ahhhh football

school is back in session for college students.  YAY!!!! so this morning we had a discussion about culture, how to define culture, what makes up culture, how it gains power.  all i asked was "what is culture" and early in the morning my students came up with great examples of how to provide examples and ideas about what makes up and defines culture.  a sometimes difficult task.  one of the examples that really struck home was sports.  americans are one of the only countries who love football, and have all sorts of ideas, practices, identities, beliefs, and values surrounding sports.  my students were able to enumerate many of these things, and how they felt about them.  i then brought up videogames, of course.  as my husband plays madden, he often complains about the lack of fan presence at milehigh stadium whenever there is weather.  denver and green bay are well known for their fandom, their sold out stadiums for decades, their love of their teams.  however, they are represented completely differently in the game.  for a true fan, without recognizing the slight against their form of fandom, they are offended by how they are represented in the game.  the complaints voiced by my husband are legitimate concerns about how a game is representing the fans of a team he loves.  how could a videogame franchise so ingrained in game play botch up fandom so bad????