The social side to online gaming

13133012- Martyna Kwiatkowska - Topic 113129023- Christian Tan - Topic 213136062- Keith Perez - Topic 3

Introduction

• Topic 1 -- What methods does World of Warcraft use to encourage players to socialise.

• Topic 2 -- Varying Social levels in-game

• Topic 3 -- Addiction / Cons of Online Gaming.

Topic 1

What methods does World of Warcraft use to encourage players to socialise.

1 - Character Classes

2 - Guilds

3 - WoW Forum eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum

Topic 2- How social levels vary.

• Location and player influence

• Story

• Continuous flow of players

I’m going to talk about how social levels vary in MMORPGs, which stands for a Massively Multiplayer Online Role- Playing Game.

While researching this topic I felt that there was one main factor which jumped out at me. That was (1) . Now this alone I knew would have been enough to influence some thing of this great of a size. So while researching further I found that there were two factors which influenced this one main factor and they were (2) and (3). A Continuous flow of players ensures that a game, basically doesn’t die. Story effects the social levels greatly because new players/ inexperienced players would be wary of advancing to the next area without knowing if it is safe for them. When new characters are created they all start out in one area at the beginning. This puts all the inexperienced players together allowing them to ask questions such as: where can I find this or how can I get such and such. Because of the demand in answers there are some more experienced players who stay around this area and help these new players. The level of social activity in this area isn’t very big but compared to the a regular exploration area it is a lot more.

I’m going to talk about how social levels vary in MMORPGs, which stands for a Massively Multiplayer Online Role- Playing Game.

While researching this topic I felt that there was one main factor which jumped out at me. That was (1) . Now this alone I knew would have been enough to influence some thing of this great of a size. So while researching further I found that there were two factors which influenced this one main factor and they were (2) and (3). A Continuous flow of players ensures that a game, basically doesn’t die. Story effects the social levels greatly because new players/ inexperienced players would be wary of advancing to the next area without knowing if it is safe for them. When new characters are created they all start out in one area at the beginning. This puts all the inexperienced players together allowing them to ask questions such as: where can I find this or how can I get such and such. Because of the demand in answers there are some more experienced players who stay around this area and help these new players. The level of social activity in this area isn’t very big but compared to the a regular exploration area it is a lot more.

Topic 3- Addiction/ Cons of Online Gaming

• Start to lose interest in reality/ social and family life.

• Addiction Centres

• Damage Done

• The real and the fantasy

• Reasons for addiction

References

Topic 1

1.www.hdwallpapers.eu

2.http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/ [[Last Date Accessed: 3 November 2013]]

Topic 3

1.Kimberly Young, K.Y. (2009) 'Understanding Online Gaming Addiction and Treatment Issues for Adolescents', The American Journal of Family Therapy, 11th September 2009, 355-372.

Conclusion

• Good and Bad.

• Try to focus both aspects.