The death of social gaming

Tek7

Tek7

CGA President, Tribe of Judah Founder & President
Staff member
Social gaming is dying.

What do I mean when I say "social gaming"?

I don't mean online gaming. Such cultural shifts as the mainstream acceptance of MMORPG games like World of Warcraft and the impressive success of Microsoft's Xbox Live service guarantee that some twerp will always be typing obnoxious phrases like "less QQ, more pew pew" and "learn2play" on the Blizzard forums. It means you'll be muting every prepubescent male spewing profanity during your Halo match. No, online multiplayer gaming, both for PC and console games, is alive and well.

When I say "social gaming," I mean sitting in the same room as the person you're playing with or against. I mean meeting new people, talking with them before, during, and after the game, and using games as a means to build friendships.

I'm 27. Most of you will say that's not that old. Thank you. I'd like to agree.

Many of my fondest memories of multiplayer gaming are of playing console games with friends. I remember playing Mario Bros. with Elihu and laughing until my sides hurt. I remember playing Mario Kart 64 with three good friends at youth group. More recently, I my brother-in-law and I played New Super Mario Bros. while traveling with my wife's family. It was a blast.

I remember LAN parties where zero-ping Half-Life deathmatch was suddenly the funnest game in the world. I remember playing Starcraft with Elihu and Eltolad sitting in the same room--before I had cable Internet and before I used TeamSpeak.

I had the opportunity to play a few computer games with Elihu during a recent trip to Tulsa. I had forgotten how much fun it was to play games with another person in the same room; it had been a long time since I had that much fun playing a computer game. Being in the same place playing the same game added more than just calling out the locations of enemy players and coordinating attacks.

Playing games together, in the same space, means getting to know other gamers better. It means taking a break for food and talking to and listening to friends. It means running out for snacks.

Is social gaming dead? No, not quite. People still get together at people's homes and apartments to play console and computer games. The rise of mainstream MMORPGs and the widespread use of voice chat have given us a richer online gaming experience.

But what are we losing?

We're losing the understanding of the value of face-to-face interaction. We're losing social connections with other people--connections that extend beyond gaming.

The loss is even more tangible for businesses that depend on gamers for profit. Arcades and LAN centers are losing clients.

Why are arcades dying off? Because console games are as powerful as arcade machines. Because arcade owners aren't willing to take a chance on the more expensive simulator machines (and, given the cost of maintenance for such machines, understandably so). Because there's no sense in pumping quarters into a machine when you can rent a port of the same game and play it as much as you want for a fraction of the price.

In addition to a new, more powerful generation of video game consoles, the decline of simulator arcade machines, and the popularity of arcade-to-console ports, there's another reason why arcades are dying. Stay tuned.

Why are LAN centers dying off? Three reasons come to mind:
  1. A broken business model. If a person is interested in computer games, they probably already own a computer. If a computer owner is able to spend $5 an hour to play games, they can probably afford $50 to purchase the game. Why get in your car, drive to the LAN center (which costs gas, and gas is expensive), and pay $5 an hour to do what you can do at home?
  2. New technologies. If you're into multiplayer computer gaming, you probably have a broadband connection. Chances are good that you get close to if not lower pings at home than you would playing online games at a LAN center. Voice chat programs like Ventrilo and TeamSpeak let you chat in real-time with your comrades--while giving you the option to mute that kid that swears like a sailor.
  3. World of Warcraft. No, seriously. People go to LAN centers for the social atmosphere. MMO games are built on social interaction. WoW players, think about it: Would you be playing WoW if not for your guild? MMO games have been called chat rooms with graphical interfaces. Shooter and strategy games don't have the same level of social interaction built-in. Playing Counter-Strike: Source at home and playing CS: S at home are two very different experiences. Playing WoW at a LAN center and at home isn't that different. And it just isn't feasible to get 24 of your guildmates to come to the same physical location to run that 25-man instance. Getting 4 of your friends together to play a CS: S match against another clan is much more plausible.
But there's another cause underlying the death of both arcades and LAN centers and it's not limited to gaming. It's a shift in the larger American culture: We want our entertainment, our relationships, and even our faith on our own terms. True, this is not so much a cultural identity as a tendency built into human nature, but we now have the technologies to make it possible to live by the "my ball, my game" mentality. The technology itself is neither good nor evil, but it proves what already exists within the hearts of the culture: we, as individuals, want control over every aspect of our lives.

How does this tie into the death of social gaming?

When we stay at home and log in to Steam or Xbox Live or World of Warcraft, we show others only what we want them to see. We take in limited data like usernames, avatars, and voices and we make judgments based on that limited information. We don't see a person's face, eyes, or mannerisms. We don't hear what they say when the Push-to-Talk key isn't pressed.

Part of building friendships and relationships is seeing a person's flaws and showing our friends our own flaws. It involves spending time with other people; more importantly, it involves speaking to and listening to those people. It requires giving and receiving attention.

Online interaction is, at best, an introduction to or an imitation of real social interaction with other people. It is a good start and it is a decent temporary substitute, but it is not--and should never be mistaken for--a replacement.

What does the death of social gaming mean for Christian gamers specifically? It means reduced accountability. It's no secret that multiplayer gaming can be a frustrating experience. A Christian gamer struggling with anger can mute their mic when they throw a tantrum and their teammates or guildmates will never know. A Christian gamer playing at a church LAN is accountable to other players there.

Maybe these are just the ramblings of a 27-year old game who misses the days of visiting arcades, arcades Mario Kart 64, and holding mini-LAN parties with his friends. It's entirely possible. But maybe there's something in this wall of text someone can take away from all this.

Still, I am grateful for Planet Puzzle League matches against my wife. :)
 
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Really the entire culture is moving away from the importance of social interaction. Why go out to the theater when you can have virtually unlimited movies for nine bucks a month. Why bother going to a social event when there is a thing sitting in the living room you can stare at for six hours a day.

Take 2 tables in an oblong room with an entrance on one of the long sides and the main hallway on the other. 95% probability that nobody will even pay attention to people sitting across the room.
 
I would agree, but I find it awfully hard to find a reason to start relationships while or around playing video games. Sure, you can meet new people, but really. It's video games. I suppose it'd be better meeting new people, either way it should only be a hobby and I'd really rather be deer hunting right now (except for this sinus thing I've got going) than playing a game.
 
my best friend lives in scotland, as opposed to me in TN... am i a lan murder:confused: :(

jk. i have to say, i miss the old arcades i used to go to with my grandfather. bestfun ive ever had.

also, another reason arcades fail now, is because u can pickup a game for 20$ that contains 20+ arcade games. thats like playing each game ONCE, yet u can play as much/whenever u want.
 
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You're absolutely right about this problem. And I really, really hate to see arcades go.

And while there may be nothing that can be done overall, there will always be determined people in localities like Tulsa that will try very hard to keep this sort of thing alive.
 
I approve of this thread. :)

Actually you guys have hit the nail on the head. I remember going to arcades and playing the NES (I'm dating myself here) with my cousins on Christmas Day. Even as late as my college days, my friends and I would spend hours in the student commons playing arcade games, and it WAS very much a social thing. I miss those times. Thankfully my husband and I both game so we get that in-person gaming experience together, and sometimes with his friends on a rare occasion.

One thing to take into consideration with arcades is the cost. While 25-50 cents a play may not sound like a lot, it all adds up. A lot of families especially have made the decision that it works better on finances to just have a console system, or just buy games that work on the family PC.

Sadly though, as a working adult, I come into contact with very few people who still play video games. While Tek listed WoW as a social-gaming killer, for me it's the opposite... right now it's the main way I'm able to meet other gamers. Granted, Ventrilo and Teamspeak aren't a perfect substitution for in-person gaming, but I've made some very close RL friends over the past 3-4 years that I've been playing MMOs, just from using Vent/TS.

I guess in a way it's what you make of it... some folks will feel comfortable with pursuing RL friendships with fellow gamers, some won't.
 
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moxie said:
Sadly though, as a working adult, I come into contact with very few people who still play video games.
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This sentence caught my eye while reading your post, moxie. I thought about how my wife and I don't have many, if any, opportunities to meet people with similar interests in our age range.

When my wife and I were looking for a home church in St. Louis, we discovered that hardly any churches had 18-25 year old Christians without children attending. The only exceptions were "college churches," where the "coffeehouse Christ" brand of cool (likely the next stage of the "XTREME t-shirt Christ" brand of cool common in American youth groups) made me feel like an outcast. We eventually did find a home church--and felt welcome--but we still stuck out as the youngest couple without children in the church.

I guess in the Midwest you're expected, as a Christian, to marry as soon as you get out of high school and have children when you would otherwise be graduating from college. Neither plan is inherently better than the other, of course; it depends on the plan that God has for your life and whether or not you decide to follow it.

My wife and I both earned our Bachelor's degrees and she's preparing to finish graduate school next year. We've both postulated that we're not going to make any new friends until we have children. It sounds like a bitter and sarcastic thing to say, but if you look at the common stages of life in our culture, it's not as cynical as you might think.

From the time you begin school to the time you graduate from high school, you make most of your friends at school or extracurricular activities.

After you graduate high school, you make new friends either in college or at work.

If and after you have children, you make friends with your children's friends.

It's the circle of life.

Trouble is, if you've graduated from college and you don't drink, dance, smoke, or follow popular culture, you have a very hard time meeting new people with whom you'd make the effort to build a friendship.

If school and work aren't viable "pools" of people in which to make new friends, that leaves church. If you don't find any people in our age group with similar interests or complementary personalities, chances are good you'll be waiting until you have children to make new friends. This inspires you to make an extra effort to keep in touch with the friends from your younger years (not that you shouldn't, anyway).

It can also inspire you to help establish online communities based around people with the same faith and similar interests. :)

The death of social gaming could be used as a springboard to discuss any number of topics, even including why so many people leave the church when they leave their parents' homes and sometimes, but not always, return after they have children of their own.

In keeping with the original topic, I will say that the death of social gaming coincides with the death of the public forum. Many have tried to resurrect the concept of the public forum--a public place where people can get together, discuss relevant topics of their day, and socialize--to the Internet. Unfortunately, anonymity turns many who would otherwise be polite in a face-to-face conversation into complete jerks. Penny Arcade explained this theory in an insightful, yet crude, mathematical formula.

Even if everyone in a digital interpretation of the classic public forum did behave as they would if the accountability of face-to-face interaction was restored, the digital is not, nor was ever meant to be, a replacement for the real.

People who find romantic counterparts over the Internet eventually plan to meet in person. People who find friends online are less motivated to travel to meet a person met online, because, ideally, one person has only one romantic counterpart; the same person likely has several friends. Yet the value of face-to-face interaction in non-romantic relationships should not be underestimated.

moxie said:
While Tek listed WoW as a social-gaming killer, for me it's the opposite... right now it's the main way I'm able to meet other gamers.
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Aye, and WoW can be a great first step in a close friendship, but it shouldn't be the last. And just as some friendships never go beyond the workplace or long distance phone calls, some friendships never go beyond the digital. Each relationship is different in terms of how much effort is made to develop it.

My concern is not the formation of relationships through a digital medium. My concern is the formation of these "digital relationships" at the expense of face-to-face relationships.

Again, some relationships never progress beyond phone calls or occasional meetings, just as some never progress beyond raiding in WoW and chatting over Ventrilo or TeamSpeak.

moxie said:
I guess in a way it's what you make of it... some folks will feel comfortable with pursuing RL friendships with fellow gamers, some won't.
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True, some folks, myself included, are much more comfortable behind the keys than in front of another face. But does the easy access to a digital form of communication retard our face-to-face social skills? Does it decrease our motivation to get out and meet new people?

Aye, it is what you make of it, I agree. Even now that a computer and an Internet connection is a gateway to the world, many people will walk away from the keys and meet new people at school, college, work, church, or their children's events. The desire to see the person you're talking to and stand in the same room with them remains a driving social force, even for non-romantic relationships.

But with so many temporary substitutes so easily available, will some people forgo face-to-face social interaction in favor of a digital substitute? Gaining greater control over the situation and not spending resources like time and money is the allure of the digital substitute; what is the impact on our society when a certain percentage of our population prefers the digital substitute?

We could start a whole other discussion by asking about the psychological impact of the knowledge that we can find and meet new people like us (or that we think are like us) without visiting a bar, attending a church, or going to a party? Do we value our friendships as much as we would if we, as a culture, did not perceive (whether true or false) these friendships as easier to form than they once were?

But, for now, let's stick to the death of social gaming. ^^

Unless, of course, someone wants to quote a block of text and start a new thread based on a sub-topic they found particularly interesting. :)

EDIT: Wall of Text crits your party for 9999 damage.
 
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