First Person Shooters is what a majority of the games that I have played are, especially in recent years (my time spamming Brood War is gone). I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the culture surrounding this genre, as I dive deeper and deeper into the world of esports, primarily Counter-Strike.

Firstly, I feel as if the FPS genre is, broadly speaking, the genre with the most elitists. The people who think that their games are the hardest, and therefore they are the most skilled gamers, and that translates in their mind to them having the right to look down on others. This is a genre that is often associated with being skillful and expressing dominance over your opponents, and that type of game attracts a specific type of personality. One of the most common reason people who don’t play FPS gives to me as to why that is the case is because “the game is hard” and/or “I suck at it and can’t aim.”  Even for the people who don’t play the games in a serious or competitive manner, the aspect of skill is still the dominant conversation. This, I think, speaks to the culture developed around FPS games more than anything else listed here.

The second thing worth mentioning is that, as it is referenced in the article “Examination of the Relationship between gender, performance, and enjoyment of a first-person shooter game” by Toby Hopp and Jolene Fisher, FPS games are often a male dominated space, both to play and spectate. I wasn’t able to find a source for this, but I recall once seeing a statistic for CS:GO tournaments throughout 2018 and the male:female viewership ratio was something along the lines of 94:6. Interestingly, this article concluded that the female players often associated their skill level with their enjoyment more than the males playing did. This is something that, on face value, I assumed would be the opposite. In hindsight, however, the reasoning makes sense. The article states “We predicted that women’s game enjoyment would rest, In large part, on their ability to positively violate stereotype-motivated expectancies associated with FPS games by performing at a high level.” As to what any of this means, I am honestly unsure, as there are a variety of cultural factors at play here. It makes sense, however, that people get enjoyment out of breaking the expectations that people set for them. Breaking the stereotype of “female gamers suck” seems to be a logical thing to attach enjoyment onto.

Final thing I would like to say on this is the fact that, even now, when I show FPS players games like StarCraft, World of Warcraft, or even League of Legends, they often fail to understand the aspects that make it skillful. The sentiment is usually something along the lines of “You’re just watching little dudes shoot at each other…”. The skill behind other types of games often, I find, does not translate well to FPS player’s minds.