Abstract

Online gaming gives off a very negative impression to the older generation that does not really understand the communities that are formed within it. However, the current generation uses these communities to form friendship over an online video game no matter how far apart two or more individuals are from each other. These online gaming communities act as a ‘third place’ for users who interact within these spaces, a home away from home. The support that these users gain from being involved within these communities can be beneficial to them with building social interactions with others.

Introduction

Communities have been a part of human history for the longest time and with the ever-changing nature of technology within the twenty-first century, communities have since moved to the online landscape. The online gaming community has risen in recent years as the video games industry gets bigger and bigger reaching a various amount of people around the world. Video game and online forums such as Reddit and within the has created a space where dedicated gamers and newcomers to video games gather to discuss and socialise about various aspects of the particular game that they are interest in. This previously mentioned space is referred to as the ‘third place’. This essay will argue that online gaming communities act as a ‘third place’ for video gamers. To understand the third place better, I will use Oldenburg’s eight characteristics of the third place to set out the structure that the online gaming community uses for it to be considered as a third place. A brief explanation of social capital will follow and the two social capitals of bridging and bonding will be explained to further explain the inner workings of the third places within online gaming communities along with a closer look of how Massively multiplayer online games uses characteristics of the third place and social capital to link players together in a network. And lastly a look into ‘user innovation community’ and focus on a research which studies the behaviours of players within the Destiny community to see whether social capital would be impacted with an individual’s passion for the game and playing with strangers from the same community.

Third Places

The shift of communities from the offline world to the online world has created a new-form structure within this online world called the ‘third place’.  This mentioned ‘third place’ is brought up in Constance Steinkuehler and Dmitri Williams’ article discussing the engagement of gamers online within the context of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG). Even though the focus of the article is on MMOG’s, this structure of the ‘third place’ can be applied to online gaming communities of any form. The ‘third place’ much like physical places within the real world such as cafes and pubs acts as an alternate place outside a person’s work, school or home life for a form of informal communication with other people within society (Steinkuehler & Williams, 2006). On top of this, the third place does not require for the individuals to be within for a given amount of time rather they can leave and join whenever they please at any time they want (Steinkuehler & Williams, 2006). In their article, Steinkuehler & Williams refers to Ray Oldenburg’s eight defining characteristics of ‘third places’ which are neutral ground, leveller, conversation, accessibility and accommodation, regulars, low profile, mood and home away from home. Neutral ground as mentioned before are grounds where people come and go as they please, leveller put an emphasis on one’s social standing within society and equals everyone’s status in the space, conversations is the focal point within the space, accessibility and accommodation focuses on the ease of access and the depth of accommodation once access has been granted, regulars which consists of a group of ‘regulars’ who interact with the place often and attempt to attract those who may not contribute much to increase their contribution within the space, low profile ensures that the place which does not outgrow or overwhelm itself, the mood of the given space is always lively and home away from home which makes this third place feels like a place that one would feel like home Oldenburg (as cited in Steinkuehler & Williams, 2006).

Social & Bridging Capitals

These characteristics of the third place can be seen within the context of online gaming communities however before going in depth and see how these characteristics are used within various online gaming communities, I want to argue that social capital gained within online gaming communities can add depth to the following space and depending on how an individual interact with the space, this can impact the relationships formed in this space. Social capital is referring to the relationships made within a social space therefore in this context any social capital that is earned by users is through their interactions with others within the online gaming community. This social capital can be broken down into two different types. In Felix Reer and Nicole Krämer’s article on the acquisition of social capital within online games focusing on World of Warcraft and Counter Strike, they break down the two different social capitals that can be found within interactions on online gaming communities. Bridging social capital consists of a more casual form of relationship which opens up avenues for users to share ideas and information that was not previously known but does not support seeking for emotional support Williams (as cited in Reer & Krämer, 2014). By engaging with bridging social capital, users expect information to received and spread within the community and have the freedom to opt in and out within this space without having a form of emotional attachment to this which links back to the ‘third place’ characteristic of neutral ground. Bonding social capital however bases itself on the relationship and interactions with others that have evolved more a certain period of time. Compared to bridging social capital, bonding social capital allows for emotional attachment which are normally shared with close friends Trepte et al (as cited in Reer & Krämer, 2014). In Perry et. al (2016) article on differentiating the association of passion and social capital within video game play, they mention that by investing in social capital much like one would produce in economical capital, this would mean that the production of capital would increase thus improving the value of support and information sharing that one will receive in return from their community one puts into.

Social Capital in Online Gaming Communities

After making a quick argument on how the social capital gained within online gaming communities adding depth depending on the level of interaction one puts within the space and how this can also impact relationships in the space, the focus of this section shifts more onto the function of third places within a few different online gaming communities. In Steinkuehler and Williams (2006) article most noticeably in the section applying the previously mentioned Oldenburg’s eight characteristics of ‘third places’ to the Massively multiplayer online (MMO) game Asheron’s Call II, showed that there are evidence of bonding and bridging social capitals within MMO gaming community however not the game Asheron’s Call II itself. This specific game did not manage to gather many players to conclusively state that either social capitals were at play (Steinkuehler & Williams, 2006, p.902). Therefore to investigate the status of a video game community in the future using third places especially if there is a large amount of focus on a specific game community, it would have to be one that is large enough to see which social capital the group is using within their social space. Bonding and bridging social capitals formed by people within gaming communities can also produce forms of social support amongst players in this space. The social support found within gaming communities primarily focuses on the third places characteristics of neutral ground, leveller, conversation and home away from home. In an article by Erin ‘O Connor, Huon Longman, Katherine White and Patricia Obst regarding the social identity and social support that players of MMO’s receive, Obst et al. (as cited in O’ Connor, Longman, White, & Obst, 2015) argues that the way an individual identifies themselves within the community is ultimately what controls them on how they may influence the community in its entirety. The interactions and relationships that an individual make within their community to share information or build clans and groups to reach a similar objective bases its foundations on one’s social identity in order to influence a person’s ‘psychological sense of community’ (PSOC). The ‘psychological sense of community’ refers to a person’s sense of being part of a community structure that is “reliable and stable” (O’Connor et al., 2015, p.461). An individual’s motive to contribute to their respective gaming community is ultimately what drives these third places to activate the two aspects of social capital, bridging and bonding.

Information Sharing in Online Communities

Yong Sauk Hau and Young-Gul Kim’s article on individual motivations of sharing information and their own knowledge within an online gaming community argue that online gaming communities utilises something called ‘user innovation community’ to further advance the community itself. ‘User innovation community’ refers to a network of individuals within a group however in this context the group would be considered as the online gaming community who are constantly collaborating with each other to freely share opinions, ideas and problems within the confines of the online space (Hau & Kim, 2011). An article by Perry et al. (2018) researching whether playing online with close friends, ‘online’ friends or strangers alters ones passion and social capital within an online multiplayer video game of Destiny conducted research with three different hypothesis; the relationship between two players would depend on whether playing with others have a positive effect, ‘casual’ passion of the game with others would see the rise of social capital and passion that is considered to be obsessive could lead to the increased amount of gameplay time but reduced social capital. The first hypothesis concluded that ties with strangers were associated more to bridging social capital and close ties ended up with more bonding social capital. Having a ‘casual’ passion for the game was focused on in the second hypothesis and linked to both bridging and bonding social capitals. However, the final hypothesis is the most interesting one out of the three. The final hypothesis concluded that having an obsessive passion towards the game does not hurt social capital but will increase the gameplay time which but rather showed positive signs of social capital both being bridging and bonding (Perry et al., 2018).

Conclusion

To conclude, online gaming communities within the new age of the internet have created new avenues of communication amongst those who are within the communities. The development of the third place for the hardcore gamers or those who play it casually as a place to relax and socialise outside of their professional lives such as work and school. The game world and forums are the third places where individuals share information voluntarily to others within the space and this creates a network of information sharing that is actively going on. With the Video Games industry growing every year, this cycle of sharing information will keep running and attract more people who interact with gaming culture to contribute to the community. The eight characteristics of the third place by Oldenburg shows that online gaming communities use some to most of these characteristics as its structure. The two different social capitals explore the types of interactions that people have within the space and provide a better picture of the inner workings of third place within the context of the online gaming community. The research conducted by Perry et al. regarding the behaviours and social capital of players within the game Destiny shows certain elements of third places in full swing and the behaviours showed by the individuals within the research shows impact that social capital has with a person’s passion towards a game. Even though there is a decent amount of research of online gaming communities becoming a third place for gamers, there are still places that can be researched further to get a better understanding of this space.

References

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O’ Connor, L. E., Longman, H., White, M. K., & Obst, L. P. (2015). Sense of community, social identity and social support among players of massively multiplayer online games (mmogs): A qualitative analysis. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 25, 459-473.

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Perry, R., Drachen, A., Kearney, A., Kriglstein, S., Nacke, E. L., Sifa, R., Wallner, G., & Johnson, D. (2018). Online-only friends, real-life friends or strangers? Differential associations with passion and social capital in video game play. Computers in Human Behaviour, 79, 202-210.

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Reer, F., & Krämer, C. N. (2014). Underlying factors of social capital acquisition in the context of online-gaming: Comparing world of Warcraft and counter-strike. Computers in Human Behaviour, 36, 179-189.

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Steinkuehler, A. C., & Williams, D. (2006). Where everybody knows your (screen) name: Online games as “third places”. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11, 885-909.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2006.00300.x