#mda20009 week10

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SOCIAL GAMING

Social gaming can be defined as “the activity of playing online games with other members of the same online group” (Collins Dictionary 2019).

DOES MONETISATION AFFECT THE GROWTH OF ORGANIC & GAMING COMMUNITIES?

It does affect the growth of organic & gaming communities positively. By monetizing the games, the game developers can generate revenues to develop better quality of games in more innovative ways. Last time, they set a fixed price for a static content game, but with monetizing it, they can release additional content. While monetizing the games generate the income for the developers, the gaming communities can play better quality of games and experience innovative ways of playing games. The gamers not only can play the games, but also generate income for themselves while playing. eSports is a way to generate their income by joining the competitions, but of course, they must have good skills in gaming (DeLeo 2019).

ARE GAMING COMMUNITIES BECOMING LESS ABOUT PLAY & MORE ABOUT MONETISATION?

In my opinion, the gaming communities is not becoming less about play & more about monetisation. Why can’t it be both? Enjoying playing the games while making money at the same time. If the passion of gaming can make money, might as well gain money out of it. For example, a gamer that I know, gaming while making money, PewDiePie, his YouTube channel name. PewDiePie is known for making videos while playing games, which has the most subscribers in YouTube. Just in 2018, he earned $15.5 million by recording himself playing all kinds of games, among other stuff (Leskin 2019).

Esports is a form of competition sports using video games. It is a fast-growing international event which has millions of fans. Gamers who join it sometimes earn seven-figure earning and huge brand endorsements, but they must be good in it, while streaming it online for others to watch them play (Willingham 2018).

ARE GAMING BECOMING MORE TOXIC ENVIRONMENTS FOR SOME?

Yes, gaming has becoming more toxic environments for some.  I have read some cases where they are threatened, harassed or being straight up racist to others. The developers need to do something about this issue. This issue concerns the relegated like women, people of colour & LGBT people. It is not an easy issue to resolve since it involves so many people, but if the developer make it a priority of this issue, it will have a high impact (Castello 2018).

Sam Haberern (20-year old) was playing Call of Duty on Xbox and was on a roll, when he received invites from other players asking him to join them. he joined a group and chatted with them through his headset. They were talking when their conversation escalated quickly where at one point the groups told him that they will come for him and kill him. He reported to Microsoft, but the process dissatisfied him, so he turned to Reddit to post asking for solutions and go viral, but still there are no good solution (Smith 2019).

Whether they monetize the games or not, people are still going to pay it because I know I am willing to pay it if I really like it. As for the toxic environment of gaming, I hope the developers are going to take it as their priority because I have experienced it myself, getting harassed because I led the team to failure in which I blocked them after. But I am sure there are more serious cases than mine.

REFERENCES:

Collins Dictionary 2019, social gaming, viewed 14 November 2019 <https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/social-gaming>.

Leskin, P 2019, Here’s how much Logan Paul, PewDiePie, and 8 other top YouTubers make per minute of video, Business Insider, viewed 14 November 2019 < https://www.businessinsider.my/youtube-pewdiepie-logan-paul-how-much-money-per-minute-video-2019-9/?r=US&IR=T>.

Willingham, A 2018, What is eSports? A look at an explosive billion-dollar industry, CNN, viewed 14 November 2019 < https://edition.cnn.com/2018/08/27/us/esports-what-is-video-game-professional-league-madden-trnd/index.html>.

Castello, J 2018, Foul play: tackling toxicity and abuse in online video games, The Guardian, viewed 14 November 2019 < https://www.theguardian.com/games/2018/aug/17/tackling-toxicity-abuse-in-online-video-games-overwatch-rainbow-seige>.

Smith, N 2019, Racism, misogyny, death threats: Why can’t the booming video-game industry curb toxicity?, The Washington Post, viewed 14 November 2019 < https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/02/26/racism-misogyny-death-threats-why-cant-booming-video-game-industry-curb-toxicity/>.

DeLeo, P 2019, Digital gaming = serious business, Invesco Blog, viewed 14 November 2019 < https://www.blog.invesco.us.com/digital-gaming-serious-business/>.

[omgsocialmediastudentme]

Week 10: Social Gaming

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of online gaming? A person on the PC whole day in the basement of their house. Maybe that was the case few years back but now it has evolved into a billion-dollar industry with no sign of slowing down.

But what is social gaming? What constitutes a social game what makes it different from other games?

You might be going oh that is easy to answer and say any game on Facebook is social gaming. This answer is flawed because not all games on Facebook are the same and what about the games on other platforms. As can be seen defining social gaming is not that easy, but rather it is an important concept to understand with the framework of a rapidly growing and changing industry. When talking about games the have different types of categories which can cater from the casual gamers to the hardcore gamers.

There is still a lingering misconception that video games are bad for you. However, I am here to argue that it is not with few references. A German researcher did a study on how games affect the brain they found that the test group who was gaming has an increase in the area of the brain that is responsible for spatial navigation, memory formation, strategic planning and fine motor skills in the hand. It has also been suggested that games could be potentially be used as a therapy for patients with mental disorders. Another researcher from Britain has found that playing certain types of video games can make you smarter particularly people playing strategic games. The found that the players experienced gaming in their performance on the psychological test, completing cognitive flexibility tasks with greater speed and accuracy.

But as with most good things it comes with some baggage and social gaming is no stranger to baggage. Online gaming communities can range from a kind helping community to a trash talking community whose main aim is to argue, insult other gamers. Furthermore, sexism and objectification of women in gaming is a huge issue most female characters are featured in games in the scandalous ways.

Reference:

Guarini, D 2013, 9 Ways Video Games Can Actually Be Good For You, viewed 3 June, 2019, <https://www.huffpost.com/entry/video-games-good-for-us_n_4164723>.

How video gaming can be beneficial for the brain, viewed 3 June, 2019, <https://www.mpg.de/research/video-games-brain?filter_order=L&research_topic=>.

Rourke, P 2013, Press Start: Sexism is still rampant in online gaming communities, viewed 3 June, 2019, <https://o.canada.com/technology/gaming/press-start-sexism-is-still-rampant-in-online-gaming-communities>.

Video game industry is booming with continued revenue, viewed 3 June, 2019, <https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/18/video-game-industry-is-booming-with-continued-revenue.html>.

Video Games Are Good For You, Brain and Body | Why They Are Beneficial, viewed 3 June, 2019, <https://www.idtech.com/blog/video-games-are-good-for-you>.

What exactly are social games and what makes them different?, viewed 3 June, 2019, <https://medium.com/buff-game/what-exactly-are-social-games-and-what-makes-them-different-e24623382558>.

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Week 10: Social gaming and social communities

Social Gaming

The term social gaming has several meanings, but today we will focus on the social aspect of it which is, social gaming is when multiple players interact with one another in order to play a game may it be online or even offline, it be a cooperative game or through competing with one another, also, Within a social game, an individual player is aware of other players’ presence, actions and accomplishments. Social game players are also able to interact with each other. Besides that, people with the same interest will tend to form communities among each other so that they may exchange thoughts and opinions among themselves or even meet up and play together.

Social gaming in tabletop gaming

Quick Summary:

Tabletop games are games that are normally played on a table or other flat surface, such as board games, card games, dice games, miniatures wargames or tile-based games.

In order to play a game of tabletop games for example board games, it requires players to interact with one another in order to play, may it be a cooperative game or competitive.

People who play such games, will form communities to share or to even meet up to play table top games.

Sabah TableTop Community

Through the power that is tabletop gaming, it has brought in many different individuals, regardless of their gender, race and so forth.

A convention where by people meet up to play board games

Besides just different backgrounds, people with disabilities can play them as well, for example, a blind player named Richard has found a way to play magic the gathering, a very popular trading card game that has been around for more than 20 years.

He does so by pressing braille patterns onto his cards so that he can read them by touching them.

Tabletop and crowdfunding

Besides that, many tabletop games have been brought to live with the help of a strong and loving community that just loves board games.

This board game received more than 8 million in dollars through the website Kickstarter which is a crowdfunding website that helps make ideas come through.

Does the size of an online / digital community affect the relationships of its members?

Now in my opinion, the answer for this question is yes. The reason behind this answer is that, when a community becomes larger and larger, it can start to get out of control as if a community which is open to the public, it can get out of hand as take for example that this is an online game and this is a guild which is an organized group of players that play together, now there might suddenly have divides between the members between inner politics. Take for example group A wants to be a more social and casual group, while group B wants to a more competitive guild, this might cause conflicts among one another and might cause a rift among each other and even causing them to separate due to this conflict. The larger the size of the, higher the chance for conflicts to happen as you have so many individuals they may have different opinions among each other.

Conclusion

Now in conclusion, social gaming is a vast aspect in the digital world has as brought together many individuals with the same interest together, may it through their love for a certain game to show their appreciation for a franchise, or through conventions, social gaming is starting to be a widespread phenomenon and is here to stay. Thank you.

References

Weston D, N.A, Social gaming – A usability perspective, Spotless, viewed 13 November 2018, <https://www.spotless.co.uk/insights/social-gaming-usability/>

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Week 10: Social and Anti-Social Gaming

Online games are new social arenas where players spend time and interact with others as well as form friendships. It is often the social aspect of the games that appeal most to the players, and the games themselves are designed around the interaction between players. As such, social behaviours and constructs within the gaming world are unique as norms of behaviour are developed between players, but also within the laws or code of the game and there are also external laws such as laws relating to harassment or vilification that also apply to players within a social game (Zwart & Humphreys (2014) 

Cole and Griffith (2007) believe that the social play is the unique selling point of these games, often affording players the opportunity to create strong friendships and emotional relationships. They note that virtual games also allow players to express themselves in ways they may not feel comfortable doing in real life because of their physical appearance, gender, age or sexuality.

Despite the opportunities for positive social interactions and relationships to form, it can be argued that the social nature of games is most evident in the conflict. Despite the player’s desire to express themselves freely, Kareem notes that increasingly players are being discriminated against and it is the responsibility of community managers to keep the peace, or find a balance between friendly competitive banter and abusive or harmful behavior.

The role of community managers in virtual gaming is to develop, maintain and grow online video game communities and as a testament to the growing importance on online sociality, community management within games was added to the agenda of the 2015 Game Developers Conference.

Community managers have been dealing with the issue of trolling in a number of ways – both mimicking ‘real life’ enforcement policies in the hopes of changing behavior, and in the uniquely online method of changing the laws or code of the game or platform.

Some community managers have begun to combat trolling by providing private, secure channels where thorough reports can be made if users are being threatened. Mirroring the policing of abusive behavior in the real world, community manager has also begun incentivizing and rewarding “good behaviour” while punishing players for “bad behaviour”, within the merits of the game.

  League of Legends publisher Riot, used the code or laws of the game to control and limit negative social interactions. Originally the chat function between two players was a default within the game, but this often spiraled into abusive and taunting language. To combat this abuse, Riot turned the chat function off but allowed players to turn it on if they wanted to. This had a significant and immediate impact – a week before the change, players reported that more than 80% of chat between opponents was negative. But a week after switching the default, negative chat had decreased by more than 30 percent while positive chat increased nearly 35 percent.

 Ultimately, online abuse isn’t a gaming problem or a technological problem; it’s a social problem that just happens to be powered by technology. Hudson (2014) believes that the best solutions are going to be those that both defuse the Internet’s power to amplify abuse but also encourage crucial shifts in social norms beyond the game.