08-30-2005, 11:16 AM
Here's what I got on the Lounge so far. Please tell me your thoughts :)
(And if I've written anything to offend the administrators and members of this site, please comment on that as well, so I may rectify it.)
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“The Lurker Lounge” (www.lurkerlounge.com)
The Lurker Lounge is a gaming community for fans of the game series “Diablo”, an
adventure game by developer Blizzard Entertainment. Compared to other gaming
communities such as GameFaqs, Gamespy and Gamespot, The Lurker Lounge is a
relatively small one. However, administrators and members of the website take
great pride in keeping high standard of the content posted on the site, both in
terms of guides written for the games, but also in terms of posts and threads on
the forums. In the “about us”-section of the site, the administrators explain their
perception of the Lurker Lounge.
This site tends to have a more mature focus than general gaming
news sites, most of which are after two things: hit count and popularity.
Well, take it from Bolty [site administrator], who's been writing and
reading gaming news sites since 1995: popularity stinks. The bigger a
gaming site gets, the more bogged down it gets and the intelligence level
of its forum becomes lower and lower. "That's a snooty attitude," you
might think, and you'd be right. But it's also true. Here at the Lurker
Lounge, the site and forum administrators fight to keep the maturity and
intelligence levels of the site and its forums high - and we take great
pride in that.
(http://www.lurkerlounge.com/content/view/731/125/)
One would not be wrong in assuming that most gaming communities are targeted
at adolescents and young adults. The Lurker Lounge, however, because of its
ambitious administrators and demanding user base, has earned somewhat of an
elitist reputation, which tends to discourage the average gamer from signing up.
Rather, this call for eloquence, intelligence and experience often attracts the
mature gamer. As a result, the Lurker Lounge differs heavily from the average
gaming community, something which is best seen in the forum posts of its
members.
When it comes to gaming communities, the language of message boards can be
quite perplexing for the uninitiated. “OMG th@ts s0 kewl!!!11” may appear
perfectly legible to the average gamer, but to those who have yet to experience
the idiosyncratic manipulation of the English language at online message boards,
the linguistic irregularities will most likely seem confusing and awkward. In this
respect, the Lurker Lounge also differs from other gaming communities. Not only
do the administrators and (most of) the members abhor this non-standard form of
writing, it is also described in one of the two rules-sections on the website:
Please post in real English. If English is not your first language (or even if it is
*cough*), we do not mind spelling or grammatical errors...we do not mind typos
from anyone either. However, we do not appreciate '|337 5|o33|<' or any
unnecessary shortenings of English words - common abbreviations such as 'lvl' or
'dmg' are fine though. If you do not follow this rule, you will be flamed or ignored
completely. … If you have a question, please be polite about it. You are more
likely to get a good response with 'Can anyone help me with...' than 'Tell me how
do u d00dz do that!'.
(http://www.geocities.com/elricofgrans/lounge.html)
Because the Lurker Lounge is somewhat unique in its high standards of English
language accuracy, it warrants attention in a study on online communication.
--------
This is *not* a thesis about the Lounge, so I'm not going to write up and down about Pete's rants or Occhi's strange fascination with coffee. :) It's just to give a general idea what makes the Lounge 'special.' (in a "non-retarded" sort of way.)
---
Also, 4 more participants needed ;)
(And if I've written anything to offend the administrators and members of this site, please comment on that as well, so I may rectify it.)
-----------
“The Lurker Lounge” (www.lurkerlounge.com)
The Lurker Lounge is a gaming community for fans of the game series “Diablo”, an
adventure game by developer Blizzard Entertainment. Compared to other gaming
communities such as GameFaqs, Gamespy and Gamespot, The Lurker Lounge is a
relatively small one. However, administrators and members of the website take
great pride in keeping high standard of the content posted on the site, both in
terms of guides written for the games, but also in terms of posts and threads on
the forums. In the “about us”-section of the site, the administrators explain their
perception of the Lurker Lounge.
This site tends to have a more mature focus than general gaming
news sites, most of which are after two things: hit count and popularity.
Well, take it from Bolty [site administrator], who's been writing and
reading gaming news sites since 1995: popularity stinks. The bigger a
gaming site gets, the more bogged down it gets and the intelligence level
of its forum becomes lower and lower. "That's a snooty attitude," you
might think, and you'd be right. But it's also true. Here at the Lurker
Lounge, the site and forum administrators fight to keep the maturity and
intelligence levels of the site and its forums high - and we take great
pride in that.
(http://www.lurkerlounge.com/content/view/731/125/)
One would not be wrong in assuming that most gaming communities are targeted
at adolescents and young adults. The Lurker Lounge, however, because of its
ambitious administrators and demanding user base, has earned somewhat of an
elitist reputation, which tends to discourage the average gamer from signing up.
Rather, this call for eloquence, intelligence and experience often attracts the
mature gamer. As a result, the Lurker Lounge differs heavily from the average
gaming community, something which is best seen in the forum posts of its
members.
When it comes to gaming communities, the language of message boards can be
quite perplexing for the uninitiated. “OMG th@ts s0 kewl!!!11” may appear
perfectly legible to the average gamer, but to those who have yet to experience
the idiosyncratic manipulation of the English language at online message boards,
the linguistic irregularities will most likely seem confusing and awkward. In this
respect, the Lurker Lounge also differs from other gaming communities. Not only
do the administrators and (most of) the members abhor this non-standard form of
writing, it is also described in one of the two rules-sections on the website:
Please post in real English. If English is not your first language (or even if it is
*cough*), we do not mind spelling or grammatical errors...we do not mind typos
from anyone either. However, we do not appreciate '|337 5|o33|<' or any
unnecessary shortenings of English words - common abbreviations such as 'lvl' or
'dmg' are fine though. If you do not follow this rule, you will be flamed or ignored
completely. … If you have a question, please be polite about it. You are more
likely to get a good response with 'Can anyone help me with...' than 'Tell me how
do u d00dz do that!'.
(http://www.geocities.com/elricofgrans/lounge.html)
Because the Lurker Lounge is somewhat unique in its high standards of English
language accuracy, it warrants attention in a study on online communication.
--------
This is *not* a thesis about the Lounge, so I'm not going to write up and down about Pete's rants or Occhi's strange fascination with coffee. :) It's just to give a general idea what makes the Lounge 'special.' (in a "non-retarded" sort of way.)
---
Also, 4 more participants needed ;)
