
“For the Horde”: Players’ Collaborative Actions in Massively Multiplayer Online Games
“For the Horde”: Players’ Collaborative Actions in Massively Multiplayer Online Games
The game mechanics of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) are inclined to afford team collaboration and social interaction, which implies that online games are more than attractive visual effects. In the online game world, players not merely interact with game mechanics, but also interact with other players to develop emerging social network. This article explores how do teenager players collaborate in MMOGs, and possible social meanings they obtained in game communities. 10 participants were recruited in our interview, and the collected data from their interpretations of game experiences suggest that players trust each other on the basis of telling reputation of others by symbols, discourses and behaviors in online game world. Besides, they could achieve collaborative action due to the mutual benefits by sharing sources, skills and information. Indeed, players continuously devote all of the times and efforts to support social interaction, hoping their game community will be persistent but not intending to raise the meaning of it. The magic circle of game world cannot be sealed completely, while collaborative experience gained in game playing could be appropriated under certain conditions. What MMOGs really are should be a frontier to explore networked society, and provide an opportunity to reexamine the dichotomized choices of individual/collective and online/of?ine in understanding social formations.
Collective action / Game mechanics / Online community / Social interaction {{custom_keyword}} /
/
〈 |
|
〉 |