeaggedon himself is significantly older than three. I think.

Edit 2:

Holy crap Gnomey you should name your son Less Than Three.

Get it?

Because he is.