Online Gaming: The Avatar of Anonymity
Jack Bullard-Smith
This piece is designed to look at online games as a piece of communication technology. There have been a number of items and reports based around social interaction within the online gaming community, specifically the MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game) community. Within this piece I plan to take away from my own experiences and the information within these pieces. The exploration of how online games change people’s social patterns and behaviors both within the gaming world and the outside world will be looked at in depth within a number of situations. These situations will unfortunately have to be limited to the direct social actions and implications due to the expansiveness of such a topic. Within this topic there is of course both a negative and positive of which this essay will be addressing both.
When looking at an item to do with the MMORPG community, it is important to discuss what an MMORPG is. An MMORPG "is a multiplayer computer role-playing game that enables thousands of players to play in an evolving virtual world at the same time over the Internet" (Wikipedia, 2007). Specifically this piece will be looking at modern, western mainstream MMORPG's, specifically EverQuest and World of Warcraft. All of these games have some major features in common. Generally there are a large number of players (numbering in the thousands, and in some cases millions) with a large number of these online at one time. All of these players interact in an online persistant world, which is in effect a virtual world that usually has an fantasy or sci-fi (Wikipedia, 2007) theme that usually involves a large amount of action. Within these persistant worlds the players are able to construct an avatar. This avatar is the players representation of them self within the gaming world. This avatar is the main source of social interaction between players, but this will be discussed later in the piece. Many of the game characteristics of MMORPG's come from original RPG's (role playing games), and usually consist of the player completing quests, killing monsters and attaining "loot" or equipment in order to better their character. Most of these games have a leveling system which is limited at a certain point to stop any particular player becoming too over powered; this is often referred to by players as the level cap. A large part of this type of games appeal is the social interaction within the game. Many people get a thrill out of playing with real people rather than simply computer controlled players (NPC's, or non player characters) (World of Warcraft.com, 2007).
As was previously mentioned, the avatar of a player is quite often the way through which expression and interaction occurs within MMORPG's. This is most commonly done through the game itself, though it also occurs within the games online forums. This can often lead to wonderful interaction, cooperation and groups of people working towards common goals (Michael Hahsler and Steven Koch, 2004). This interaction is quite often associated with the idea of guilds within these online communities. These guilds are groups of players that band together and often form strong social bonds with players helping each other, competing with other guilds and even engaging in such complex social rituals as holding online funerals. These kinds of actions however also allow for the negative side of this social interaction to be displayed, with players within the World of Warcraft Online Game who were holding a funeral for one of their guild members who had died in real life, being attacked and killed by players of an opposing faction (Digg.com, 2007). This kind of interaction displays a large number of things. First it shows the compassion that players can feel towards friends and other players online. It also displays the disregard for emotion, and the ability to commit horrible acts when the player knows their true identity is masked. Whilst the people who attacked the funeral knew full well that it was happening, as it was displayed on the game forums, they still showed no mercy or remorse.
My personal experience within the online game World of Warcraft has often led me into similar situations to that stated above. A common term within the MMO community is "gank" (ganked, ganking). This term whilst originally meaning to take something which doesn’t belong to you, it is now within the MMO community used to describe killing, or being killed by another player in an unfair situation, though it stemmed from the term gang killed (Urban Dictionary.com, 2007). This term is often the most aggressively used word within the game World of Warcraft. When players gank for their own personal pleasure, it can often lead to even greater bonds between those players who are doing the ganking. Players can often work themselves in organised teams or groups and increase their interest in playing by attacking other players in a situation where they are almost guaranteed to win. This action usually results in the opposite reaction for the player on the receiving end. Personal experience and the reaction expressed by other players (World of Warcraft.com, 2007) shows the level of anger that this behavior can create. Players generally swear, become agitated, and in some cases stop playing the game either for a period of time or permanently. These reactions can also often lead to retaliation, this usually involved a player’s friends or guild mates that are of a higher level coming to the aid of the accosted player. This in turn can lead to strengthened bonds and increased friendship between these players.
This in game social interaction can often have an effect on the outside community. During the release of the World of Warcraft expansion pack The Burning Crusade I experienced a number of strange things. At the launch there were approximately one hundred and fifty people waiting for the games release, this didn't seem too unusual, the thing that was unusual was how the people acted towards each other. There was a particular group of players standing together talking about their characters. They played the team Horde, and when another player mentioned that he played the opposing team, an
Though only skimming the surface of the online gaming community, some very clear ideas can be drawn. The social patterns displayed within these types of environments can be wonderful and diverse, allowing people to engage in an equal and anonymous environment. This same environment however can be open to abuse by those who wish to exploit people, or have fun at their expense. Because of this perceived anonymity of both online games, and the internet in general, this form of positive and negative social behavior must be expected to some degree. It is in fact a large part of why the internet is such a popular medium for social interaction. This has led to MMORPG's being an integral social networking tool for millions of people, and at times leading to friendships that can be more valued than their real life counterparts (Nick Yee, 2004).
Reference List
Anothony Papargyris and Dr. Angeliki Poulymenakou, 2007, Learning Opportunities in Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games player communities.
Mikael Jacobson and T.L. Taylor, 2003, The Sopranos Meets EverQuest Social Networking in Massively Multiplayer Online Games.
Michael Hahsler and Steven Koch, 2004, Cooperation and Disruptive Behavior - Learning from a Multiplayer Internet Gaming Community.
World of Warcraft.com, 2007, www.worldofwarcraft.com/forums
Wikipedia.org, 2007, www.wikipedia.org
Digg.com, 2007, http://digg.com/gaming_news/Online_World_of_Warcraft_Funeral_Gets_Crashed
Urban Dictionary.com, 2001-2007, http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=gank
Nick Yee, 2004, http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/gateway_relationships.html
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