Week Seven - Games and the Global Cultures of Production

The concept of social media and blogging has been associated with the participatory media culture of computer games for many years. While they appear to be worlds apart, they are very similar in many ways. Most games today allow users to communicate through message boards while they play in an effort to enhance the gaming experience. The aspects that social media sites/blogs share with participatory games are virtuality, interactivity and connectivity.  

Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram allow users to create a virtual reality in which they can construct an alternative reality.  Raessens (2005, pg. 374) explains that games offer the possibility to simulate virtual worlds a gamer can explore.

 

Image Source: Second Life

Users of social media become the creator of their own identity as they can choose what they reveal and what they keep hidden from the world. The internet and computer games allow infinite opportunities for people to construct their desired identity.

Chalkley et al (2012, pg. 154) explains that “online worlds” are not only of the avatar-driven Second Life variety, where people assume characteristics that are not (necessarily) their own, and direct ramifications in the ‘real world’ are not so obvious.

Image Source: GameInformer

 

Modern gamers are now able to engage with other gamers from all over the world in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) to work together to achieve the same goal. A game computer should after all not just be seen as technology that can simulate multimedial virtual worlds one can interact with; it is also increasingly being connected to other computers over the Internet (Raessens, 2005, pg. 374).

This is similar to blogging in that blogs are connected through the blogosphere by similar interests or views, bloggers can form a public sphere where other bloggers who share the same interests are able to join and communicate.

The interactivity aspect of gaming is very similar to that of social media. Both gamers and social media users/bloggers are increasingly interactive as they connect with people from different parts of the world to enhance either their gaming experience or their social connections.

Raessens (2005, pg. 374) explains that in contrast with a “passive” film audience, an interactive game player is enabled, for example, to take up the role of narrator and influence the course of events and actions, possibly as a character in the plot.



References:

Chalkley, T, Brown, A, Cinque, T, Warren, B, Hobbs, M & Finn M 2012, Communication, New Media and Everyday Life, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Vic.

Raessens, J 2005, ‘Computer games as participatory media culture’, Handbook of computer game studies 2005, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass, pp. 373-388

Images:

Image 1) http://secondlife.com/whatis/?lang=en-US

Image 2)  http://www.gameinformer.com/games/diablo_iii/m/diablo_iii_media/2975798.aspx