Lam Chun Yiu, SID:10613053, Blog Post 2

Blog 2

In this article ‘We Play: The Allure of Social Games, Synthetic Worlds, and Second Lives’, the author argues that gaming as a participation in social life and DIY game making these two ideas. And I will discuss the first argument. In the article, the researcher through a survey to find that nearly 85 percent of respondents disagreed with the statement that online relationships can be just as fulfilling as offline ones. They said that social networking is less about making new friends and more about communicating more effectively with established friends and acquaintances. The paper argues there is a social interaction in the game, multiplayer games such as World of Warcraft and systems such as the Nintendo Wii encourage ample social interaction. Also, he argues that social interaction with others is a key component of gaming experience; Games function as a ‘social connector, both a ‘social lubricant’ and a ‘social glue.

For the gaming as a participation in social life, in my opinion, I agree with one of the survey results, that social networking is less about making new friends and more about communicating more effectively with established friends and acquaintances. Just like me, I define myself as a game player, because I often play PS4. I often play multiplayer video games, such as NBA 2K with my friends through PlayStation platform and talking with them, the video game is one of the ways to let us become closely. Not only make closed with my friends but also some classmates which are less contact, we both narrow down the gap through this video game because we both interested in NBA 2K and we can know each other’s gaming states on the PlayStation platform. It is social glue. Sometimes, we will like the hyperlink below that meet the friends together in someone’s home to play. In spite of majority of time, we through online platform to communicate, there still a lot of interest just like the video below.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5akh7r46BYw

I agree with the idea of social glue, however, I have a question about in Social Connector, as a social lubricant, “how games can make it easier to strike up conversations with new acquaintances”. There are few examples that people through gaming to get a new friend. Although they may get a new friend, how many of them will develop their friendship on different aspect, they may only keep their friendship on that video game, so I have a mistrust on this point.