Becoming a player : how collaboration (re-)creates social order in online games
Date Issued
2014
Date
2014
Author(s)
Chang, Yu-Ju
Abstract
In Taiwan, online games are one of the most popular leisure activities. Guided by the rules of the game, players team up to complete tasks. Although team collaboration is the one of the main activities in massively multiplayer online games(MMOG), in Taiwan there are relatively few game studies focused on collaboration itself. Starting from the rules of the games, I analyzed how collaboration in two different games - World of Warcraft (WoW) and League of Legends (LoL) - creates social order and re-create social norms in games.
The games' rules provide a basic framework for interactions among players. Rules are characteristic of high quantifiability. When players are considered as rational people in the economic sense, calculating costs and benefits becomes the core of interaction. Players have developed various strategies within the frameworks, one of which is a merit-based hierarchical system(LoL), and another which is a multi-disciplined achievement system(WoW).
However, the practices and meaning-makings of the players are complex and go well beyond the rational calculating framework. Game companies and players have interacted to produce a set of collaborative strategies that are accepted by the community, which players have learned and applied in online games. In this way, social norms have been introduced into game spaces.
In these two games, there are two different collaboration strategies. The differences of collaboration have led to the following outcomes: (1) Gendered occupational differentiation. In LoL, female players tend to stay in domestic labor-like positions, facing an independent double dilemma. (2) Monotonous way of play. Collaborative strategies acceptable to the online community and the rules of the games provided leisure players opportunities to play as they were. On the contrary, in LoL, the rules of game and collaboration strategies have forced leisure players to adjust their gaming styles to one monotonous way of play.
Meanwhile, social norms have been transferred into games in different ways. (1) The discourse of virtue has justified the power-relations between players. (2) Friendships in real life have expressed their potential to level the positions of players. (3) General tokens in online games communities have brought the interaction repertoire “Boys chasing Girls” as a way to interpret events in online games. (4) In-game monetary systems have intersected with the monetary system in the real world, which might twist the fundamental elements of play.
Through collaboration, MMOG are not only a form of recreation, but also a space where players re-create social orders.
Subjects
frame analysis
cooperation
rule
online game
ender
strategy
social norm
Type
thesis
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