Social Gaming
Many people would be offended if you called them a gamer. Its an old hang over from when computer games were considered nerdy, dorky and for loners. Unfortunately for them, the majority of people in the developed world are gamers. A gamer is defined by anyone who plays electronic games. That means your mother playing solitaire on her mobile phone at the doctors office is a gamer.
Due to the rise of smart phones, gaming has become more prevalent than ever before. Add the feature of internet connection and gaming has taken on a whole new social element. Mobile games are commonly social in nature. They allow player vs player gameplay such as words with friends where you compete against each other and collaborative social play, such as Farmville, in which players gift each other items to help build their worlds.
Farmville rose to popularity because of its social focus. The platform instantly incorporated the ability to invite your Facebook friends and play with them in the game. Designed into the game are many different ways to interact with your friends, from helping them out with their own farms to gifting them items, to social chatting facilities. The light hearted, time filler style gameplay meant that players could start and stop at any time and continue to advance even from a five-minute play while waiting in a queue.
The other extreme of social gaming is MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games). These games usually involve an online monthly subscription and require a much larger time investment to play. Players of these kinds of games is what people usually resist when faced with the title ‘gamer’. The immersive online story and the progressive character development means that game play can be highly addictive. It is very easy for players to lose hours within the game and become all consumed.
The sociability of the game however is still as prevalent if not more so than in the more seemingly innocent games such as Farmville. As players have to collaborate to conquer certain bad guys or to fulfil quests, it offers a lot more in the form of team work and collaboration. The social element has even resulted in marriages between players. In spite of this many people will also state these MMORPGs as the reason for their breakups.
While not every game is for everybody it can be said that gaming is here to stay. Whether mobile, console or PC, games have always appealed as leisure activities and are a natural consequence of the digitalisation of our lives. As such, we will continue to use them as a basis for connection and bonding, shared experiences and fun for as long as the batteries last.








