#wk10post

I do not consider myself a gamer but in saying that I reached level 189 on candy crush and loved every minute of it! But the way I justify that to myself -after playing it for 45mins instead of writing these blog posts or other homework I’m meant to be doing- is that it’s a puzzle and it’s working my brain. Or at least I like to think so.

However my boyfriend is a gamer so I have spent countless hours watching him play and hopelessly trying myself to defeat the next new boss. I got my first (and only) Play Station 2 when I was 13 so it was a bit late for me to develop my X Y perspective skills and I still struggle to make my character walk in a straight line. But I totally understand how people get into gaming.

When I was about 10 my nan brought her first computer –a massive white box- but along with it she brought the first Harry Potter computer game. Every week my older sister, my cousin and I would go to her house purely to play this one game together by taking turns and it was awesome. We would eat vegemite and cheese toast and play Harry Potter. 

I’ve only ever been addicted to one online game. Sure I’ve had flings with a few others here and there but no game has ever come close to filling my needs as this one.

The Simpsons: Tapped Out has been the object of my affection for the last year and a half.

I know, I know. Tapped Out? Really? It doesn’t make sense to me either.

I first began playing this game when my boyfriend introduced me to it. We both love The Simpsons and often record episodes on TiVo to watch later on. So when he told me there was a Simpsons game, I just had to play it.

What started out as a bit of friendly competition over who could design the best Springfield turned into an all consuming obsession about who had the most money, donuts and who could level up the quickest.

We’d plan our days around the amount of time it would take a character to complete a task. At one stage my boyfriend was even waking up in the middle of the night to check his phone!

Then one day, the game became tiring. Developers weren’t bringing out new levels quick enough so the continuing storyline was brought to a halt. (The storyline often reflected what was happening in the TV episodes so it was fun to follow along.) Once my boyfriend grew tired of the game too, and the sense of competition was lost, it was not as fun playing anymore. So I’ve come to realise that a major part of my addiction was the sense of competition and the relativity.

The social side was also great. As more and more of my friends started playing the game, I could add them and see what they were doing in their Springfields.

Online gaming is social but is it considered social networking? 

Social networking sites are defined as being: - Public profiles within and bounded system - A space to connect with people - View and transverse their list of connections Online gaming doesn't fit in with this definition but it is a way to socially connect with people through an online platform.  Sociality within online gaming MMOG stands for Massive Multiplayer Online Gaming and includes games such as EVE online, World of Warcraft and League of Legends. Online gaming rules are a way to keep peace within online gaming communities. Game rules that are created by developers "overlap with rules created socially by players with social norms emerging from within the game space" (de Zwart & Humphreys 2014, p.1). So social norms which apply in 'real life' do not apply within the game. This is because in a reality, the act of killing would out someone away in jail but in the gaming world, this could earn the team points. Cultural norms blur which makes it easy for players behavior to get out of hand. This is why game developers have strict guidelines about what is acceptable and what is not. 

I am not a gamer myself (if you don't include 4 pics one word), and I definitely don't understand how boys (mostly) spend hours on end playing these silly games.

Hold on, now that I think about it I was a gamer in the past. I used to play Sims flat out, I suppose it is just as addictive as any other game. Sims however, doesn't have the social ability to communicate with others. It's a game you can only play by yourself, so maybe these games like WoW (World of Warcraft) and LoL (League of Legends) are better that Sims, because they have the ability to be social.

Either way, I still don't understand the obsession with Medieval, War and Violent games. I feel it just prolongs anger and aggression in people, this is what drives users to cyber bully. It also makes it easier to troll on these types of games as a lot of them disguise who they are behind made up names and avatars. 

The virtual world is for people to get lost and enjoy their time out of reality, so why do trolls make it a place for bullying and harassment (just because they lost a dumb game). It's pathetic, it makes people like me (people who think these games are lame) laugh at how people can be bothered with bullying. 

Regulatory frameworks have been discussed by Suzor & Woodford (2013), and I think that these need to be put in place to help police the social side of the gaming communities. 

Gaming is becoming massive and its attracting crowds just like sports events are. The gaming community is a passionate one and people love participating in it, for the love of the game , for the chance to win and also to potentially socialise, as the opportunity to talk to people is there.

32 million people watched the "e-sports" final, which is incredible. Games seemingly involve the same characteristics as sports. Games have players, something to gain/lose, use of mental capacity, passion and determination. What will happen in the near future? Because no one can deny games are making a killing... they're making money, they're attracting audiences, they're sponsored and they're valued to so many people.

I believe that what held back games previously before it continued developing into what it is now, was outdated minds and prejudice. Many people would argue due to the non-physical nature of gaming , it shouldn't be in the same category, but what about the skill levels? the focus? and the training gamers go through to compete on a WORLD scale, for major cash.

Personally I have never really engaged with online gaming or invested large allotments of my time developing my position within an online platform although I do think it is a largely emerging culture that is often under recognized and goes without praise. Gaming is an industry in itself and a very profitable one, although it often goes unrecognized, hidden in an underground subculture that dominates through social networking and sustaining interest. There is a large population of gamers out there that don’t fit the typical mold of the social outcast who sits at home attached to their computers, all who have different levels of investment and time in the game that is reflecting within multi-player online platforms where a society emerges within a constructed space and hierarchies are formed.  

When I was younger I used to play Runescape, a medieval multi-player online game that was formulated into society of hierarchy and levels, where you would trade with others and complete quests to become more powerful and advance in relevance within the community. It had the social interaction of networking and forming alliances and the alias of avatars which meant people could form their own persona and become a construct of themselves, or someone completely different. While there are strict regulations in the 'themepark' fantasy society from the developer and regulation through reporting via the community within the game minor divergent behaviour goes unnoticed and unpunished. In many way this behaviour stimulates the interactive element of the game, creating tension, aiding societal connections and developing an in game language while stimulating the progress. It encourages dialog between players through an integrated instant messaging system creating sub-connections within the game that sustain a private relationship while allowing dialog bubbles to create interaction in the wider public space. Online gaming conflict that fuels the attention and investment in time.

Online gaming is an invisible emerging industry for those outside the online culture of gaming, although it is ever present in many ways, crossing boundaries into social networking and diffusing the concept of digital dualism. Personally the online culture that has evolved around gaming interests me more than becoming a participant of the gaming community itself within a multiplayer platform. For gamers surrounding platforms, forums and networking aid in sustaining their interest, developing skills and connecting with likeminded individuals. YouTube has seen a rise in everyday gamers becoming internet stars, blogging their experiences and documenting their reactions often in a humourous way that connects to the audience. I personally like Pewdiepie's channel on Youtube where he commentates while playing, creating a shared experience of game play while stimulating interest in the game. His reactions are often humorous and the split screen creates a shared experience. His online life bleeds into his personal life, profiting from his interaction in gaming platforms and spreading awareness through opinionated responses.

We have all experience the constant bombardment of Facebook notifications to help a 'friend' out on Candy Crush or Farm-ville by initiating in game play, creating an ever presence on the online community even if your not apart of the gaming culture. The real world bleeds into the online world through these experience games as they transform and adapt in real time, integrating in people's social practices in the real world. Similarly on multiplayer platform games such a Eve, which has a more 'sandbox' societal hierarchy gaming can become barely distinguishable from real life, even by the gamer themselves as their persona bleeds into their real personality. Just as 'The Mittani's' real life identity found it hard to separate the two personalities in an associated practice in the real world, harming the safety of a player in their daily lives outside the game proving the harm associated and harassment within gaming can bleed into your everyday lives.This is what we have to be careful of as harmful practices can expand from the screen and disrupt sociality in the offline world as gaming continues to advance as a recognized space with a large audience within the online culture.

Video games as a medium are often looked down upon by the general population. They are seen as childish; a remnant of a time when games were created with children in mind, compelled with the notion that “play” should be abandoned once an individual is old enough to work. This all gets compounded when you throwing in the now outdated idea that video games are inherently anti-social. They are not. With the rapid rise of online multiplayer and networked gaming, observing the social aspect of video games can actually be more intriguing than many traditional text-based communities. Communities based around video games benefit from the regular participation that other online communities have, as well as an ever growing social media aspect through the games themselves.

Unlike more traditional publics, which are often formed around a text, video game communities are also formed through a text. Compared to publics formed around texts, such as T.V. or book fandoms, gaming communities tend to receive a lot more agency over the canon content of their text. While other groups can only draw fan art and write fan fiction, gaming groups (specifically ones based on sandbox style games) in addition to these can also have a direct impact on their chosen texts narrative direction.

Take for example EVE Online, a massively multiplayer online game (MMO for short), whose narrative is left entirely to users. On top of this, EVE features a player council (the Council of Stellar Management – CSM) which acts as a go-between for the players and creators that can potentially lead to user influence on official content. EVE Online can also demonstrate how gaming conflicts can spill out into real-life, with multiple acts of sabotage in reality have been performed in order to affect the game world.

Another example of how gaming communities can more directly affect texts would be through modding. Modding involves changing the coding inside a game, which results in an altered (and unrelated from original content creators) experience. Using Pardox Interactive’s game Crusader Kings II as an example; these mods can range from a simple UI change, to a complete overhaul, such as the Game of Thrones mod (which changes the regular Europe map to one of Westeros).

Computer game communities are a subject that's pretty dear to me. I first played an online game when I was in around grade 5 in primary school (approx. age 10). I've played pretty much every single type of online game from MMORPG's like Runescape (the awful free flash game that started it all) which eventually elevated to paying for a World of Warcraft subscription for several years. Whereas i've also been very invested in the culture of Counter-Strike, an extremely competetive first person shooter, as well as the more casual call of duty games. I've also dabbled in some Starcraft and Dota (as well as league of legends) however as soon as I recognised the amount of time needed to get good at such games I quickly gave up. 

I never really became truly invested in the community aspect of online gaming however until the point where I discovered World of Warcraft at age 14. It began with a 12 day trial CD in which I played through the first few levels not realising that most of the hundreds of characters around me were people. Upon discovering this I immediately told my friends. I still remember walking into Darnassus (the night-elf capital city for the uninitiated) and being assaulted with the rantings of the trade channel. People sold and bought items, found groups for quests and guilds to raid with, most of which went over my head at the time, but I knew i'd found something special. A few weeks later and I'd finally got into the swing of things, I could understand the lingo, the humour, and I was able to look and find groups for dungeons with confidence of what my role was within the group. Although the dungeons were very formulaic, they usually require one class, the tank, to take most of the damage that the enemy does, one healer, to keep everyone alive, and three main damage dealing classes that do most of the damage, it still promotes a huge amount of team work within a group of usually complete strangers. This quickly can create close friendships between people that normally would not interact through the sheer fact that a dungeon cannot be completed alone. 

I've grown up with these games and taken a lot of the benefits of being in these communities with me. Although I haven't been able to keep any of these online friendships together over this time, a lot of my offline friendships now rely quite heavily on online games. I currently play in a competitive team on the first person shooter game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with a few of my high school friends. We rarely see each other outside of the game, usually maybe about once a month, however the fact that to be on the team we have to at least play our league matches once a week and generally try to hop on every night to practice we have built a strong group bond. We each keep up with the competitive scene and keep an eye on the counter-strike subreddit in order to look for helpful strategies and tips to improve our teams standings in the online leader board and spend hours talking over and practicing these strategies in order to replicate them without mistake. We've formed such a strong friendship bond within this game that it becomes difficult to talk about anything else, even when we're out at a bar or a party with other friends. It's addictive to be involved in such an expanding and changing community, with the game being updated by the developers weekly to balance the many different guns and maps, which can sometimes drastically change the strategies that can be used within the game. 

One thing that is particularly interesting about Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is the fact that the developers interact directly with the community through the subreddit for the game. Ideas are often posted to the subreddit and implemented to the game days later, with acknowledgement to the original poster of the idea. I think this is a vital part of why the game community is growing so quickly and it's a very exciting time to be a part of the community.