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.

With the release in the past few years of the Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and Playstation3 consoles, online gaming has become more and more available to people who otherwise would not play games online. I believe that this means online gaming is becoming more and more social, as there are increased abilities (using headsets) for players to communicate with others around the world that they have and have not met before. However, this leaves one question, can friends made by playing online games be considered real friends?

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.