Shorth

Social Aspects of Massive Multiplayer Games

People who played a lot of video games have been often considered to be unsocial. That is because many gamers were often people who were just sitting in their room all evening while having no contact with other human beings throughout this time. However, this has changed when many LAN and massive multiplayer games were introduced to the market. Since this happened, people were able to play games and interact with other people at the same time. Guilds were being formed daily and friendships were being made. While there might still be some problems with communicating over the Internet, computer games are no longer considered to be a hobby for unsocial people. I predict that even more social interactions will be encouraged by computer game developers, as having contact with people while playing certainly makes games more enjoyable. Good examples of successful multiplayer games are World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XI, Warhammer Online, Eve Online, and Lord of the Rings Online. What many of them have in common is the necessity for a player to cooperate with others in order to be successful. I even heard of people meeting their other half when playing computer games. Although such events are quite rare, it definitely proves that games are no longer an activity for loners.