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234 Mizuko Ito and Matteo BittantiAltimit: Yeah, he doesn’t go anywhere. He just stays there. Everything’sjust there.Katynka: Do you guys know any of these people, like in real life or doyou just know that they exist?Mac Man: I know them in . . .Altimit: I don’t know that they exist . . .Mac Man: Yeah, they never get out of their house. Yes. They stay thereall day.Although the boys refered to ultra-hard-core gamers who have “no life”and are “like a beast,” Altimit admired “real dead hard-core” players whoare highly skilled at shooters. He suggested there is a difference betweengamers who let games control their lives and those who use their skills toacquire money and status. A player who is able to balance game play withother dimensions of life and still succeed is “normal” in his view, comparedto the guy who sees the online game as his whole life. The former is thekind of gamer with whom Altimit would like to identify. As described inbox 7.3, Altimit admires a professional first-person shooter player hedescribed as “the best gamer in the world.” Unlike MMORPGs, first-personshooters have subcultural capital as a form of gaming that relies on masculineperformance and virtuosity that provides high status among mostteenage boys.A final form of boundary work deserves mention—the issue of generationaldifferences in understanding of games. As described in chapter 4,we saw some instances of hanging out gaming that would involve parents,but for the most part, gaming was the province of kids. Even when gamerstalked about playing with their parents, it was almost always in the genreof hanging out, not the more geeked out forms of game play that rely onmutual respect and expertise. We can expect, as members of the currentgaming generation start raising their own children, that these dynamicswill start to change. For example, one participant in Mizuko Ito’s Animefans study was a serious gamer, even competing in major tournaments,and acted as a gaming mentor and hero for his son. Further, with thepopularity of platforms such as the Wii and the Nintendo DS, we canexpect more intergenerational sharing around gaming. At the same time,the rapid rate of technology change with regard to gaming is likely tocontinue to produce a generation gap in gaming experience, even forparents who are avid gamers. The processes of distinction that core gamers