Communicating in Fake Life
Communicating in the real world certainly has its
challenges. Maintaining eye contact,
avoiding social faux pas, telephone etiquette - it can get to be a little
difficult. Now picture initiating an
intellectual conversation while simultaneously firing off magic spells or
locking on an enemy aircraft with a heat-seeking missile. Sounds slightly ridiculous, right?
Virtual worlds, particularly ones with online multiplayer
functions, enable people to become someone or something different. Games like World of Warcraft and EverQuest
allow players to pick from a wide range of species and races to customize their
"avatars." From there, they band
with other players from different corners of the country (or globe) and embark
on quests, seeking loot and treasure.
Other games like Call of Duty and Gears of War take players to a virtual
battlefield to experience wanton carnage while simultaneously being able to
vocally coordinate strategies. Of
course, not all (and in some cases, none) of the talk is related to the game's
mission or strategy.
The advent of online games brings a whole new realm of
interaction based on general anonymity.
Players choose what they look like and their screen names (often
referred to as "handles" or "gamertags"). They become someone else - or at least
possess the immediate availability to do so.
This can be a great thing, a way to bring the shy from their shells and give
them the opportunity to partake in genuine social interaction. It also has a dark side, granting players the
ease of slinging trash-talk, racist remarks, and blatant sexual harassment, all
the while maintaining protection from any real repercussions here in the real
world.
It is this dark side that has the tendency to turn off
players from keeping their chat function off of 'mute.' Some players find the game more entertaining
to play with other people in complete silence; lest they hear some 13-year-old's
rant on why they are such a loser. This
behavior generally leads to negative intercultural communication. Players seem to have an acute sense of
another player's race or cultural background based solely on their voice. Oftentimes, this isn't really a problem. Sometimes, however, this can be the spark to
ignite a veritable race war over the chat nets.
It is not always this way. Most people do not join a game or a server
with the explicit intention of being a complete jackass to people. However, coupling a competitive atmosphere
with complete anonymity is guaranteed to ignite at least a mediocre amount of
mean-spirited talk. Those chance
encounters can be a turning point for some - leading them to be reticent to try
communicating in the future.
There are, however, plenty of people who do socially
interact in a way that is cohesive to building on socially acceptable
communication. There are members of most
racial and socioeconomic backgrounds playing these games at any given
time. A black man in Louisiana could be
put on the same team as a white girl from Minnesota. The possibilities of new connections are
literally endless. Having the immediate
ability to speak to a different culture in a low social stress atmosphere can
become an equitable experience for both, or all, parties involved.
These people might not realize the advantage that modern
technology has granted them. Just 20
years ago, the mass majority of people were not able to do what is possible
today. The amount of effort put in to
allowing communicative connection to gamers around the world is staggering, and
it is all included in the game (and often taken for granted). Just the ability to have a candid
conversation with someone of a different culture, whether in game or in-between
games, is a grand idea. The things one
could learn are pretty great considering the purpose of the game was most
likely not to teach you something new.
While games may have their shortcomings in dealing with
the relatively thin population of ignoramuses, they grant communication
abilities to other parts of the earth without the stress of traveling and
conforming to local social rules. It
really is amazing the different kinds of people a person can develop real,
long-lasting relationships with simply by logging on and playing. Virtual worlds are definitely young in age
and not as refined in etiquette as, say, a telephone conversation would
be. However, these worlds possess the
power to transport people to another realm to socialize and conquer with
completely different cultures - and honestly, that is pretty great.
No comments:
Post a Comment