Hunting Hell on Facebook

Facebook groups that focus on specific subject matter create a certain shared knowledge and values, or genre, as genre is defined in Ariella Van Luyn's third week lecture notes , "Genre tells us how to produce and understand texts...[Which are] any kind of cultural product." ( Luyn. A. V. 2015). Some of these Facebook groups are used as community hubs for games that have a heavy focus on socializing or teamwork. One such groups is geared towards the nintendo3ds game series called 'monster hunter', and the group is called 'Monster Hunter Hell". There is a little bit of history though with Monster Hunter groups on Facebook, with a large amount of infighting, which can make the sense of place within these groups very polarizing, you are either with the group you are socializing in, or you shouldn't say otherwise. Even with this infighting between groups, Monster hunter Hell fosters a paradoxical inclusive setting, as the group has a strict 'no ban' policy, which means people are free to say and do what they wish, within the Facebook terms and conditions. People share their honest opinions about the game, and their experiences with strangers inside the game and on each other. This sense of freedom to do or say as you wish ended up with individuals actually fighting less, and developed a strong kinship with group members.The mentality of the group could be explained simply with "Nobody insults us except for us". MHH was a relatively small group, but it was the largest open monster hunter group on Facebook. A large fight occurred though between the members of MHH and two other monster hunter groups, which did nothing for a while, until the group was removed by Facebook earlier this week. After a small amount of time though, the group was reformed, however as a private group instead of a public group, as the harassment from other groups caused it to be removed the first time, and we didn't want that to happen again. The group went from over one thousand members, to not existing, and currently the reformed MHH group has about two hundred and fifty members. I was one of the original members of the first group, so I can examine how the new group grows and adapts, developing a new sense of place, and contrast it with the original's sense of place.

An example of the type of things posted in the MHH group.

 

 References:
 Luyn, A. V. (2015) What is Genre [PowerPoint slides]. retrieved from James Cook University BA1002   Blackboard site, week three lecture notes.

Image retrieved from: http://dragonbladerx.deviantart.com/art/Tetsuca-BRUH-516157315