Doctorow’s book For the Win gives an insightful look into the world of modern gaming. Throughout the book the reader is thrown into a whole world of World of Warcraft jargon, and the techniques behind winning/leveling up in the game. The first part of the book includes a story about an American child who wants to level up in within the game, but cannot do it on his own. Therefore, he contracts “raiders” to help him level up, and achieve a higher rank within the game. However, those are the technical aspect of the game. The gaming side of the book is very interesting and the focus of the book, but I saw something else within the text that was quite interesting and, at face value, amazing.
There is a conversation as follows within the game:
“You’re not in China, are you?” the gweilo asked.
“Not exactly,” he said, looking out the window at the sky over Orange County, the most boring ZIP code in California.
“Where are you guys?”
“They’re in China. Where I live, you can see the Disneyland fireworks show every night.”
“Goddamn,” the gweilo said. “Ain’t you got better things to do than help some idiot level up in the middle of the night?”
“I guess I don’t,” he said. Mixed in behind were the guys laughing and catcalling in Chinese on their channel. He grinned to hear them.
“I mean, hell, I can see why someone in China’d do a crappy job for a rotten 75 bucks, but if you’re in America, dude, you should have some pride, get some real work!”
“And why would someone in China want to do a crappy job?” The guys were listening in now. They didn’t have great English, but they spoke enough to get by.
“You know, it’s China. There’s billions of ’em. Poor as dirt and ignorant. I don’t blame ’em. You can’t blame ’em. It’s not their fault. But hell, once you get out of China and get to America, you should act like an American. We don’t do that kind of work.”
“What makes you think I ‘got out of China’?”
“Didn’t you?”
“I was born here. My parents were born here. Their parents were born here. Their parents came here from Russia.”
“I didn’t know they had Chinese in Russia.”
Wei-Dong laughed. “I’m not Chinese, dude.”
“You aren’t? Well, goddamn then, I’m sorry. I figured you were. What are you, then, the boss or something?”
This segment of the book is quite remarkable because it displays an instance of cross cultural contact caused by the gaming world. Previous to the internet, and gaming, it is quite improbable that children had the ability to communicate globally quite so easily. Furthermore, the game offers a middle ground of conversation, but also allows each of the children to view the others position and view of the world.
I myself have been an avid player of Star Craft, which is a relative game of World of War Craft. While playing I have met people from all around the globe, and have been a witness to cross-cultural contact within the gaming world. I guess, in a way, it has made feel a closer connection or understanding of other people living around globe. I’ve also been the subject of heavy anti-American criticism, which made me laugh, but also made me think of America in different perspective.
The global gaming arena is an interesting new field in the human experience. I wonder how far it will go to
I agree with you that this is a great example of cross-cultural communication. The gaming world is actually connecting the world at even greater lengths than before and possibilities of communicating with the world are larger and more diverse.