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Gaming Communities, Social Gaming and Live streaming

Week 10

Throughout recent history there has been a constant evolution of video game culture, particularly regarding the social side of it. In the early days of gaming, such as through arcade games, multiple gamers had to be both physically present to play against or with each other. Today this has transformed to digital connections through online devices, that have allowed people to connect to new and pre-existing players within video gaming worlds.  

Social gaming has become increasingly popularised over recent years, allowing people to “encounter people from outside their own social worlds, and construct networks and online lives in concert with these systems” (Taylor 2018, p.11). One of the first ‘social’ games was Farmville, provided through the social media platform Facebook. In its prime it accumulated 85 million players, with 32 million active users a day (Victor 2021), which was more than the users on Twitter itself in 2009. Unlike other games, Farmville appealed to a much broader audience of adults and women, more so than those of typical gaming communities such as stereotypically young men who dominantly play games on consoles like Xbox and PlayStation (Victor 2021). Players could engage with already existing ‘friends’ on their Facebook accounts through sending requests to help them will their ‘farm’, leading to saturated news feeds and an abundance of notifications to fellow users. This was arguably less social than other multiplayer online games today as it was more about the mechanics of clicking buttons than interacting with users through conversation or gameplay (Victor, 2021).  

Apart from ‘social’ type games like Farmville linked with social media platforms, there are also ‘massively multiplayer online role-playing games’ also known as MMORPG. One of the most well-known MMORPG’s is World of Warcraft, that was released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. This game builds a sense of community and online relationships through user's completing quests and adventures together (Anothy & Gui 2018). In addition to gameplay there are many in-depth online forums where people can roleplay as their characters (Anothy & Gui 2018), emphasising the vast community video games have, even outside of the gameplay itself.  

Furthermore, other ways people engage with video games online is through live streaming, for example through platforms like Twitch. On Twitch, anyone can live stream themselves playing different video games, and are even able to watch, comment and send donations to other people’s live streams. These types of videos include competitions where professional esports players can play against each other, as well as offering general entertainment for viewers, which is a source of income for many gaming influencers. These videos are often filmed within the confines of their homes and bedrooms, presenting how gaming has evolved from a private to public form.  

References  

Anthony, D & Gui, F 2018, ‘Virtual Sense of Community in a World of Warcraft® Storytelling Open Forum Thread’, Virtual Worlds Research, vol. 11, no. 2.  

Taylor, TL 2018, Watch Me Play: Twitch and the Rise of Game Live Streaming, Princeton University Press, pp.1-23

Victor, D 2021, ‘Farmville Once Took Over Facebook. Now Everything Is Farmville.’ The New York Times, 1 January.  

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