HERinteractive
For my online ethnography, I chose
to use a community that was somewhat close to my heart, and one that I had
(passively) been a member of for the past fifteen years or so. HERinteractive
is a gaming company that, for the past twenty years, has created more than
thirty computer games centered around everybody’s favorite girl detective,
Nancy Drew. I’ve been playing the games since I was little, and vaguely
remember when the second game came out (when the first came out I was only
three, so I definitely don’t remember that one). The games may “technically” be designed for young girls, but at the ripe age of twenty-two, I still find
myself playing them as avidly as ever, and plan one day to play them with my
daughter, if I have one. Because of my love for the games, I have always been a
passive observer/member of the HERinteractive webpage, occasionally browsing
through the fan-forums and even keeping up with their Facebook fan page.
However, more recently, I have been keeping up more and more with what’s going
on with not only the company, but its other fans, particularly because of a few
issue that have been happening between the two. I’d always resisted becoming an
official member of the website, for fear that my constant posting in forums
would keep me from homework, but for the sake of the assignment, I’m glad I
became one. And yes, it most definitely kept me from doing my homework
(although since this is for a class that makes it okay… right?)
Because of my official member
christening that came as a part of this project, I was able to actively be
involved in the Nancy Drew fan community, which was really great. As I
mentioned, I had been keeping up more and more recently because of a lot of
issues the fans have been having with the games, and I was glad for this
assignment to have the opportunity to delve further into it, and learn more
about the issues the community had, as well as the community itself. The
community itself, which is made up of more than 99,880 members at last count
(though I wouldn’t be surprised if they surpass 100,000 before the end of the
month) is one made up of the games’ most loyal fans. The company’s Facebook
page has another 171,355 “likes” which further shows the popularity of the
franchise. The Facebook page has the ability to reach a much wider audience,
since Facebook is available to pretty much anyone in any country, while the
HERinteractive website is US based. There are still certainly fans from all
over the world, but the majority are red-blooded American females, grateful for
the site as a place to come together and geek out about the games – myself
included. And this is the major purpose of the website, apart from buying the
games and merchandise, for fans to be able to come together and discuss
anything they want to on the forums. In my first look-through of the site as
an official member, I noticed one thing in particular that I was very grateful
for. All the different possible topics were separated into their own specific
forum; for instance, each game has its own individual forum, with a handful of
other forums for particular things, such as suggestions for the people at HER,
fan blogs, a “writer’s cabin” where fans can post their own fan-fics, a
spoilers forum, and even a forum for just rumors, where fans can post
speculations, but no spoilers are allowed, which I personally think is a great
idea, to separate the two.
Once I had familiarized myself with
the setup of the site, I dove right in. After creating an account (say hello to
“robyn.birdie”) I was ready to go. Now, I already knew a lot about how the site
worked since I had been visiting it more recently, the reason being because of
changes made by the company, both in management and certain aspects of the
game. Many fans have been less than satisfied with the more recent games, and
this is largely believed to be from a management change, from what I gathered
from the message boards. The specific aspects of the games that had been
changing were believed to be decisions made by the new management, which upset
fans all the more. Many seemed upset by the fact that they had been loyal
followers of the series for 32 games now, and someone brand new and
unaffiliated with the games had come in and changed quite a few things that
seemed to be staples of the games. Specifically, a few of the things I could
find that fans were most upset about were changes to the settings of the games,
the realistic aspect of them, the amount of “busy work” involved, and (perhaps
most notably) the fact that the company had fired the woman who had voiced the
character of Nancy Drew for the past 32 games. It wasn’t clear to me whether or
not HER had revealed who they had chosen to replace the last one (a woman named
Lani Minella) but regardless, fans seemed to be extremely pissed about the
situation – not just upset, but blatantly angry. It was interesting to see,
given that while some fans are around my age, others are much younger, and to
see them so vocally angry about it was surprising. I think that’s part of
technology, though – the idea that teens can use the internet as an outlet to
get angry or upset, without the person on the other end actually knowing who
they are. What I saw on HERinteractive was a prime example of this.
While I find myself agreeing with
the anger others feel about the firing of the voice of Nancy Drew, I’m afraid
that our efforts to tell HER how we feel will be null. More recently fans have
become very vocal about another issue that they’ve found. About five years ago,
the company “remastered” their very first game, as a kind of 20th
anniversary celebration. This made fans ecstatic, because the first two games
in the series cannot be played on newer computers, due to differences in the
sound settings. However, because fans were so happy to get the first game
remastered, the also called for the second game to be redone as well. Because
HER’s games are offered both through CD-rom and digital download, every game
was now available for purchase and use on newer computers… except for that second
game. Fans began countless threads begging HER to consider remastering the
second game, and from what I found, I counted at least ten petitions to have it
remastered (though I’m sure there have been far more). I myself signed all of
the petitions I could find, because the second game was the very first one I
had ever played, and I had a soft spot for it in my heart. However. I also
found in my research, that the representatives of HER had released a statement
about a year ago stating that they had no plans to remaster the game, and fans
everywhere erupted with outrage, as I saw in the fact that the threats about
and petitions for it to be done have not stopped. The issue I see with it,
however, is that because fans have been calling for a remaster of this game for
more than five years and have yet to get it, I fear also that the fans calling
for the rehiring of Lani as the voice of Nancy will also not get their wish.
The insistence of HER that they would not remaster the second game still didn’t
deter fans, though, so I’m certain they will continue to call for the rehiring
of Lani until they either get their wish, or make the decision to boycott the
games altogether.
Although I’ve always been a fan of
the games, and a person on the outside looking in (when it came to the
fansite), it is certainly a much different experience when it comes to being a
part of the online community. You find plenty of people who share your exact
point of view, others who disagree with it entirely, and even some who make you
think of something you had never previously even considered. I've really enjoyed
my time so far in the community, and I do think I’ll continue to be a part of
it after I turn this assignment in. It’s not only a great way to stay
up-to-date on the latest news about the games, but it also gives me a place to
speak my mind where I know there are at least a handful of others who feel the same
way. Not only is it beneficial to me to feel like a part of the community, but
there are constant movements for change within the company that stem from the
forums, and although HER’s response to our call for a remastering of the second
game wasn’t the response we wanted, we continue to push for it. And even if it
never happens, it makes us all feel as though we’re a part of something bigger,
and that at least our voice is being heard and considered, if not agreed with.
Especially taking into consideration the day we spoke in class about whether
online communities are really communities, I feel as though I can say with
certainty that the HERinteractive fanpage is definitely a community. The fact
that we’re coming together over one common interest and not only discussing it
but pushing for change is exactly what a real life community would do. And
while our issues may not be as big or important as those of a real life
community of, say, a political kind, the aspects of it are still the same. Our
push for change may be something as simple as a remastering of a game, but it
can also be something as strong as keeping someone in “power” (such as the
woman who voices Nancy that we want to keep) or maybe going so far as to get
someone out of power (such as the new management that many fans seemed to
disagree with). And although the latter of the two has not yet happened, it’s
entirely plausible that it could – just as would happen in a real community
where they wish for the person in power to be taken out of it. There are
obvious differences from the real world to that of the internet, but from most
of what I saw, the differences aren’t quite as big as I may have previously
assumed.
And see this? I screenshotted the webpage as soon as I became a member, because they always show who the newest member is - and for about seven minutes, it was me!! robyn.birdie reporting for duty from the Robyn's nest!
You know, learning about all this techy new media stuff is actually really interesting, and I genuinely feel both proud and more intelligent now that I'm learning all these things, even if I am stumbling a bit along the way. But I'm optimistic! Hopefully by week 10 I'll have it all figured out.
