Where Everybody Knows Your (Screen) Name: Online Games as “Third Places” - the form and function of massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) in terms of social engagement.
Our conclusion is that by providing spaces for social interaction and relationships beyond the workplace and home, MMOs have the capacity to function as one form of a new “third place” for informal sociability. Participation in such virtual “third places” appears particularly well suited to the formation of bridging social capital—social relationships that, while not usually providing deep emotional support, typically function to expose the individual to a diversity of worldviews.
An interesting examination of the community and interaction withing MMOs and counters some of the notions of isolation frequently associated with online game playing.
the decline in brick-and-mortar “third places” in America where individuals can gather to socialize informally beyond the workplace and home. The effects are negative for both individuals and communities: “The essential group experience is being replaced by the exaggerated self-consciousness of individuals. American lifestyles, for all the material acquisition and the seeking after comforts and pleasures, are plagued by boredom, loneliness, alienation”
Oldenburg, R. (1999). The Great Good Place: Cafés, Coffee Shops, Community Centers, Beauty Parlors, General Stores, Bars, Hangouts, and How They Get You Through The Day. New York: Marlowe & Company.
Who would have thought that online gaming in the form of MMOs could be part of the solutions - counteracting the detremental effects of television?
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Yee, N. (2006). The Daedalus Project. Retrieved July 17, 2006 from http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/archives/001468.php
Koster, R. (n.d.). The Laws of Online World Design. Retrieved October 2, 2004 from http://www.legendmud.org/raph/gaming/laws.html
http://www.raphkoster.com/gaming/laws.shtml
Galston, W. (1999). Does the Internet Strengthen Community? Retrieved November 20, 2001 from http://www.puaf.umd.edu/IPPP/fall1999/internet_community.htm