The Social gamer

Most conventional geeks are not known for their social skills, because most of the time their pairs are too mainstream to warrant their attention. This dis-interest with the mainstream man/ woman has lead to geeks being known as socially awkward and weird, but in fact this is not the case. We geeks are very social and in some ways we are more social than the mainstream man/ woman. which begs the question what is a social Geek?

Now I Q?, I’m a very proud Nerd/geek. I am proud of my people, (lol my people Open-mouthed smile) and my passion. This pride is apparent in my everyday life as I may wear a fan t-shirt or walk up to a fellow on geek on the street just to wish them salutation and complement them on their DBZ t-shirt or FF keychain. My social skills are a bit more bold and ranged than the average geek because I spent some time kicking it mainstream, and then again I don’t really have notions of fear with regards to communication. The common nerd may not socialize in the way I do but he or she may do it in more ways than I will. For example some of us use forums to discuss everyday life and share our passion with other like minded individuals, (by the way if you haven’t already head over and join ARPEGI). Others use websites like raptr to share their thoughts on games.

The later of the two I just mentioned is the one that inspired this article, raptr is a social network for gamers where we can share our progress, achievements, online accounts and just discuss video games in a neat and well designed environment.
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The website’s neat design makes it easy to view all your gaming information including achievements, which after their addition and gamer scoring systems to gaming have become an imperative part of today’s gaming experience.  increases the need for sites like this.
raptr
raptr is not the only site that offers the service to track your gameplay and achievements. In fact there are quite a few others out there, like Playfire, but raptr has been the one to best execute this type of social network so far. What they have done is make it possible to allow their network to stand on it’s own merit as well as lean on the popularity of others like Facebook and Twitter. They have even been able to secure exclusive content from developers in the gaming industry That are given to the raptr community as a part of a reward system that relies on the progress of players in specific games. This type of system allow for gamers to be given incentive to maybe give that obscure title that they probably would never play on their own a try.

raptr also has a desktop app that is compatible with all current versions of windows. The desktop app has quite a few great features from a built in web browser that can be use even while gaming to look up cheats, walkthroughs or best of all to ask the raptr community for help. it also has the ability to Instantly broadcast video or capture screenshots while playing. These are features that advance the gaming experience and encouraging social interaction.
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Sites like these and the Apps that accompany them are some of the main reasons gamers are more social these days. I would have liked to add something about the app but currently can’t write about raptr’s mobile app because it is exclusive to IOS, so android owners like me are not able to track our raptr data on the go unless the developers at raptr realize their missed opportunity and release a version of their app in the Play store.

As a gamer I personally like to sit alone and play a good jrpg by myself without anyone most of the time but from time to time I pop online for a FIFA challenge or to play some castle crashers. This what the social gamer is today. We play online, we track achievements/ trophies, we share our passion and we are proud of who we are. So give raptr a try and while you’re on there be sure to seek me out and say hi.

Qudduws Campbell

That messy hair bloke: Romantic, Food lover, Gamer, Sports Fan, Manga Reader, Tech Head, Podcaster... Pretty much do a bit of everything.

4 Comments

  1. I very much enjoyedthis read. You hit on some subjects that I often like the sit and think about. Those are questions like, “What is a nerd and what is a geek? Which is more social? Why? What defines them?” Ect. I like that you introduced these two sites, particularly Raptr. How did I not know about it? Shame on me, haha. I’ll definitely be checking it out as I am very much a social geek. Or might I say, just a geek? My personal belief is that geeks do not have the social dysfunction that most nerds do. Two very different types of people, if you ask me, but you managed to walk the gamer line on that one. And some gamers just aren’t social. Touche!

    I think my previous post might interest you some. It’s titled, “Geeks: The Functional Nerds?” I’d love for you to give it a read and let me know what you think!
    ( http://geekyngirly.wordpress.com/2013/07/24/geeks-the-functional-nerds/ )

    – Britney

    1. thanks for the Kind words I really appreciate them.
      Oh and I did actually read your post before and it did somehow influence my writing here. I think my comment was the second one on yours.

      About raptr I highly recommend you give it a try no matter what demographic of geek culture you relate best to because at the end of the day aren’t we all just as all passionate people.

      1. Oh! Now, I feel silly. 😀 You sure did! Thanks for that, again. I appreciate that you and I seem to bounce off of each other’s writing. It’s quite nice.

        And I just signed up for it! I couldn’t resist, haha. I’m currently playing FFXIV (when I have the time) and so I figured they may have a pretty active community on Raptr. It’s neat thus far.

        – Britney

        1. lol we’re kinda, were like neighbours that check each other for the occasional borrowing of salt and sugar. 😉

          The community should be quite active for that game. I have a few friends that play it though it’s not my cup of tea, but you will meet many who have that taste for that game on raptr, if you haven’t already. Oh btw if you wish to add me to you friends list on raptr my username is (lpgardian)