Categories
Communities and Online Gaming

Generation Gamers set to rise online, whilst having fun

By Kim Ve Jong

Abstract

Online Social networks and Communities have witnessed an explosive growth towards user participation and developed into a wide array of Community involvement: they include Forums, Social media platform, email and in-built chat programs as the main form of online social networks but with the caveat of developing into social problems online and addiction.

Introduction

This conference paper will delve into the paradigm of community involvement in digital Online social media platform that was afforded with the advent of Web 2.0 technological break through. With the ability of dynamic updates on Social media, communication was communicated with ease and in real time. The focus will shift to Social media tools and delve into these areas more thoroughly. The first element of Social media is Forums: Forums will demonstrate the knowledge and information regarding a specific topic that users will navigate to learn or add input. Second, websites contain the content and part of the wider e-commerce component along with the eco-system of Social media. Third, Social media platforms and Community formed will shape how the consumer behave with their media consumption and the advancement of social platform like the API (application programming interface). Fourth, email has been around since the introduction of the internet and a status quo for messaging. Emails have evolved to social media space by having the ability to form groups. The importance of email is relevant as an identifier for a unique user, so login to any Social media platform or other online services will require a valid email address. The conference will then intersect Social media and gaming by using Twitch platform to broadcast gameplay from professionals to amateurs. The scheduled tournament play known as e-sport will attract huge crowds watching the tournament. The online game being studied is World of Warcraft since the game has broken records with the amount of paid players subscribed to that game. However, addiction, anti-social behaviour and social problems have emerged since the introduction of Online Social networks more broadly, and online gaming in the form of MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game) has encountered such behaviour and addiction on some portion of the gaming community.

Social media Platform

Forums

Specialised field or a common interest of the topic in the forum has been the epitome of Social media. Forums are statically based and an earlier form communicating, and does not require real time response and hence, forms the bases prior to Web 2.0. A person would post content on the forum, then another user may respond to the thread at a later date. Haavisto (2012) further delves into online discussion forum and identify it as a constant flow of knowledge, ideas, innovation, new techniques including research and an opinion, whether personal or professionally. The vast discussion of content and topics in forums attract like minded people in a specific topic for relevant information, the experience from other people, product innovation from professional feedback in some cases. Furthermore, Koopman (2011) contends that online forum has propelled digital online learning as a discourse for scholars such as courses and subjects offered online and forums used as a privately discussion forum for the students and teachers / convener / tutor / lecturer. The wide adoption of online forum in the educational sector has proven to be a major component for learning, thus, other sectors such as online gaming would benefit from a dedicated forum for a particular game genre or a specific online game to interact with the Community. Bourgonjong et al. (2016, pp.1733-1734) highlights that games forum is generally depicted as “a site of struggle”, outlining the content of the forum containing information to overcome aspects of the game, or some cumbersome feature of the game. The online gaming Community is an aspect of everyday life in society, hence is part of the “social institutionalisation” through forums.

Websites

In the World Wide Web, websites are addresses for a web page containing content relevant for e-Commerce, Forums, Organisations, Educational, Government, Personal space and so much more. Each website can be coded to contain highly rich content and Social features such as offering a help enquiry for customers making enquiries such as Open University (www.open.edu.au). However, the world wide web is a digital address that contains relevant information to search such as Google search engine, and transaction sites such as Ebay. When the services are added collectively, it forms a cohort and users spend significant amount of time surfing the web as a comprehensive experience accompanied with the interaction of Social media. Lacka, Chan and Yip (2014, pp.151-166) further examines the activities of users purchasing items online and finds the convenience at their fingertips. Furthermore, there is product feedback for consumer awareness about certain products and aspects including pitfalls to be aware of, thus generating some advantages for consumer with informed choices. Yet, Chapman et al. (2016, pp.18-22) argues website technology continue to evolve by fusing gaming ideology and education as a seamless learning tool whilst having fun known as “edutainment”. The element includes video, games, pictures and voice overs indicating a multimedia learning experience which would suggest an interactive experience. The benefit to this type of fusion would benefit the Community as a whole with better learning experience and to engage certain topic more intelligently.

Social Media Platforms

The dynamic interaction with Social media has enabled billions of users worldwide to engage in a novel experiment introduced at the start of the twenty first century to reach anybody anywhere provided they have the right social media platform and connected to the internet. The engagement with people on social media has been unprecedented with virtually everybody in the world familiar with mainstream Social media app like Facebook. Business and Organisations have taken advantage with Social media to promote their own brands for a cost effective marketing tool and to post Public relations messages. Holland et al. (2016, pp2622-2625) argues that using Social Media is part of everyday life and controlling and mitigating professional use versus personal use not become “cyber loafing”. With the update feed that Social Media generates, Freer (2012) asserts that organisations can turn Social media into focus groups and Social media gaming for user interactivity for specific industries such as Health Organisations through gamification. This can be achieved through Facebook API (application programming interface), when businesses can enhance the users experience and tailor their experience to promote brand awareness. The Social media space will only expand and involve more stakeholders to become the fabric of society.

Emails

Individual Email address is more relevant than ever as an email address is an individual identity and every single Social Media platform, login websites, documents and forms require an email address as part of valid identity. The core functionality of emails was part of the inception of the Internet as a correlation, and email in the early days of the internet was used as document sharing and writing a form of a letter to the recipient. When email groups was created, an early form of Social media had entered the sphere, hence paved the way to the notion of Social media. Beleraj (2019, pp.) argues that both email and Social media are avenues that tap into the Consumer market that has already been fragmented with different platforms, technologies and some with traditional approach to marketing form like radio, television advertising, catalogue, brochures and newspaper. Email marketing is a cheap form of marketing that will reach to all subscribers inbox with relative ease. Social media is simply a post and everyone joined in that group will automatically see the post. Haesevoets et al. (2019, pp.1-3) examines the real intended use for emails in Corporate Organisations and argues that it is embedded in these Organisations as their primary tool for communication. Email serves as a document, and a timestamp of the email sent, and email distribution can further be compartmentalised into departmental for instance. Email use is the status quo for digital and a social culture in personal or in business Community.

Online Gaming and Social Media

The cornerstone to this conference is the quality gamers now enjoy with the added support with Social Media platform in the gaming community. Moreover, Social Media Platform Twitch and Youtube is very popular amongst gamers, since they can record and broadcast their gameplay live or recorded and post at a later date. The advantage of Twitch for instance is professional play; casual / intermediate players that want to broadcast their game play. Deng et al. (2015) highlights the scheduled tournament held in Twitch that hosts the best players from around the world to compete in the form of e-sport. Even though gaming stream has not attracted the attention of mainstream, the gaming community is aware of streaming and millions around the world log into stream and watch professionals play or casual play. Furthermore, Williams et al. (2006, pp.339-344) asserts that MMORPG comes with Guild chat for members in the guild as a Social interaction amongst the players using World of Warcraft chosen as a study focus. The social aspect is compared to Social capital from Sociology as the game mechanics exist online and players around the world play their game at their own leisure. The core aspect of the game is levelling up the chosen character to the maximum character level, and attending raids with guild members and invites to fill the gap needed. Not only is this game a social aspect and Community based, but it also demands team work to succeed in the game and played at an optimum level. Snoggrass et al. (2017, pp.1928-1941) further argues there are guilds that are more relaxed and referred to as ‘casuals’ and the more serious players are guilds focusing on end game content as ‘hardcore’ players. These hardcore players are more involved in the gaming aspect and prone to use outside content such as Social Media to post information concerning the raid content and schedules. Thus, the gaming community are also entrenched with Social media at large.

Social Media Problems / addiction

Like with most things, if excessive usage is not controlled in a reasonable manner and there is a need to keep on going or increasing, then that is a form of addiction. Social problems in the digital age started rather quickly, right after the Social Media Platform launched to the Community. The adoption of the new Social media platform rose exponentially, with millions of users joining and becoming part of the Community with the aid of the smartphone technology. Sahin (2017, pp.120-121) explains social media addiction to always be online and interacting with the latest update and status of the update. The uncontrolled behaviour and motivation with compulsive nature is causal to the actual mechanics of the Social media platforms core functionality that has allowed this to occur. The human nature response to the novel experience tends to be automatic, impulsive, reflexive and reactive since the response spans from instantaneous to a delayed response outlined by Osatuyi and Turel (2018, pp.95-98). However, Visser et al. (2013, pp.1515-1516) does agree with the notion of social problems in Social media per se, however in World of Warcraft most players possess social competence, meaning the cognitive mind is sharp and laser focused on task at hand. The ability to succeed in the game and working in a group and applying technologies such as voice chat, additional mods for specific mission is a skill not captured by other studies in the field of Social media and depicted online gaming in the basket of anti-social and addiction. Based on the specific online game of World of Warcraft, that does not appear to be the case provided all other responsibilities have been taken into account.

Conclusion

The rise of Social Media platform and the online community has witnessed an exponential growth with users flocking by the masses to platform such as Facebook’s inception. Gamers in particular have been the beneficiary of digital media tools, online community and social media platforms. The gaming experience has been enriched as a result and made players harness additional tools outside their gaming scope for better experience and results oriented. Traditional forms of social media like the email system continue to play their role in the social media space and serves as the status quo for business organisation and for personal use. Social media platform such as Facebook has shown that the platform has become its own eco-system through the use of API that enables coders to embed their application into Facebook port to enrich the experience of Facebook users and time spent. However, social problems and addiction have emerged from consumer behaviour into the Social media platforms, and whilst it has been proven to be psychological and cognitive based, compared to any other scenario, the novel experience and the mechanics of Social media indeed encourages this sort of consumer behaviour. Gaming community and in particular World of Warcraft players are also susceptible to anti-social problems and addiction, however there was no evidence found that gaming increases these sort of behaviour. Instead, the mmorpg game have shown that the game requires skills, working with team members whether in guild or invites as pug to tackle the end game content or a quest. The gamers in the study have shown to be social competence by employing other various parts into their gaming experience and having fun while playing.

References

Beleraj, B. (2019). The impact of social media and email marketing on sales. European Journal of Economics, Law and Social Sciences, 3, 124-132.

Bourgonjon, J., Vandermeersche, G., De Wever, B., Soetaert, R., & Valcke, M. (2016). Player’s perspectives on the positive impact of video games: A qualitative content analysis of online forum discussions. New Media & Society, 18(8),1732-1749. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444815569723

Chapman, K., Muzaffar, H., Castelli, D., & Scherer, J. (2016). Health Website’s Games and Features Evaluation by Middle Schoolers

Deng, J., Cuadrado, F., Tyson, G., & Uhlig, S. (2015). Behind the Game: Exploring the Twitch Streaming Platform. International Workshop on Network and Network Support for Games.

Freer, T. (2012). Social media gaming – a gaming recipe for employer brand success. Strategic HR Review, 11, 13-17. https://doi.org/10.1108/14754391211186269

Haavisto, P. (2012). Social Media discussion forums and product innovation-the way forward. First Monday, 17(10). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v17i10.3984

Haesevoets, T., Cremer, D., Schutter, D., McGuire, J., Yang, Y., Jian, X., & Van Hiel, A. (2019). Transparency and Control in Email Communication: The More the Supervisor is Put in cc the Less Trust is Felt. Journal of Business Ethics, Springer.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04220-w

Holland,P., Cooper, B., & Hecker, R. (2016). Use of social media at work: a new form of employee voice?. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 27(21), 2621-2634.

https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2016.1227867

Koopman, B. (2011). From Socrates to Wikis: Using Online Forums to Deepen Discussions. Phi Delta Kappa International, 92(4), 24-27. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27922482

Lacka, E., Chan, H., & Yip, N. (2014). E-Commerce Platform Acceptance: Suppliers, Retailers and Consumers. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06121-4

Osatuyi, B., & Turel, O. (2018). Tug of War between self-regulation and habit: Explaining the experience of momentary social media addiction symptons. Computers in Human Behavior, 95-105.

Sahin, C. (2017). The Predictive level of Social Media Adiction for Life Satisfaction: A study on University students. The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 16(4), 120-125.

Snodgrass, J., Batchelder, G., Eisenhauer, S., Howard, L., Dengah, F., Thompson, R., Bassarear, J., Cookson, R., Defouw, P., Matteliano, M., & Powell, C. (2017). A guild culture of ‘casual raiding’ enhances its members’ online gaming experiences: A cognitive anthropological and ethnographic approach to World of Warcraft. New Media & Society, 19(12), 1927-1944.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1461444816644804

Visser, M., Antheunis, A., & Schouten, A. (2013). Online communication and social well0being: how playing World of Warcraft affects players’ social competence and loneliness. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 43, 1508-1517.

https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12144

Williams, D., Ducheneaut, N., Xiong, L., Zhang, Y., Yee, N., & Nickel, E. (2006). From Tree House to Barracks: The Social Life of Guilds in World of Warcraft. Games and Culture, 1(4), 338- 361. https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412006292616

12 replies on “Generation Gamers set to rise online, whilst having fun”

Hey Kim!
I liked how you discussed the different kinds of networks and communities within social media. When you talked about how forums don’t need immediate responses, I liked how you explained how it is a new type of communication. It might have been interesting to talk about Reddit in this paragraph.
It would have been nice to see a stronger link and more writing about online gaming throughout the paper, but it is good that you mentioned it here and there.
I like that you mentioned there are diverse types of games, each with their own intention behind the game e.g. war games can be a form of recruitment, or as you said, educational games.
Do you believe that World of Warcraft is easy to become addicted to? What do you think would be the real life consequences of getting addicted to a game?

Hey Annemarie,

Thank you for reading and providing an insightful response with recommendations. As for me playing WOW, between 2005-2009 i did play a lot, almost on a daily basis. It was the novel experience that MMO has brought into online games and it was something that i knew i would definitely enjoy. I consider myself a gamer at heart as it helps tap into the creativity / reflexive / competitive / strategic thinking all into one that most real world scenarios would not encounter. In terms of addiction, some games have been designed so well such as WOW, that investing time into the game has become problematic for some people, since they neglect their real world responsibilities. But i also think that online games wont go away, but rather become more entrenched into society, as online gaming whether casual / hardcore is now part of our society. Interestingly enough though, this could be the reason that i have done this subject as my elective, since my degree is major in Politics and has some correlation for this elective.

Hi Kim

I enjoyed your paper on gaming, as I used to be right into gaming before the days of Web 2.0. I used to get into things like Doom and Unreal Tournament, Counter Strike etc but I have never tried playing games online against other players. I’ve always found my time being taken up doing other things and just as well, I know if I got into gaming I’d probably waste too much time playing! Platforms like Twitch and terms like eSports are quite fascinating, to think that today people will gather to watch people play games as a form of competitive sport. It reminds me of this movie from the late 80s called ‘The Wizard’, where these kids compete in a Nintendo tournament playing Super Mario Bros, with a huge crowd cheering them on. Maybe that was the inspiration! LOL. Here is a snippet of the movie:

HughesovskiJ. (2011, Feburary 19). The Wizard (1989) final game scene (Happy 30th). YouTube [Video]. https://youtu.be/TscjsNMvnDg

I think that there can be a lot of dangers associated with gaming addiction, particularly if the games have a high level of violence/gore/sex or if children are exposed to games without the correct parental supervision. This article was posted on Facebook the other day. A 13 year old boy allegedly stabbed his 7 year old brother to death because he lost a game on a mobile phone.

Carter, H. (2020, April 27). Gamer rage: Boy 13, stabbed his seven year old brother to death in a rage after losing on a mobile phone video game. The Sun. https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11492098/boy-13-stabbed-brother-video-game/

What do you think are some ways that gaming addiction could be managed?

Hi Indre,

You are absolutely right about the dangers with online gaming or gaming in general. Social problems can be taken to the extreme when there is murder over a gaming result, is taken way too seriously. Even without murder, gamers raging over aspects of the game, from petty stuff to a whole day of activities being ruined shows that mass recruit and intake of users online would only exacerbate this notion. Indeed, social problems digitally online or offline has already been a problem as internet is a tool for users to use. Internet can be used for all sorts of reason, but the underlying responsibility rests on the user whilst online. If the user happens to be a child / minor, then further studies should be conducted on how to educate age groups particular children, teenagers, and young adolescents about behaviour online and offline responsibilities. But for the study of WOW in particular, even adults struggle with addiction to the game and find it extremely hard to balance their life. Below is a case of addiction to WOW.

Thanks Indre for your input.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/aug/29/world-of-warcraft-video-game-addict

Hi Kim

Thanks for your reply and thanks for the link to that article. Wow (no pun intended) that’s full on! I did know someone who played WoW quite heavily. He was an online friend of mine from the US but we lost touch years ago. I wonder if he still plays today…

The article made an interesting point:
“The American Psychiatric Association (APA) will not be listing video game addiction as a mental disorder in the 2012 edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. However, the APA said there is a possibility a group of reward-seeking behavioural disorders including video game and internet addiction will be included in an appendix to “encourage further study”.

What is your opinion on this? Do you think that video game addiction should be made a mental disorder, to possibly enable better treatment for those who become addicted?

With addiction to other types of games, I was thinking of games such as Grand Theft Auto which are very violent and graphic, this article below suggests that teens may develop violent tendencies if they play violent games and what was also interesting was reading that playing these types of games may increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s. There is definitely something going on in the brain when games are played.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6230901/Teenagers-play-Grand-Theft-Auto-likely-fights.html

On the other hand, this next article suggests that these types of games do not cause violent tendencies, after a study was conducted, and that any effects are only short lived.

https://psmag.com/news/dont-blame-gta

Before I go, here’s another article on WoW addiction:

https://www.theverge.com/2014/9/26/6849317/if-world-of-warcraft-is-a-drug-blizzard-is-a-cruel-drug-dealer

This one discusses someone who keeps playing even though they want to quit, much like someone who keeps going back for a drug they’re hooked on, no matter how much they want to get away from it. When I read the article and the comments, it has me so curious! But there is no way I’ll ever join… it seems far too dangerous LOL. I have too many other things that take up my time!

Thanks
Indre

Hi Kim,

I must admit when I started reading your paper I thought you had posted it in the wrong stream and had to check the title again to see that it was actually intended to be about gaming. Then as I read on I saw how you had cleverly interwoven forums, websites, emails (to a lesser degree but good point about the fact that users need an email address in order to gain access to any site including gaming) and SM into how they relate to gaming. The example of “edutaining” for instance was a good one.

I can quite see your point about how gaming can be addictive and anti-social in fact our eldest son’s wife banned him from playing (he like Indre said about herself never played online against others) as if he started he would play for hours and be quite anti-social – which was really surprising and quite out of character as he is normally extremely sociable and loves family get-togethers etc. It was good point where you exampled the social skills that need to be employed in some games, such as World of Warcraft, requiring group communication and co-operation, which counteracts those claims of anti-social behaviour. However, Indre’s posting of that 13 year old boy who stabbed his brother was an alarming report of the possible affect gaming has on some people though surely that would be an extreme case!

Thanks Kim I enjoyed reading your paper and look forward to reading your responses to Anne-Marie and Indre’s question about the consequences and how you think gaming addiction can be managed.
Lee
Lee

Hi Lee,

Thank you for the response, yes i have to admit that tragic can also occur in online games or games in general. The thirteen year old boy stabbing his seven year old brother was a tragedy and devastating for the family. Online Social media indeed has had studies linking Social media disorder (addiction) and highly engaging in Social media to make the most of it (content creators). I think there is a graph showing the most vulnerable, and the medium being normal content consumers and the high end being the content creators making a living. So Social media if harnessed properly, is a tool for Business promotion, personal blog for followers, and so much more. However, it is also a place for keyboard warriors going on a rant and being unshackled from real world responsibilities / judgement / values. It is the later that has highlighted the violence / anti-social / addiction that has sitgmatised Social media. But overall, i think that there should be further studies to understand the fundamental nature of Social media and perhaps take an approach that is a bit more neutral?

Thanks Lee!

Eijnden, R., Lemmens, J., & Valkenburg, P (2016). The Social Media
Disorder Scale. Computers in Human Behavior, 61, 478-487.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.03.038

Hi Kim,
I agree with Leone’s comment on your focus on forums, emails, and social media, it was great to see a broader perspective of what actually contributes to online gaming.
I am wondering if you are a gamer yourself? I’d be interested to see if you feel that spaces like forums are considered almost a part of the game themselves? For example, if you are playing WOW, are you getting a better gaming experience through partaking in the accompanying forums?

Hi Kim,

I loved your points on how the involved platforms like forums, social media, emails and in-built chat programs contributed to how individuals in communities can be involved amongst each other to enhance their own user experiences.

You mention how Twitch streaming is used for both professional and casual players to broadcast their play and that tournaments are held on the platform. To my understanding, one is able to earn money by broadcasting live on Twitch. Is it possible that this potentially a part of the addiction problem with social media platforms? When income is involved it can become less about having fun and more about making money. As a result the live streamers can spend a lot more time on the platform then would be considered healthy.

It was a great read.
Thanks, Stuart.

Hey Kim,

I enjoyed your take on this stream and was certainly interested in your research in to various social media platforms as gaming community hubs, if you will. I definitely agree that forums promote huge senses of community and are one of the best ways for gamers to interact, outside of the game itself.

You mention that “the content of the forum containing information to overcome aspects of the game, or some cumbersome feature of the game.” and while I agree to a certain point, I do think this isn’t entirely accurate. Gamers also tend to use forums as places to share their achievements, as well as praise the game developers in specific instances.

Overall, a great read.

Sincerely,
Zac

Hi Kim.

It was great to read a perspective that looks very broadly on the topic and how it has a solid effect on many of us in the recent few decades. It was also great how you related this paper in particular to World of Warcraft, which resulted in fantastic shifts of context in a way, to see multiple views. Great read.

Cheers, Lleyton.

Hi Kim

This is an extremely well written piece! With my chosen topic focusing very much on a similar aspect of the gaming and community theme there is a lot of relatable content here. I particularly like the connection talked about in the Online Gaming and Social media section where you discuss the connection between gamers and how more ‘hardcore’ players use social media to their advantage to achieve their goals

All in all this is a very informative and intriguing piece.

Regards, Jacob

Comments are closed.