The GamerTag Series -- Part 1: Trends in Gamer Identity
"About half of the time when the client is a Mom they contract for for two identities -- their own which is a more reasonable approximation of their legitimate interests and activities that they will use to communicate with and often play games with their kids online, and a second false identity that appears closer in age to that of their children and that exists, ostensibly, so that they can try to better understand the world in which their own children live" Jackson explains.
"Really it is about spying and observation, and not the loftier goals of wanting to relate to and understand the world that their kids now live in and what is for them an increasingly different and very strange world," Jackson says. "Maybe they really believe the lies that they tell themselves, but the thing about secrets is that they can eat away at you emotionally.
"In the movie The Matrix the character called Cypher is sitting in a restaurant inside the Matrix meeting with some Agents, and they are eating steak, and he has this line he says, 'You know, I know this steak doesn't exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I realize? Ignorance is bliss.'
"What he is talking about is really simple, the bitterness you feel because you know the truth is a weight that maybe you are better off not bearing. But once you know something you cannot un-know it, so you have to ask yourself, do you really want to know that your son thinks women are just for sex or that he doesn't respect them? Do you really think that knowing your daughter doesn't consider oral sex to be a sexual activity, but something you might do to demonstrate you are grateful to the guy who took you to a concert and out to dinner, is that something you really want to know?"That is the kind of shit that would keep me awake at night, you know?" he adds.
"People talk about the generation gap, and historically you know that has always existed, but in the 21st Century it is no longer a gap so much as a Grand Canyon," Dean says. "It is a unique situation though, one that will only remain active for probably a generation or two -- at least until the parents of the 'net gen become our clients. Right now we are mostly dealing with people whose formative years were the 1980's which I don't have to tell you was not a well-connected time.
"It's not so much that they don't know the language or the trends -- that is true for every parental gen after all -- it is more that they cannot grasp the differences between what is social for their kids because they have nothing to compare it to from their own life. After they graduated from high school and when they were going to college they went places and did things as part of their socialization rituals.
"Friday and Saturday nights were spent moving around in meatspace, not cyberspace -- though you know nobody actually uses the term "cyberspace" anymore except those parents and maybe the news media -- but as defining labels they say exactly what needs to be said!
"Today's parents cannot understand how online group-play is just as real and just as valid socially as going to the movies in a group was in meatspace to them when they were the age that their kids are now. The idea that an evening spent in a video game grouped up to accomplish a specific set of goals doesn't resonate in their minds, and when you add to that the need to maintain the social bond or the reality that the event is really several separate events that are all happening at the same time, well that just adds to the confusion," she says.
You have your gamer identity in play and that is important, but in addition to the in-game chat that is taking place you might also have a Facetime chat going with your mate who is also part of the guild who you are gaming with and at the same time you are group texting to another group of friends who probably are not with you in the game, but who you actually know IRL and that is the environment that parents want to ease into and keep an eye upon. To do that successfully means they have to learn how to properly lurk, and our source says, that takes serious self-discipline, emphasizing that most parents are not really prepared for that.
"To really pull it off they have to be able to observe but also keep everything that they see compartmentalized, and not reveal that they are aware of it to their kids, because otherwise you know, that cat is out of the bag, and their kids will start vetting the people in their social groups to find out who is the poser, who is the parent pretending to be a peer? You can always tell the parents who were cool when they were kids because they don't screw up their insertion into their kids world -- the uptight ones who were losers then are still losers today; they last maybe five minutes before they are coming back to us to build a new ID for them, but that is the nature of the business."
Manufacturing People
Operating her business out of a flat she purchased in the posh London neighborhood of St. John's Wood Dean sees her role as disconnected from the community that it serves -- rather like the neighborhood that she lives in, an area of the city that is increasingly being called "Little America" due to the strong influx of Yanks who have relocated to the UK, and chose the area as home for several factors including the strong expat American community there, the presence of the American School, and its existing social structure. The people who live here are part of a microcosm that in many ways is independent from the city, and that is how Dean views her role as a Persona Designer and the online community it serves.
"Even when you don't know it consciously you are always seeking parity," she says. "It doesn't hurt that SJW is the stomp for the American School," Dean points out. "I shouldn't be shocked to learn that is why so many Americans choose to buy here; after all their children do need to continue their education and living in the same neighborhood that your school is located in is an American thing, they all prefer it," she notes. "Not surprisingly I get a fair number of them (Americans) as clients, Dean adds, pointing out that: "It's partly the Golden Rule: Location, Location, Location!" Dean laughs.
As far as the government and Inland Revenue is concerned her job title is a nebulous office-type position called "IT Relationship Manager," which is a commonly used title by the people who do what Dean does, precisely because it is a legitimate occupation that appears on the books at the IRS and with various levels of government that even somewhat accurately describes what she actually does.
"I can do business anywhere I can obtain a 'net connection. That's anywhere I can use my mobile," she points out. "But I prefer to do it here, from home. I like what I do, and I am good at it. So what's your GamerTag?" Dean asks me, and then grins. "I give free assessments."
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