A Question of Specialization

For my first post, I'd like to begin with a set of preparatory remarks on a documentary I recently viewed, King of Kong (2007).  The film takes as its subject a very esoteric group of classic arcade gamers, a professional crew that dates back to the games introduction in 1981.  The gamers, a dedicated set of hobbyists who vie for World Class titles, have formed a league replete with officiates  who determine the veracity of both live play and submitted tapes.  The crux of the film is the attempt by a novitiate to break into this enclave and prove his million point Donkey Kong score, a mark that will replace long-time defender Billy Mitchell.  The subtext at play, reinforced by frequent close-up confessionals of frantic gamers, is the obsessive intensity of the enterprise.  The gamers play these (almost) thirty-year-old games, the same boards, the same sounds, the same movements, for hours a day.  Some switch between joysticking with hands to joysticking with feet, carpel tunnel and repetitive stress being common.  The key to success is being able to execute a specific set of movements (up, down, right, left) in perfect order in true Talyoresque fashion. 

Ultimately, the film leaves one with visions of these ultra-specialized persons, sitting alone in garages playing on games, traveling across the country to compete in tournaments in front of groups of ten, maniacally defending the authenticity of questionable tapes.  And for me, this resonates, although not to the same degree, with the specialization of the university and its disciplinary fields.  The shared vocabularies, group dynamics, various codes and rules.  The whittling of your interests down to narrow objects of study.  Perhaps not as narrow as the same Donkey Kong boards ad infinitum, but still limited nonetheless.  Thus I want to raise the question, one line of inquiry I hope to pursue in this blog, of how the digital affects specialization. Obviously, digital networks, platforms, and gaming are not nearly as limited in scope as old school arcade games.  And so I wonder if the digital form, including the Internet and its foundational decentralization, work against this type of specificity.  Or if the proliferation of fan sites, personal blogs, and the kinds of esoteric knowledge found on the Internet, to take one example, act to form micro-groups in the same fashion as Kong.