A brief history of nationalism
Nationalism played a major roll in several important events during the 19th century; among them are the unifications of Italy and Germany, the Polish Revolt against Russia in the 1870s, and nationalism contributed to the downfall of the Ottoman Empire. It also helped to increase political tension and instability in areas such as the Balkans. Nationalism continued into the next century, still contributing to numerous events; it is only needed to say that it was a major factor in the First and Second world wars to show how much potential it really has.
Now to the Olympics
Leaving that brief history of nationalism to cool for a bit, I would now like to talk about the Olympic Games. The Modern Olympic Games were started in 1894 by Baron Pierre de Coubertin. His goal for this was to bring the young amateur athletes in the world together and compete against each other. By this he hoped people would overcome national differences and come together through sport.
Times change, and so do the Olympics
When watching the Olympic Games this year; did anyone else notice that every single time a player was mentioned the country of origin was added in the same sentence? Did anyone else notice that they said how many medals Team Country X had won compared to other countries? Did anyone else notice that there was celebration and national pride rose when an athlete of your home county was victorious? Did anyone else notice that what I just said contrasts to the original goals of the Olympics?
Nationalism's enemy, the Internet
Now it's time to add the Olympics to the sidelines with nationalism and it is time for something new to my little recipe, the Internet. In my opinion the Internet is what tears down boundaries between countries. Nationality mixes with nationality, you meet people who you would never usually meet, this leads to a more general understanding of other cultures and open mindedness increases. Go into the members page of GosuGamers.net and just look at all the nationalities that are a part of this community. When reading posts in the forums, it can be seen that no one cares where the poster is from.
Finally, what all this has to do with Starcraft
Now I'll enlighten you all about why I have talked about nationalism, the Olympics and the Internet on a Starcraft site. Recently the WCG event, classed as the Olympics of the gaming world, has been played. I ask you, what is more important: trying to get them as close as possible to de Coubertin's original plan, or to get them like the current Olympic Games? At the moment it seems that we are heading towards the latter. We are constantly being told about and discussing the nationalities of the contestants. Is this a bad thing though? I think so; this is because, since Starcraft is played worldwide on the Internet, we should not have to associate a player to a country; the Internet is, or at least should be country less.
Getting too much like the current Olympics? Good or bad?
A player is not just a player, he is also his country
Distinguishing players' countries can lead to prejudices being formed in several different ways, such as if a player behaves badly, it would be quite common to hear insults such as "all you from that country do that". A player does not actually have to do anything wrong; his personality and attitude can contribute to the general impression of that country. Even worse than prejudices forming are rivalries forming; luckily this hasn't happened yet, as far as I know. There is no hate between country X and Y yet, however nationalistic feelings tell a person to support the person who represents his country, this can lead to disputes between one country and another. These examples can be seen in many sports; one example in international football tournaments around the world, fights between fans are not totally uncommon.
Team Netherlands celebrating: Is it about the player or the country?
The minor things that can happen
In what forms could these prejudices and rivalries appear as? Well a very minor way is in forum posts; every now and then there is a forum post where a user disagrees with another user and will try to justify his argument with an insult, it is not uncommon that somewhere the poster’s country will be mentioned. This is not tolerated in most forums and is censored; however there is a short time while the post is still uncensored; during this time, no matter how short, people see the uncensored post. A continuation of insults of country X may lead to prejudices being created self consciously by someone reading the uncensored posts. This is obviously not something that happens to everyone, but it can start a chain reaction gradually getting worse. This example will only ever occur if someone is not fully open minded, and it is the individual's fault for being affected by what he reads; but it can happen, since open-mindedness is a virtue not processed by as many as I would personally like. These kinds of minor offences do happen, in forums, guestbooks and PMs; but it is impossible to tell the impact that these have on people.
More radical things that could happen
There are more major ways that prejudices and rivalries can be shown. At international events, like WCG, crowds can put down other fans or countries by chants and songs. I have heard that this may have happened at this year's WCG; when one country won, another country was singing a chant that was most likely anti that country; it is sad to think that this could happen. Another example that has not yet happened, though could do, is that people start to crash different people's websites because the site is about a clan or a community from a specific country. Another example is that servers or channels will start to ban people if they know they are from other countries.
The spirit of "Beyond the game" followed by celebration with a national anthem, a mixed message?
We have luckily not reached this stage in Starcraft yet where this kind of behaviour is overshadowing the community, but are we going towards this? We could well be. I do not mean that soon we are going to see fighting in the streets at next year's WCG. I mean that instead of the community being brought together by these international competitions, I am afraid that it is going to end up with county X in one corner supporting their competitor and country Y in another corner supporting theirs and therefore dividing us.
What now?
The target for this article is to try and crush the prejudices and the rivalries that might arise in the near future among the fans of this sport. Do not think of WCG, and other international events, as gamers from different countries fighting each other to see which country is best, but to think that all the gamers are citizens of this world who are being united together through the game. If this can be achieved Starcraft will have accomplished something that I do not believe has ever been achieved in history before.
What can we do?
If nothing is done and we remain on the tracks we are currently on, and if the gaming world continues to become more popular, Starcraft is on track to become just like any other major sport in the world. Eventually the sport won't even matter and the only thing that will matter is the fighting between fans. How can we stop this? The simple thing is to be polite to people, it is that simple; get to know people from other countries and you will see that they are just like you. Be sportsmanlike and well-mannered, treat other players with respect and try not to care what countries they actually come from. Support the player that you like in competitions, not the one from your country. All these are baby steps but should put the community back on track.
We are one
We live in an age where you are able to contact a person at the otherside of the world in a matter of seconds. We have lived in an age where the majority thought their country was the best. I do not see it possible for both of these to coincide in our world today. Playing Starcraft on the internet, being a part of the community at GosuGamers must make people realise that it does not matter where you come from, we are all human beings living on this planet who share a common interest. Hopefully through Starcraft you will learn that the geographical location where you were born or reside does not make you any different from someone from another geographical location, we are all human beings.
