Week 9, Gaming Communities, Social Gaming & Live Streaming.
People with similar interests can meet and connect in gaming communities, which can act as a place for them to do so. Players typically join groups that share their interests, philosophies, and ways of playing the game, which is significant for both individuals and clans because players' incentives for gaming vary According to (Sun, Williams & Li 2021, p. 2). Friendships and in certain situations even love relationships might result from this. Not only about relationships, the other think of gaming community also can lead people to get knowledge and support from other gamers. However, some gaming communities can degenerate into hostile places where harassing or bullying online behavior occurs. This is especially true for games with intense competition, when participants may become too focused on winning and engage in dishonest or violent behavior towards others.
Online gaming that emphasizes player interaction and social interaction is known as "social gaming." Through the use of social media platforms or gaming networks, players in social games can interact with one another, form alliances, and engage in competitive play. Social gaming's social component can be expressed in a number of ways, including forums, chat rooms, shared leaderboards, and texting. In addition, users may use social media to interact with other players and encourage their friends to play the game, for example like Minecraft, Candy Crush, Among us & Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Online gaming can use a lot of different devices like mobile phone, pc, play stations, nintendo or Wii.
Gaming community and online gaming also have a connection with Live streaming. Live streaming is a real-time video or audio feed that is transmitted through the internet to a viewer or listener who is participating in the streaming of the content in the process known as live streaming. Due to the fact that it facilitates in-the-moment communication between users and content producers, it has become more and more popular in recent years with the rise of social media platforms. In other case some viewers love watching streamers not just for the content of the show but also for the personality of the streamer themselves because 70% of Twitch streams play a variety of games that are not exclusive to a genre (Gandhi, Cook, LaMastra & et al 2021, p. 2). Lots of platforms can be used for streaming like Twitch, Facebook, Instagram or Youtube and this all platforms being the most used by the viewers.
Gandhi, R, Cook, CL, LaMastra, N, Uttarapong, J & Wohn, DY 2021, ‘An Exploration of Mental Health Discussions in Live Streaming Gaming Communities’, Frontiers in psychology, vol. 12, Frontiers Media S.A, Switzerland, pp. 575653–575653.
Sun, J, Williams, D & Li, Y 2021, "Let’s Bail!: The evolution of individual-group affiliation in an online gaming community", Computers in human behavior, vol. 121, Elsevier Ltd, Elmsford, pp. 106818.