#petsociety

Let me get straight to the point, social gaming is an activity or game which creates a social interaction between its players. Most importantly, social gaming is a multiplayer thing. This is because it requires at least two players and above, as the name suggests, players cannot socialize in solitude (O’Neill 2019). Social gaming can be done both offline and online, as long as it creates a form of socialization. Examples of social games include card games, board games, video games, role playing games, multiplayer online games or even alternate reality games.

Moving into our digital age world, social gaming has been increasingly popular especially after the launching of social media platforms. Take for example the most popular one, Facebook. Facebook is one of the world’s biggest gaming platforms, with its top games having millions of players online each day (Agarwal 2018). Does FarmVIlle, Café World, Mafia Wars, Happy Aquarium or even Per Society ring a bell? These social games were one of the most popular ones back in 2009.

Remember Pet Society?

I used to an avid fan of Pet Society, a social-network game developed by Playfish. Truth be told, I actually signed up for a Facebook account way before I was eligible to do so. I signed up when I was around 11 years old while the eligible age was 13. And why did I do so? It was because of Pet Society. Watching my elder sister play made me want to be part of the game, the society as well, and that’s how I started creating my own account and owning my own pet. I had friends that were playing as well and we would send each other gifts, visit each other’s houses and interact with each other’s pets. Besides only interacting with my Facebook friends, I could also interact with other Pet Society players via the Pet Society Café. The Café is both a store and a social bonding hub where you could buy things or visit some random player’s houses and their pets. This is where you can meet other players around the world, make and add new friends or even leave them a personal note. I remember spending a huge amount of time playing Pet Society, trying hard every day to earn coins, earn experience points, visit other pets, decorate the house, cloth the pet and etc. However, this game addiction over Pet Society came to a stop when the game officially ended in June 2013 (Maiberg 2013).

Careful with the Social Gaming Addiction

Social gaming can be fun and all, but let’s face it, there’s always a flip side to everything. For the next part I will be touching on social gaming addiction and addressing how severe it can get if overlooked.

I’ll be using PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) as my example. It is multiplayer online shooting game which is very much inspired by the Hunger Games series and Battle Royale (Stuart 2018). It drops 100 players at a time into an enclosed space where they have to scavenge for weapons and other resources then try to kill each other and be the last player standing. To date, PUBG is increasingly popular and has already been downloaded over 100 million times on Google Play Store (Bhattacharya & Singh 2018). It has also been said to have crossed over to become almost a social communication channel. This is because players opt to utilize the in-app communication channel to not only communicate about things regarding the game, but also real life things that are not related to the game at all.

It may seem as a great way to socialize and interact, but it has also created severe cases of addiction and even death. A single game takes a minimum of half an hour and one could not possibly stop at just one game (How does PubG affect your life in real? 2018). It is extremely addictive and leaves the players wanting more, making them spend countless hours on the game.

There is also a case whereby a mother has blamed the death of her 13 year old son on PUBG. Her son was reportedly playing PUBG right before plunging to his death off a fourth-floor flat. He was trying to see if he could survive the fall alike that of the characters in PUBG (Cheng 2018).

All in all, I believe that social gaming, yes, it can bring positive impacts but only if it is played with moderation. Otherwise, the negative impacts are just way too scary to even imagine.

References:

O’Neill, N 2008, What Exactly are Social Games? Adweek.com, viewed 21 May 2019, <https://www.adweek.com/digital/social-games/>

Agarwal, R 2018, Top 23 Best Facebook Games of 2019, Beebom, viewed 21 May 2019, <https://beebom.com/best-facebook-games/>

Maiberg, E 2013, EA shuts down Sim City Social, The Sims Social and Pet Society June 14, Adweek.com, viewed 21 May 2019, <https://www.adweek.com/digital/ea-shuts-down-sim-city-social-the-sims-social-and-pet-society-june-14/>

Stuart, K 2018, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds – nihilistic, violent and the perfect game for our era, The Guardian, viewed 21 May 2019, < https://www.theguardian.com/games/2018/jan/22/player-unknowns-battlegrounds-pubg-battle-royale>

Bhattacharya, A & Singh, K 2018, Charted: India’s obsession with Chinese online game PUBG, Quartz India, viewed 21 May 2019, < https://qz.com/india/1489469/tencents-pubg-is-driving-indian-gamers-crazy/>

How does PubG affect your life in real? 2018, Homeopathy Recovery, viewed 21 May 2019, <http://homeopathyrecovery.com/how-does-pubg-affect-your-life/>

Pet Society fanart - Halloween Edition