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=History of CIS gaming and e-sports=

While in the West the culture of video games has existed ever since first games appeared, CIS countries were not ready yet meeting obstacles in the form of a different mentality and a banal lack of money among the population. Even nowadays, most of post-soviet people do not recognize computer gaming and, especially, cyber sports as something worth thinking of.
==LAN Gaming Centers. Quake and Starcraft.==
Unlike in other countries, CIS people rarely had money to buy a personal computer. The whole post-soviet union had much more important problems than video-gaming industry, so for a long time CIS gaming league was entirely driven by enthusiasm. 

===1990s===
At that time, there were no home systems even in large cities, and the people went out of their way: they brought computers to each other's homes and connected them with a twisted pair; found primitive modems and overloaded already frail telephone lines; risking their lives and health, they climbed the gas pipes of houses, stretching the network cable from window to window. 

===1996===
Presidential elections are held in Russia, in which Boris Yeltsin is chosen. Large-scale political and military actions are taking place in different parts of the world. But in Moscow, most of pupils and students were talking about the first computer club in the whole CIS - “Orcs”. “There were several friends of us who got together in someone's apartment, connected the LAN and played with each other. And then the idea arose to open a club and give everyone the opportunity to play.” - says the Mikhail Lomidze<ref>''Реальные истории из компьютерных клубов 90-х и 2000-х''. Available at: https://games.mail.ru/pc/articles/feat/realnye_istorii_iz_kompjuternyh_klubov_90_h_i_2000_h/ [Accessed 03 May 2021]</ref>, founder of the club “Orcs”. The opening of this club could be called as a starting point of cyber sports in CIS. 

At that time, abroad, where computers ceased to be something incomprehensible and scary, tournaments were held on an ongoing basis. There were some tournaments with small prize funds. The most popular eSports disciplines starting from 1995 were DOOM II and Warcraft II. However, everything has changed since the Quake came out. The game made an incredible sensation and flew off the shelves in millions of copies. Not like other games, the Quake was right away developed as a competitive game. The developer company id Software started holding tournaments on their own game with prize funds, sponsors and large-scale advertising campaigns in the media. Particularly Quake became the first popular cyber sports discipline in the CIS. News about Quake tournaments albeit belatedly, came to post-soviet community, so the community hoped to have something similar. In the same year, in the earlier mentioned computer club “Orcs” the first official competition in the Quake was held. There was no prize fund nor list of participants, only a typical basement with ten united by LAN computers.

===1997===
In 1997 Quake was still the most famous eSports game. Id Software struck the whole world with their new tournament where the main price was not only money, but the CEO John D. Carmack’s Ferrari 328. Unfortunately, there were no representatives from CIS league yet, but more and more people became interested in eSports, so clubs all over the Russia appeared. At the next tournament QuakeCon 97 first post-soviet representatives appeared. Even though they did not win anything, but the fact, that someone from Russia or Ukraine had a chance to visit such tournament, enlarged the CIS eSports league once again.

===1998===
In 1998, there were enough LAN gaming centers in most of big cities across Russia and Ukraine. Number of people playing in such centers grew rapidly and the whole gaming community appeared. Even though Quake II came out in 1997 and brought new level of graphics, another game became the hit of the year. Starcraft was announced back in 1996 at E3 event<ref>''Retrospective of starcraft development''. Available at: https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/starcraft/20719767/rock-and-roll-days-of-starcraft-a-development-retrospective [Accessed 03 May 2021].</ref>, but first released on March 31<ref>''StarCraft's 10-Year Anniversary: A Retrospective''. Available at: https://web.archive.org/web/20080402134120/http://www.blizzard.com/us/press/10-years-starcraft.html [Accessed 03 May 2021]</ref>, 1998. Balance and gameplay of Starcraft has changed the whole gaming industry. The game became one of the most played in the CIS computer clubs and due to battle.net service to play over the internet (which was taken from Diablo), the Starcraft immediately became a new competitive discipline. 

At this year, several competitive disciplines stood out: Starcraft, Quake II and Team Fortress. The main difference of gaming industry in the West and CIS leagues became noticeable. The west gaming was closely tied up to advertising and official tournaments, whereas CIS league was still held only by enthusiasts and no finance support. First half-professional cybersport organisations started appearing over the post-soviet countries. These organisations usually were assembled from a group of friends or the best players of one club. The most noticeable of such organisations were: DDT (Devils Dream Team) and NiP (Nobody is Perfect)<ref>''Реквием по компьютерным клубам''. Available at: https://www.igromania.ru/article/14939/Rekviem_po_kompyuternym_klubam.html [Accessed 03 May 2021]</ref>. Their representatives were the first to win on a world-wide level championship, which was hosted in Russia by Formoza. This company also became the title sponsor of NiP afterwards. The start of CIS eSports begun.

==CS 1.6 and DotA.==
===Late 90s===
Big tournaments were no longer something sensational and everyone was waiting for the new Quake III game which was thought to become the new era of eSports. 

In 1998 a company named Valve developed a first-person shooter video game called Half-Life. It was far from eSports with only a single player story mode. Nonetheless a matter of chance happened, when developers of several maps in Quake II decided to make a free mod for a Half-Life. The mod called “Counter-Strike” became viral, so Valve bought rights for the mod and made a decision to subsequently promote the Counter-Strike as its own franchise. Additionally, it became their own eSports discipline. In 1999, both Quake III and Counter-Strike 1.6 were released. The new CS 1.6 did not only compete with Quake III, but overtook it and became the new competitive discipline.

===2000s===
Throughout 1999-2000, the CPL (Cyberathlete Professional League) franchise remained the leader in the cyber sports tournament market. CPL was a professional sports tournament organization specializing in computer and console video game competitions, which was founded on June 27, 1997 and most popular in the middle 2000s<ref>''Cyberathlete professional league (CPL) is no More!'' Available at: https://www.gameguru.in/pc/2008/17/cyberathlete-professional-league-cpl-is-no-more/ [Accessed 03 May 2021]</ref>. In addition to it, there was a QuakeCon, which in 1999 switched to the not yet officially published Quake 3 arena, but QuakeCon was held once a year when the CPL was an ongoing tournament. For some time CPL had no competitors. However, in 2001 WCG<ref>WCG official page. Available at: https://wcg.com/ [Accessed 03 May 2021]</ref> appeared. The World Cyber Games was considered to be the eSports Olympics. The same as in Olympics, the WCG offered several different games such as: Age of Empires II, Counter-Strike, FIFA 2001, Quake III Arena, StarCraft: Brood War, Unreal Tournament.

===2001===
The dawn of the Counter-Strike also hit in 2001. It was at this time when cyber sports in the Commonwealth of Independent States received another impetus in the development of sports. The organizers of the legendary CPL hold not only Quake tournaments, but also CS tournaments. And finally, they announce the qualifiers for their tour in Russia. In fierce battles for the only slot in the competition, the victory went to the M19 team<ref>M19. Available at: https://liquipedia.net/counterstrike/M19 [Accessed 03 May 2021]</ref>. This team had to headline the CIS for the next couple of years at all international tournaments. Unfortunately, at the tournament itself, M19 did not show outstanding game and took only 9-16 places. But apart from CPL, WCG also held qualifiers for their tournaments. As a result, another international tournament appeared, in which anyone could become a participant.

As it was earlier mentioned, WCG positioned itself as an eSports Olympiad and held competitions in several games at once. A new era has begun in the CIS cybersport. Qualifiers in many cities of Russia and Ukraine, hundreds of players at registration in Kiev and Moscow, dozens of teams, a large prize pool and paid travel to the final abroad. At the World Cyber Games 2001 Russian gamers managed to get 2 silver medals<ref>WCG 2001 SEOUL event results. Available at: https://www.wcg.com/main/historyView/wcg-2001-seoul?lang=en [Accessed 03 May 2021]</ref>. 

In July 2001<ref>''ESports recognized as a sport''. Available at: https://atlsysguild.com/esports-recognized-as-a-sport/ [Accessed 03 May 2021]</ref>, Russia became the first country to recognize eSports as an official type of sports. However, in 2006, cybersports was excluded from the All-Russian register of sports because it did not meet the criteria. It was added back only in 2016.

===2002===
On the 18th of August 2002 Alexey Nesterov<ref>Alexey Nesterov. Available at: https://liquipedia.net/arenafps/LeXeR [Accessed 03 May 2021]</ref>, also known as “LeXeR”, won the QuakeCon 2002. That was the first time in history when someone from the CIS league won an international tournament.

Starting from the 2002 there were a number of different tournaments across the CIS countries, some of which had world-wide famous sponsors, for example: ASUS Open (by ASUS)<ref>''ASUS Open уходит в историю''. Available at: https://www.cybersport.ru/other/news/ASUS-Open-uhodit-v-istoriyu [Accessed 03 May 2021]</ref>. 

On the WCG 2002, Russia took 2 gold medals<ref>WCG 2002 Daejeon event results. Available at: https://wcg.com/main/historyView/wcg-2002-daejeon?lang=en [Accessed 03 May 2021]</ref>, Ukraine got 1 bronze medal<ref>Unofficial information. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsn9vxjDjMk [Accessed 03 May 2021]</ref>.

===2003 - 2007===
Starting from 2003 the whole CIS league started evolving to a professional industry, it is sometimes called a “growing up period” and “the golder period” in Russian community. At this time, the whole industry of eSports started developing. Both prize funds and tournament count rapidly rose. It was also the time, when professional CIS league reached the point of crisis, Kazakhstan won the first silver medal<ref>WCG 2003 Seoul event results. Available at: https://wcg.com/main/historyView/wcg-2003-seoul?lang=en [Accessed 03 May 2021]</ref>, Russian team was able to come back with only one bronze medal. 

In 2003, Electronic Sports World Convention (ESWC) appeared. ESWC is an international professional gaming championship. Every year, winners of national qualifier events around the world earn the right to represent their country in the ESWC Finals. 

On the 1st November 2003 the first professional club in Russia Virtus.Pro was formed<ref>Information about Virtus.Pro. Available at: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/virtusprofessional [Accessed 03 May 2021]</ref>. At the same year, National Professional Esports League (НПКЛ<ref>''Национальная Профессиональная Киберспортивная Лига - Толкование''. Available at: https://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/ruwiki/1319766 [Accessed 03 May 2021]</ref>) appeared. 

In 2004, the first Russian Cup from the Russian Computer Sports Federation. Disciplines were Counter-Strike 5x5, Quake 3 1x1, Warcraft 3 1x1 and others. Another tournament by National Professional Esports League - NPCL Grand Cup 2004 was held. The discipline Counter-Strike 1.6 was played with a prize fund of 20 000$.

In 2004, the list of WCG participant countries was replenished with Uzbekistan. Starting from 2005, qualifiers also appeared in Turkmenia and Belarus. 

In 2006, Russian professionals played well on WCG bringing home a gold and silver medals in NFS: Most Wanted and a bronze medal in FIFA 2006. Additionally, Ukraine got 1 bronze medal in Warcraft III. CIS players started to join different international teams, such as: SK Gaming, Fnatic and MYM (MeetYourMakers).

In 2007, another series of international eSports tournaments held in countries around the world was founded - Intel Extreme Masters. However, CIS league was better at ESWC tournaments, where on nearly each tournament, CIS players left with top places.

Unfortunately, starting from 2008, the whole gaming industry experienced stagnation. There were no new disciplines added. On the tournaments, the most played games were Starcraft and World of Warcraft 3. The second version of Counter-Strike - Counter-Strike Source did not succeed.  

==Major Championships. CS:GO, Dota 2==
===2008 - 2009===
In 2008, MOBA games started to gain fame. From a well-known World of Warcraft 3 appeared a new game named Defense of the Ancients, which soon gave a new round of development in eSports industry. The modification was actively developing and updating thanks to the cooperation of developers and community. However, unlike Counter-Strike, developers of the original game were not interested in developing the modification and claimed that there are no plans to create a separate DotA game. Because of this, most of the organizers of big tournaments did not want to include DotA in their list of disciplines. Also, the two main designers of the game map quarreled among themselves and one of them, Steve Feak, together with the Base Support Administrator of DotA, joined small at that time game developer company named Riot Games. Thanks to their enormous contribution, a new game called League of Legends was released on October 27, 2009<ref>All League of Legends champion release dates. Available at: https://dotesports.com/league-of-legends/news/all-league-of-legends-champion-release-dates [Accessed 03 May 2021]</ref>. The game quickly became extremely popular and still remains one of the most profitable games.

At first LoL was published and supported only in the USA, as it was there that the office and the game server of the company was located. In 2011, the success of LoL allowed Riot Games to grow and create a new office in Europe and other parts of the world. The game had an excellent competitive component, which was the reason for the active emergence of tournaments for the game. Additionally, starting from 2012, Riot Games threw all the resources into making a new cyber discipline out of their game. 

Though DotA did not became as popular as League of Legends, it was in demand in the CIS and China. A DotA CIS gaming organization that is worth mentioning is DTS Gaming that won 6 gold medals<ref>DTS Gaming. Available at: https://dota2.fandom.com/wiki/DTS_Gaming [Accessed 03 May 2021]</ref> during its existence. The organization itself kept itself not on the salary, but on the enthusiasm of the players. There were no large DotA tournaments, so the only opportunity for the players was to participate in the ASUS Open seasonal events. For that reason, CIS experienced a stagnation of esports in 2009 and no serious results were achieved. 
===2010===
In 2010, a team Natus Vincere that has become famous all over the world since its inception was formed. It consisted of the best Counter-Strike players in Ukraine. Also, they had a DotA roster,but at first it didn't show good enough results and was completely disbanded a year later. Despite the existence of Counter-Strike: Source, almost all tournaments were held at Counter-Strike 1.6. 

In their first big tournament, Na’Vi won Arbalet Cup Asia in 2010<ref>Arbalet Cup Asia. Available at: https://www.hltv.org/events/474/arbalet-cup-asia-2010 [Accessed 03 May 2021]</ref>. In the same year, the team won all other 3 big tournaments: Intel Extreme Masters, ESWC and WCG and becomes the best Counter-Strike team. Moreover, with its victories, the Ukrainian organization develops e-sports in the CIS so much that new teams and sponsors start emerging in big quantities. 
===2011=== 
In 2011, Na’Vi could again show their power in a newly developed game Dota 2. The year itself became a breakthrough year for esports in general. Esports begins to compete with popular sports. One of the reasons is the creation of Twitch video streaming platform. Twitch became a common place where broadcasts from eSports events were conducted. As anyone could stream on Twitch, it also helped the growth of the gaming industry as a whole, since it turned out that there are a lot of people who are interested in chatting with and watching streamers. With Twitch, eSports tournaments organizers could attract new sponsors, prizes became higher. Despite Twitch development, another important eSports event took place in 2011. In august, a tournament “The International” was organized by Valve to unveil their new game Dota 2 to the worldwide audience<ref>The International 2011. Available at: https://liquipedia.net/dota2/The_International/2011 [Accessed 03 May 2021]</ref>. Prize pool offered 1.6 million dollars, which was hundred times more than prize pools for earlier significant tournaments. 16 best teams from DotA were invited and should have received beta keys for the new game weeks before the tournament, though it didn’t go as planned and tournament participant could only launch Dota 2 for a first time on the tournament. Therefore, some time by teams was spent just to learn game mechanics. In the Grand Finals, Na’Vi defeated EHOME and won 1 million dollars<ref>The International 2011 - Dota 2. Available at: http://cdn.dota2.com/apps/dota2/international2011_static/index.html [Accessed 03 May 2021]</ref>. This event became another impetus for the development of eSports in the CIS.
===2012===
In 2012 Russian team Moscow Five won IEM Season VI - World Championship tournament in League of Legends<ref>IEM Season VI - World Championship. Available at: https://egamersworld.com/lol/event/iem-season-vi-world-championship-E1Y0P-l2- [Accessed 03 May 2021]</ref> and Na’Vi takes 2nd place on the The International 2012 Dota 2 Championship<ref>The International 2011 - Dota 2. Available at: http://cdn.dota2.com/apps/dota2/international2012_static/mainevent_results_champions.html [Accessed 03 May 2021]</ref>. World of Tanks became quite popular and CIS teams start winning major tournaments in this discipline<ref>The Grand Finals – Interview With The CIS Teams. Available at: https://worldoftanks.eu/en/news/esports/grand-finals-interview-cis/ [Accessed 03 May 2021]</ref>. The development of the CIS scene of video game competitions was very much accompanied by the Kiev studio StarLadder that hosted regular tournaments in various disciplines, such as World of Tanks, Dota 2, Point Blank and Bloodline Champions. Soon, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive replaces Bloodline Champions and becomes the official Starladder discipline<ref>''CS:GO будет включён в пул лиги StarLadder.TV?'' Available at: https://www.cybersport.ru/counter-strike-go/news/CSGO-budet-vklyuchyon-v-pul-ligi-StarLadderTV [Accessed 03 May 2021]</ref>.

===2013 - Today===
Starting from 2013, no global changes were presented in eSports. Development went gradually and eSports became the same as we know it now: large tournaments, huge prize pools, enormous quantities of sponsors. A lot of online games were released during 2013-2021 period and almost all of them had some tournaments, though not necessarily big. Some popular examples could be: Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Overwatch. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive becomes extremely popular and Russian Virtus.pro and Gambit Esports, as well as the Ukranian Na’Vi show outstanding results in major tournaments. 
In 2016, eSports becomes official sports again in Russia and Russian eSports Federation continues its activities<ref>''Russian e-Sports Federation, accreditation in the Ministry of Sport.'' Available at: https://ie-sf.org/news/3632 [Accessed 03 May 2021]</ref>.
Esports is now truly widescale with millions of investments and hundreds of millions of fans all over the world. As we remember, everything started from LAN gaming centers. And with the help of the players' faith and enthusiasm, esports in the CIS has become a separate industry.

=Language, slang and terminology=
==Slang==
Slang - is a very informal language that is usually spoken rather than written, used especially by particular groups of people (“Slang,” 2021). In other words, slang is a type of language commonly used by members of particular groups and which may have other or no meaning at all when taken out of context. Slang can also be used to establish group identity and exclude outsiders.<ref>Slang. (n.d.). In Cambridge English Dictionary. Available at: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/slang [Accessed 06 May 2021]</ref>

Slang itself is a subset of language, however it can be further subdivided into the following types: acronyms, abbreviation, misspelling and blending. While every type has its own roots and purposes, they are usually mixed and used together in speech.

===Blending type===
Blending type consists of words like Wanna, Dunno, C’mon, etc. The reason behind this type of slang is the fact that it is often easier for people to type the acronym, thus saving a little bit of time and effort. When used by gamers in game chat it also leads to increasing their focus on the game process.<ref name="useOfSlangWords">G. Suryanto & S. Suryanto. ''The Use of Slang Words by Gamers in the Game Online''. State University of Surabaya. Available at: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/230651917.pdf [Accessed 05 May 2021]</ref>

===Acronyms===
Acronyms are words like WTF, IDK, STFU, LMAO, etc. This type of slang increases productivity even more, since long sentences and thoughts can be expressed by typing a few letters. By using slang words, the user (or gamer) frees himself from writing out long lines with a conventional language.<ref name="useOfSlangWords" />

===Misspelling type===
Good examples of misspelling type are: Ya, Dat, Luv, etc. Misspelling allows to think a little bit less when writing difficult words, most of the time it seems somewhat funny and it may even highlight the irony or sarcasm by hyperbolically misspelling the word.<ref name="useOfSlangWords" />

===Abbreviations===
Abbreviations are B4, D8, SK8R, etc. Just as other common types of slang, abbreviations are meant to increase the ease and speed of typing. They often rely on phoneme matching, which means the ability of a person to match the words with similar sound.<ref name="useOfSlangWords" />

==CIS computer slang evolution==
As sad as it is, there is no denying that Russians were far behind the West in the computer world back in the days. Games were developed in the US, UK and other western countries, so until the game was released in Russia, russian players were forced to play on English-speaking servers and therefore communicate with English-speaking people. They would hear, use and get used to English terms and slang and when the game would finally be released in CIS, they would just continue using terms they are familiar with.

===Simplifying===
One of the common ways how slang terms would be created is simplifying a longer or harder to pronounce term. For example, “computer” becomes “комп” (“komp”), “Winchester” turns to “вин” (“vin”), “keyboard”, or “клавиатура” (“klaviatura”), becomes “клава” (“klava”).

===Univerbation===
Univerbation - the process of combining a fixed expression of several words into a new single one - is another common way of how russian computer slang was developed. To illustrate that, there are following examples: “inkjet printer” - “струйный принтер” (“struinii printer”) - became a “струйник” (struinik), which roughly translates to “ink squirter”. Or an “operating memory” - “оперативная память” (“operativnaja pam’at’”) - became an “оперативка” (“operativka”).<ref>Brinton, Laurel J., & Elizabeth Closs Traugott (2005). ''Lexicalization and Language Change''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 48. Available at: https://www.sil.org/system/files/reapdata/53/86/64/53866491927972648127582067369026176457/SILEBR_2007_002.pdf [Accessed 05 May 2021]</ref>

===Calquing===
Next way of how russian slang terms were created is loan translating, or calquing. Basically, it means borrowing a word from another language by literal word-for-word translation. Examples of such words are “апгрейд” (“upgrade”), “нуб” (“noob”), “юзер” (“user”),  “программер” (“programmer”), “кликать” (“to click”). Pronunciations are not included this time since Russian words sound exactly the same way as their English counterparts do.<ref>Calque. (n.d.). In Cambridge English Dictionary. Available at: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/calque [Accessed 05 May 2021]</ref>

===Borrowing words===
Some terms are borrowed from other communities, like “движок” (“dvizhok”) - “engine”, which is borrowed from car community, or “глючить” (“glyuchit’”) - “to hallucinate”, which actually means to work incorrectly, not the way it is supposed to work, because of a bug and is borrowed from medicine.

===Reflection===
Last way of creating slang terms is more related to gaming. It often happens in games that the way of how something is written or sounds, be it a name of some town or local currency, strongly resembles some Russian word. So gamers just start referring to the object in question by calling with said Russian word. For example, in the aforementioned game World of Tanks, there is a Soviet heavy tank KB-1C. Since KB-1C is somewhat similar to “КВАС” (“kvass”), it became an unofficial name of that tank. Another example from the same game is German tank Rhm.-Borsig Waffenträger, which is called “Борщ” (“borscht”) by Russian gamers.

So, to sum it up, most of Russian computer and gaming slang terms are some kind of derivatives from their English counterparts, so it may seem a little surprising, but an English-speaking gamer that doesn’t know Russian language would still be able to understand a fair share of what russians are talking about when playing games.

==Leetspeak==
Even though it isn’t really related to the slang development in the CIS, in context of computer slang, Leetspeak deserves particular attention. Leetspeak, or just Leet, is a so-called “hacker slang”, a type of slang, where some letters are replaced with other symbols (often numbers, but not necessarily) which appearance resembles said letters.

The origin story of leet takes place in 1980s, a few years after first successful home computers, such as Apple II, TRS-80 and Commodore PET, were released. The Internet was not yet invented, Bulletin Board Systems were used instead. Having an Elite status on a BBS meant having access to certain content and files unavailable for other, regular users. Search engines of that time were quite primitive - they scanned certain keywords in order to find results. However, early hacker communities quickly discovered that replacing some letters with numbers (e.g. “hello” -> “h3ll0”) would be enough to defeat search engines. And thus, the leet was born.

Hackers and gamers would both use leetspeak to prove their status and knowledge. One of the popular phrases was “1 4m 3l33t” (“I am elite”), in which the last word, “3l33t”, is of a particular interest. With the first letter removed, “l33t” is what remains - and that is how the leetspeak is often referred to. Furthermore, even more obfuscated version, “1337” is well-known in certain communities. What may seem just a number to an untrained eye is a symbol of belonging to a trained one.

Leetspeak can also be subdivided into levels based on how obfuscated the text is. Basic leet consists of replacing certain vowels with numbers and is easily readable by an ordinary person. Here is an example of a basic leet: “0nly s0m3 l3tt3rs 4r3 r3pl4c3d” (“Only some letters are replaced”). Replacing more letters, including consonants, with numbers leads to the intermediate level of leetspeak: “c0n50n4n7s 4r3 r3p14c3d 45 w311” (“Consonants are replaced as well”). Finally, the advanced level of leet brings in even more replacements, including several replacements for one letter. For instance, letter E could be replaced not only with 3, but also with &, €, £ and even ё. That way, classic l33t, or 1337, could written as |_ё&”|”.<ref>''Leetspeak: The History of Hacker Culture’s Native Tongue''. Available at: https://alpinesecurity.com/blog/leetspeak-the-history-of-hacker-culture/ [Accessed 05 May 2021]</ref>


=Gaming culture=

Culture of video games is a widespread subculture that emerged as a result of the emergence and growth of computer games.

Representatives of this subculture are gamers - people who play computer games and contribute to their dissemination in mass culture. In this part, we would like to discuss the another part of the world and compare it to the global. 

==Demographics==

===United States===

The gaming socioeconomics in the United States are steadily changing and it is not, at this point seen as a side interest of the youthful. In reality, 26% of those playing computer games in 2020 were matured somewhere in the range of 35 and 54 and each third game lover was a Millennial between the age of 18 and 34. The gaming field these days is additionally not, at this point overwhelmed by men. In 2020, about 59 percent of PC and video gamers in the United States were male and around 41% were female. <ref>''Percentage of gamers gender in US ''. Available at: https://www.statista.com/topics/3070/us-gamers/#dossierSummary [Accessed 05 May 2021]</ref>

===Global===

Worldwide percentage of males and females who play videogames is close to the statistic in the USA, in the amount of 55% males and 45% females. 

Amount of gamers worldwide in each year increases. Approximately 2.81 billions of people in 2021. By statistic, the amount of gamers expected by 2023 will be 3.07 billions. <ref>''Video game demographics ''. Available at: https://techjury.net/blog/video-game-demographics/ [Accessed 05 May 2021]</ref>

With new changes of global aspects - Covid 19, almost half of the world's population become more engaged in video games. As business processes everywhere stopped and economies were suffered with huge losses, the gaming industry became more popular and continued with its busy streak.

However, there is a question, will they be able to hold or increase the peak of involved peoples or mostly, it was because of the Pandemic Crisis, and to hold them, there should be another one.

==Culture and Videogames==

In 2007, a review tracked down that 72% of the U.S. populace had played computer games in the previous year. <ref>''72 % of US population plays games''. Available at: https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/72-of-u-s-population-plays-games.html [Accessed 05 May 2021]</ref>

Implies that games, with any doubts, have a gigantic measure of players and colossally affect a culture. Computer games additionally changed utilization of different types of media, like music and movies. 

Education also felt the impact of video games: with help of new technologies teachers and students teach and study through video games, example of such game - Brain Age.<ref>''Brain Age''. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_Age [Accessed 05 May 2021]</ref>

Games have become more and more penetrated in our life, they have become something more to us, than the simple game, it was the whole new culture, but the society, still asking, should we consider video games not only as media, but also as a whole external art form.

==Gaming Culture==

Computer games, same as books and movies, have their own brilliant fans, who advocated this type of media. Mid 1970s developers, meeted up collectively, to play in Spacewar <ref>''Игра SpaceWar''. Available at: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacewar! [Accessed 05 May 2021]</ref>, burning through a great deal of time in game, which, in correlation with present day games, was elementary.

As arcades and gaming consoles gained in popularity, youth culture quickly adapted to this: people competed to get the most points by spending hours in arcades or playing on consoles at home.

Nowadays, the form of competed reformed into huge events, where players have the same target but on a different level, example of such events are  - The International Dota 2 Championship <ref>''Dota 2 International''. Available at: http://www.dota2.com/international/overview [Accessed 05 May 2021]</ref> and Counter Strike Global Offensive Major. <ref>''CS GO Majors''. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-Strike%3A_Global_Offensive_Major_Championships [Accessed 05 May 2021]</ref>

==Culture icons==

In the 1980's kids invested increasingly more energy in computer games, playing on consoles, however the main, they become substantially more related to playable characters and items, related with games. Characters from the games Pac-Man <ref>''Pac-Man game''. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man [Accessed 05 May 2021]</ref> and Super Mario Bros <ref>''Игра Super Mario Bros''. Available at: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Bros. [Accessed 05 May 2021]</ref> turned into the heroes of Sunday kid's shows, and merchandise with logos and characters of the games were purchased from the racks.

Moreover, World of Warcraft, also may be identified as a Culture Icon as a game. 

World of Warcraft <ref>''World of Warcraft''. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_Warcraft [Accessed 05 May 2021]</ref> is a MMORPG game, In World of Warcraft, you play a powerful hero who fights towering monsters, delves perilous dungeons, defends the world of Azeroth against all threats, and much more. The amount of active players <ref>''Amount of active players in WOW''. Available at: https://mmo-population.com/r/wow/stats [Accessed 05 May 2021]</ref> by 2016 was over 757,689 and by 2021 over 4,355,866
Fans from the warcraft universe, actively participated in cosplay comic cons, and other events related to this game.

==Games and Television==

Before 1980's computer games were generally secondary media. Such games like Star Wars, take their start from movies and TV shows and books. Everything began transforming from the 1980's, with advancement of TV shows by games, and during the 1990s and 2000s, activity films dependent on games started to show up. During the 1980s, animated TV projects, for example, Pac-Man <ref>''Pac Man TV show''. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man_(TV_series) [Accessed 05 May 2021]</ref>, Pole Position<ref>''Pole Position TV show''. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pole_Position_(TV_series) [Accessed 05 May 2021]</ref> started to show up.

Later in the 1980's  Nintendo games were promoted such shows as The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!<ref>''Super Mario Bros TV show''. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Super_Mario_Bros._Super_Show! [Accessed 05 May 2021]</ref> and The Legend of Zelda <ref>''The Legend of Zelda TV show''. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zelda_(TV_series) [Accessed 05 May 2021]</ref>. In 1990’s from Pokemon games were also created television series, card games and musiclies, also modern game Pokemon Go was extra popular, early peak of players was close to 45 million worldwide <ref>''Pokemon Go statistics''. Available at: https://www.businessofapps.com/data/pokemon-go-statistics/ [Accessed 05 May 2021]</ref>. Recently, programs began to appear, which dedicated exclusively to video games, for example, The Guild series tells a story about a group of friends, which speaks with each other through MMORPG.

Should be also mentioned, with popularity of video games, budgets ceased to yield to film budgets, for example, the budget of GTA IV was 100 mln.dollars <ref>''Budget of GTA IV'. Available at: https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/gta-4-production-budget-estimated-at-100m.html [Accessed 05 May 2021]</ref> and in amount of expectations, surpassed the release of the film Iron Man of the same year release. Thus, having collected 300 million dollars.<ref>''GTA IV vs Iron Man '. Available at: http://www.rockstarwatch.net/news/375/Grand-Theft-Auto-IV-vs-Iron-Man/ [Accessed 05 May 2021]</ref>

==Machinima==

Machinima is the use of real-time computer graphics engines to create a cinematic production. <ref>''Machinima''. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machinima [Accessed 05 May 2021]</ref>
 
Machinima traces its history back to 1996, when a group of gamers called The Rangers created a short film titled, "Diary of a Camper." <ref>''Diary of a Camper''. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diary_of_a_Camper [Accessed 05 May 2021]</ref>. The Rangers used a demo function in "Quake" to record their film.

Recently, machinima became popular - animated films and series, created with help of video games characters records. Starting with the short film Diary of Caper, filmed in Quake in 1996, game fans have mastered the machinima technique and started creating their own stories. 

In spite of that movies were shown just on the web and were focused at a particular crowd of gamers, proficient producers adjusted this interaction to add character to PC created outlines. Such TV serieses, for example, South park <ref>''South Park''. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Park [Accessed 05 May 2021]</ref> and chanel MTV2 promoted that strategy.

==Video games and Education==

An ever increasing number of instructive foundations are going to video games. 
Harking back to the 1980s, Number Munchers <ref>''Number Munchers''. Available at: http://www.mecc.co/software/apple-ii/number-munchers---a-170/mecc_a-170_number_munchers.pdf [Accessed 05 May 2021]</ref> and Word Munchers <ref>''Word Munchers''. Available at: http://www.mecc.co/mac--pc-products/language-arts/word-munchers.html [Accessed 05 May 2021]</ref> were made to assist youngsters with creating fundamental abilities in math and language structure.

In 2006 Federation of American scientists finished their research <ref>''Research of American scientists''. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266893604_Video_Games_Competition_and_Exercise_A_New_Opportunity_for_Sport_Psychologists [Accessed 05 May 2021]</ref>, which allows video games usage in the learning process. 
Research pointed out that video games and PC/Consoles were already involved in most families, childrens liked studying through the games, and were more involved in that process. 

The amount of Desktop/Laptop owners among adults in the United States in 2006 November was 78% percent of Americans <ref>''Percentage of Desktop/Laptop Owners''. Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/756054/united-states-adults-desktop-laptop-ownership/ [Accessed 05 May 2021]</ref>.

==Video games as Art==

Video games already received their attention and recognition as the media. However, the question now arises, are they a piece of art?

Roger Ebert <ref>''Roger Ebert''. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Ebert [Accessed 05 May 2021]</ref>, a renowned film critic, has always stated <ref>''Video Game can never be art''. Available at: https://www.rogerebert.com/roger-ebert/video-games-can-never-be-art [Accessed 05 May 2021]</ref> that games will never be art, One obvious difference between art and games is that you can win a game.
It has rules, points, objectives, and an outcome, whereas art you cannot win, you can only experience them.

It was his words about the statement of Kellee Santiago Ted Talk “An argument for game artistry” <ref>''Kellee Santiago Ted Talk ''. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9y6MYDSAww [Accessed 05 May 2021]</ref>.

With his statement, were strongly disagree players and developers of games, one example of people from the field of video games was a game called - Flower (2009) <ref>''Flower 2009 ''. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flower_%28video_game%29 [Accessed 05 May 2021]</ref> in which the player controlled the flow of flower petals flying in the wind, as an example of how games turn into art. 

In Flower, there is no specific storyline and no specific characters so that the user can concentrate on interacting with the landscape and the emotions of the gameplay.

Moreover, more and more modern games are based on the principle of creativity, for example, the games Katamari (2004) <ref>''Katamari 2004 ''. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katamari_Damacy [Accessed 05 May 2021]</ref>, where you need to create a star from scattered blocks.

With the development of graphics and music, their borders with other media are gradually being eroded, and although they are not yet recognized as art, they already have made a great contribution to modern culture of art.

=References=