Online Gaming 2.0

Fragiskos KavroudakisAngelos Maragos

Stratos NourosGeorge Voudouris

Research Fields

We just made a synopsis of some interesting facts and info about online gaming as it is today. We read a lot, communicated with other young people and tried to shape an opinion on how online gaming can affect today’s world. This presentation also refers to the perspective of the greek gamers on this subject.

“People are strange, people are changing”… and so do the games

When we first saw this TED talk, we thought that there are several things that have changed in the online game industry during the last decade. So this was it. Our interesting and exciting research object.

The super-empowered hopeful individuals

Jane McGonigal believes that gamers are capable of changing a world. In her opinion every gamer has the potential to own a package of great skills.

But do all young gamers believe what Jane believes? Well, it doesn’t seem so. Here in Greece, some gamers tend to see gaming more like a “killing time machine” than anything else.

• All three of them started playing during their school years.

• Collaboration is the main reason for them to choose to play a game. Not only they’re not afraid of playing with others, they also aim at it.

• In their opinion, real life has nothing to do with life online. The only thing that is brought to reality is the addiction that is caused by the online games.

These three gamers have described us a dark part of the online gaming, despite their good words about the collaboration.

The journalist of our group, Stratos, had many small interviews with three, apparently, hardcore online gamers and came up with 3 basic conclusions:

The rest of the small interviews that we made helped us understand that the greek gamers also believe that by playing online there can be some important gains

• Collaboration: people learn to communicate and collaborate about anything that can be important to them

• Targets: gamers can easily create their set their goals and put their best to reach them

• Decision making: in order to reach their goals, gamers must be ready to make quick and serious decisions

Yet the words of the three hardcore gamers, we have observed that the greek online community seems to be less affected by the negative influence of online gaming.

So the most important value for a greek online gamer is...

Collaboration

The ability to share, communicate, co-operate, inspire and be inspired in a game.

Can games change our lives?

What’s the purpose of games? Is it just entertainment and fun or can be something more?

Games like Evoke, World without oil and Superstruct can make a difference.

Games like these can teach you through game to face a crisis, built a better future and something closely to present, to live with minimum or no oil at all.

It’s the procedure that makes us dedicate to everything we do. It’s the game that brings us together and express the best of us. And that’s why million of people have played these games…

Play and communicateCuihua Shen, an assistant professor of emerging media and communication at the University of Texas at Dallas made a research which mentioned that if we play video games with existing family and friends, we extend our social life in cyberspace, and that is actually good for us psychologically.

The investigators found that gamers who played EQ2 with family members experienced various psychosocial benefits, including more family communication time, even though the quality of that communication was not ideal.

Connection with avatarIn reality, an avatar is a fancy cursor that provides an alter ego for the participant. The connection between the gamer and his avatar is surprisingly strong.

We collected a lot of examples that show that the addiction of the use of the avatar in an online game can provoke instincts to the gamer, which sometimes are really bad for his mentality and lead to violence.

Retro is back

Technology evolves rapidly and so do habits and gaming choices. But some things never change. Things like retro games, games that identify us as gamers made us the gamer we are today. That’s why we never forget classic games like pac-man, even today. And because classic is always new and adaptable to new, game designers try to bring it back in a modern form. Great example of this attempt is Linkin Park 8bit Rebellion. A combination of mobile technology, social networks and retro… (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKSQryLmqlA)

Gamers evolve, share and collaborate with others to achieve each and every goal. What’s better than a reminder of old school gaming?

War as a gameWar is maybe the most popular topic in game society. The effort in these games is massive . They are focused, dedicated to the goal. They become “true” soldiers.

America’s Army gives players the opportunity to become true soldiers through their game. The game actually induct new soldiers.

Games in our days are just the medium to express and achieve our needs, to communicate and share.

Online gamblingWe focused to online poker, the most famous online gambling game. The results of our research were really interesting:

• Live poker is more addictive than online, because a player sees in front of him his “destroyer”.

• Casino sites are, though, no less addictive.• Avatars enter online poker world, and as a result the game can attract

kids or people who, otherwise, would not be interested in that.• Online poker players are prosumers, because they move the poker

market with their money investment in poker sites and the game cannot exist without them.

We are waiting for your opinions about all this stuff. The research was a different experience and it shouldn’t end right here, with a powerpoint presentation. So tell us what you think about online gaming or share with us all the info that you got.