Note: This is a repost of the Gaming Marketing Institute’s original article.
Culture shapes attitudes and beliefs, both of which motivate people to act in certain ways. As a result, effective marketing communications can tap into culture to inspire action.
Tapping into culture takes on different dimensions when it comes to the worldwide gaming community, however.
So, the following demonstrates that gaming marketing is already steeped in video game culture.
Where effective gaming marketing is enough to inspire action through that culture – without knowing all its nuances.
Key terms
If you’re new to gaming, please complete the gaming marketing dictionary before continuing. Since you need to grasp certain gaming-related vocabulary to proceed.
That said, here are some key terms to know:
- Gaming behavior – the underlying actions and motivations which define human interaction with a game system, or some of its parts.
- Gaming audience – the population of people who experience similar gaming behaviors. All gaming audiences are defined by at least one shared gaming behavior.
- Game community – The conceptual home for gaming audiences. All gaming audiences exist within a game community.
- Game experience – The moments, emotions and sensations experienced within a non-physical or physical environment designed for gaming behaviors.
- Gaming marketing – The practice of inspiring action by way of relevance to game experience touch points.
What is gaming culture?
Culture is a deep and broad phenomenon. So, to simplify the concept, we will apply aspects of Dutch psychologist Geert Hofstede’s work.
Hofstede developed a cultural dimensions theory from a worldwide survey of employee values at IBM in the mid 1960’s and early 1970’s.
His cultural onion model helped describe and compare cultures associated with that theory. It described culture as a layered onion consisting of symbols, heroes, rituals and values.
Hofstede also suggested outsiders can observe these through a culture’s practices.
Now, let’s adapt Hofstede’s onion model to gaming. To do so, we will explore its layers within the fighting game community (or FGC, for short). The FGC is a conceptual home for the diverse populations associated with fighting game experiences.
To be clear, cultural practices within the FGC consist of gaming behaviors across the entire fighting game genre – spanning titles like Street Fighter, Tekken and Mortal Kombat, among others.
Such that those gaming behaviors are core to participating in FGC-inspired culture.
Along those lines, gaming culture consists of the values, rituals, heroes, and symbols unique to the FGC, plus those from all other game communities.
Values
The FGC’s values are the beliefs and principles stemming from its gaming behaviors. The same behaviors are competition-oriented.
That’s because the fighting game genre is itself centered on fast paced one versus one (1v1) action. Where each match produces a winner and loser.
As a result, the FGC is classed within the wider esports community of other competitive oriented game titles.
Likewise, the esports and FGC communities share similar values such as striving to become the best, improving personal performance, etc.
Rituals
Rituals are collective activities that hold shared meaning. For example, the Evolution Championship Series (Evo) is the largest and most prestigious fighting game tournament in the world.
The first ever Evo tournament was in 2002, making it the longest running fighting game tournament. Each year since then, Evo has served as a ritual for the gamers, esports enthusiasts, and industry professionals dedicated to building a bigger world for fighting games.
Evo is the FGC’s biggest forum for esports behaviors – such as competing against other players to see who is the best. Where the July 2024 edition brought together over 10,000 players from 63 countries.
Heroes
Heroes are people living or dead, real or imaginary, who possess highly prized characteristics. As a result, they serve as role models for others. In 21st century terms, influencers and other notable personalities serve as heroes.
For instance, Justin Wong has competed as a professional Street Fighter player since the early 2000’s. Wong is considered the most decorated player in Evo history, with nine Evo Championship victories.
Today, he is a widely respected figure or hero in the FGC. Where Wong’s hero status stems from his prominent role in Street Fighter’s competitive experience.
Symbols
Symbols are words, gestures, images or objects that carry meaning. The hadouken is an iconic in-game attack in Capcom’s Street Fighter series. Such much so, the word and associated images have become symbolic of Street Fighter and fighting games, in general.
It has even crossed over into pop culture nomenclature. Where a British band is named after the move. On top of that, hadouken even inspired a viral meme in 2013.
Gaming marketing and culture
Once again, gaming behaviors within the FGC are equivalent to cultural practices. Those behaviors are also core to the development of cultural layers.
Where those values, rituals, heroes, and symbols are the touch points gaming marketing leverages to inspire action.
For instance, cultural heroes, like Justin Wong, are also influencers. A ritual like Evo takes shape as an esports event. So, gaming strategies can tap into both categories.
In other words, effective gaming marketing doesn’t have to specifically focus on culture. Since it is focused on touch points, which are already part of gaming culture.
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