For my assignment, I opted to do blog because it is a medium I have never used before and I thought it would be interesting to try something different while undertaking this assignment. I also thought that considering this is a course on digital technologies and I was writing about digital communities, that it was worth trying to use one.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Exegesis
girl gamers and the broadening of gaming demographics
A common stereotype of an online gamer would be as portrayed in the South Park post below: a male, nerdy, overweight teenager with greasy skin etc. However, this is rapidly changing. As online gaming spreads to the mainstream, reaching a wider audience, a greater spread of people are playing online games.
Proof of this is in demographics of those playing PC game Kart Rider, which, according to sales numbers, 1 in 4 Koreans play.
According to Nexon Corporation, (the distributor Kart Rider), 3 in 10 users are female. The game is also attracting female professional gamers, who enjoy equal success to many male counterparts.
On to of this, a survey in 2005 showed that the worldwide distribution of gamers was 57% male and 43% female, which is coming very close to equal.
In fact, according to a Reuter’s article, “From January through August of 2008 females ages 18 to 45 made up 28 percent of the total industry revenue, ranking second to males ages 18 to 45, who made up 37 percent. Not only does this challenge the gender stereotype but also the age assumption, as the main users of video games are those who were children when the original PC and Nintendo and Sega games were developed.
Video games and online gaming in particular are a growing industry. By expanding from just teenagers and children to adults, and gaining more female users, this digital technology is becoming a larger and larger part of many peoples’ lives. This proves that internet gaming is becoming an increasingly popular way for many people to communicate and interact socially.
In this way, the internet and online gaming are changing the way that people interact, it is up to the individual to decide whether this will have a positive or negative effect on society, but the fact remains that online games are holding an increasingly large part of peoples’ lives.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
SlayerS_'Boxer', gaming superstar
When you type his name into Google, Lim Yo-Hwan produces over 127,000 results, including many pictures. He is one of the most famous and regarded as one of the best professional Starcraft competitors of all time.
His earnings from gaming tournaments are within the six-figure range (US dollars) each year, and also earns almost $100,000US from endorsements each year.
Yo-Hwan is nicknamed in the Starcraft fraternity as ‘the legendary Boxer and even has his own international fan site. On this website are shown multiple South Korean news articles which have been written about him and numerous interviews. According to his website, as of 2006, Yo-Hwan had a fan club of just under 600,000 people, which was second in Korea only to boy band H.O.T. He also is the first programmer to command an annual salary of over $200,000US.
Considered an ‘e-sports’ superstar, his salary is of equal value to that of a top end AFL or NRL star. It shows how DCT’s are playing a larger and larger role in todays society, not only for communication and business (although commanding a salary such as the one above through gaming could be considered one a business) but also for leisure and free time.
http://boxerforever.com/
Going for Gold
Given the worldspread popularity of online gaming it is not suprising that a world cup of sorts has emerged. 2001 was the first year of the World Gaming Championship (WGC) in which competitors from countries around the world come together to compete in a selection of fames for their country. Not surprisingly, South Korea hosted the event for the first 3 years and are currently 1st in the world rankings. This year’s event is being held in Los Angeles. This kind of event shows the expanding popularity of online gaming and is a prime example of the use of DCTs to create online communities, and emerging from this face to face communities.
Below is the link to the WGC website
http://www.wcg.com/6th/main.asp
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Friends
With recent developments in online gaming, stereotypes of what constitutes an online gaming are being challenged more and more every day. Arguments are also being raised over whether online gaming is a social affair…or not.
For the majority this answer would be no. But, there are still many cases where friends are made through online gaming.
Without having made a friend online myself, I find the idea of it hard to grasp. I find it difficult how people can become (sometimes close) friends without having seen each other in person. However I do understand that more many people this is possible.
Through gaming online an immediate common interest (the game being played) can be formed and this obviously helps lead to friendship. In some cases, online friends do meet up in person. An example of this is at a World of Warcraft convention. At these meetings, players from the same clan, meet up in person, however from researching this it often seems that this is a rare time that they do meet in person. However, if a person spends a considerable amount of time online playing, than the people they play with would be the people they communicate most with. Under these circumstances, I believe that friends of importance can be made online.
To conclude, it obviously is possible to make friends via online gaming, but whether it is possible to from lasting friendships is something that depends on the individual. I personally don’t think I would be able to form lasting friendships through online gaming, but at the same time it is something relatively social to do with existing friends.
The video below is of the 2008 World of Warcraft convention being held in Paris, which involved everything from a costume contest to live performances of the game’s soundtrack.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
A little more light hearted
Creators of South Park Trey Parker and Matt Stone, in the episode Make Love Not Warcraft, paint a humerous picture of the stereotypes people make of the world of online gaming and poke fun at how important online games are to some people. In the video above the main characters (Stan, Cartman, Kyle and Kenny), after extensive periods of online gaming, have transformed from their usual selves in to obese, sweaty and pimply gamers: the stereotype of your average online gamer. In the clip Cartman doesn’t even leave the computer to go to the toilet, satirising the extent to which some people are addicted to online gaming.
gaming is far more than just a pastime.
the blog “live to win” comes from a corny motivational song of the same title by Paul Stanley, which appears on this episode when the boys are training on World of Warcraft.
kick the habit
An excerpt from Virtual Addiction: The Dangers of Online gaming a blog by girly_girl09 describing game addiction:
“You wake up groggy. The clock next to your bed reads 7:04 am. You were only able to sleep 3 hours since you went to bed at 4 am. You’re scheduled to go in to work at 8:30. Since you have about an hour before going in, you rush over to your computer and start playing EverQuest. It’s now 8:01 am; you’re making so much progress, killing characters and gathering objects that you decide you really would rather game then go to work. You call your boss and tell him that you woke up very sick this morning. “Again?” he asks, “One more sick day from you, and I’m going to have to let you go!”. You go back to your computer and continue to play. A glance at the clock on your computer desk brings you back to reality. It is now 2:38 pm. Oops. What meant to be an hour or two of gaming has yet again turned into another binge”
Recent studies have qualified video gaming addiction as a disease, in the same way one can be addicted to alcohol or drugs. While the addiction causes no physical harm, it is claimed that the disease poses a threat to the mental health of gamers. Some are described in the above excerpt: grogginess, a lack of motivation and a loss of reality. But video game addiction is also claimed to cause more severe side effects such as depression and anxiety.
In Korea, video gaming addiction has become a large public health issue, due to the popularity of games such as Starcraft (in 2000, 1 in 45 Koreans owned a copy of the game). This pretty much answers the question asked in my last posy: NO. While in an online game one can create an alternate identity and live your life more confidently, due to anonymity, and in a deceivingly more interesting fashion, the side effects from gaming too much (social isolation, depression, anxiety, dependence etc) are obviously not healthy.
To further illustrate this point, there have been deaths that can be attributed to gaming addiction:
- In 2005 a Korean man went in to cardiac arrest and died in hospital after playing Starcraft for 50 hours straight
- In 2007 a Chinese man died after playing online games consistently for 15 days
These are just two of multiple examples.
To counter video game addiction, countries such as China have implemented video gaming rehabilitation camps, where patients are not allowed to game at all.
An example of one of these camps is in the below video
Starcraft: Practice or Play?
Starcraft is huge in Korea!
It is the online video game, which has swept the nation, arguably causing the amount of cyber-cafes in Korea to multiply from 500 to 15,000 in only two years.
However, in Korea Starcraft is not only confined to being used for entertainment, it is also a means to make money. In Korea, there are professional tournaments and leagues for Starcraft and many other games. The above video is of a match in on of these tournaments and from the atmosphere, you can sense the scale of popularity that Starecraft has in Korea. Professional Starcraft competitors are recognized on the streets and treated like celebrities: conducting interviews and signing autographs.
This example shows how use of digital technologies does not have to be defined as “practice” or “play”, in fact it can often be a blend. What started as something designed to entertain has evolved into something much more, being a profession for some people while continuing to be a form of entertainment for many others, even becoming an addiction.
The gaming culture in Korea seems to be similar to the sporting culture in Australia: It is highly popular, competitors have celebrity status and are looked up to and they both have professional leagues. One of the only differences is the question: is the gaming culture a healthy one?
Starting with something a little controversial
As can be seen in the above video, the new Japanese game Rapelay has caused a fair amount of controversy. This is not suprising considering some of the games features, which include options for:
- a variety of sexual positions.
- forced blowjobs.
- an internal ejaculation meter, which gauges the risk of pregnancy.
- threesomes.
Rapelay brings to the forefront the argument of game regulation: where should we draw the line in the sand between what is and isn’t acceptable to put in a videogame?
On one side of the debate, the more popular side, it is argued that a rape game goes too far and comes too close to reality to be allowed. This side argues that the content of the game is too shocking and as stated above far too similar to reality to put in a video game and thus there is too significant a chance that it will influence the people playing it to commit rape in real life. This side of the debate also sees the game as being discriminatory towards women (for obvious reasons) and the game has been used as an example as to why games should be more strictly regulated.
Considering the above information, it is not surprising that the Japanese government has faced immense criticism for allowing the game to be made and sold in stores. However there is another side to the debate.
This side argues that are plenty of other games, which incorporate far worse violence than rape. In fact, the majority of popular games on the market incorporate, often highly graphic, murder. This insinuates the argument that, as murder is considered a worse crime than rape, a rape game should not be banned. They also give the example that; cases where a child has been influenced by a violent video game to murder someone are incredibly rare. So, this will most likely be the same case with a game such as Rapelay.
In my opinion, while I would play this game myself, or condone it for my children (if I had any!), the game should be left on the market, but should not be sold or available to those under the age of 18. It should be up to a child’s parents as to which games they are and aren’t allowed to play and there are games currently on the market, which involve far more graphic violence. Quite an interesting and controversial use of digital technologies!