Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to look into online gaming and the way in which communities are formed around these games and the people who play them. This paper will demonstrate the multiple types of communities that exist around online gaming and gaming platforms and will argue that online gaming communities are present in most online games and have as important effect on gamers as any real world community.
Despite arguments against the validity of communities created in the gaming Read more [...]
Month: May 2020
Despite claims that addiction to MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) games being detrimental to a players mental health, they actually serve as a third place breaking conventional understandings of community and allow for players to experience a transformative sense of self, self-identity, and belonging within a community.Online gaming communities act as a virtual space that serves as a third place allowing players to, communicate, socialize, cooperate, and escape from reality within the confines of Read more [...]
This paper looks at the concepts of representation, virtual community, self-presentation and self-representation to argue that virtual communities on Wrong Planet and Aspie Central use website affordances to challenge professional representations of ASD and AS. It focuses on virtual autistic communities by focusing on the discussion forums on the websites Aspie Central and Wrong Planet. Overall, it finds that virtual communities can challenge professional representation where people with ASD and AS can freely speak out. This is evident in the websites which allow anyone to view discussions and use them (if they sign up). Read more [...]