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Kalle Ahl's List: Games and Psychology / Socialization

Darth BunnyWabbit: Dear Parent, Spouse or Friend of Hardcore Gamer

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hardcore gamer socialization psychology wow on 2008-07-11 and saved by 2 people
- Online gaming is in its infancy. It’s not even a decade old yet, unlike other recent inventions like cell phones and television and personal computers and rock and roll.
- Jack Thompson is an evangelical preacher from Florida who has made headlines for various nuisance suits against recording labels and videogame companies, alleging that they cause everything from homicide to homosexuality.
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- - I write a blog where I have linked several of the more positive stories – the ones about surgeons using videogames to keep their manual coordination sharp, and about a retired Supreme Court Justice helping design a videogame to teach kids about civics and jurisprudence, and all kinds of other positive applications.
  - I’m mainly interested in multiplayer online games these days. That’s mainly because I’m amazed at the way they demolish social barriers.
  - Nick Yee – a sociologist who studies online games
  - companies sometimes have their employees work together in online games as a way of increasing morale and getting co-workers to bond with each other
  - Most games are fiendishly complicated, or require some sophisticated strategic thinking. I’ve always preferred that kind of activity to passively watching television, myself.
  - your GPLO is not as likely to be bamboozled by con artists, pyramid scams, mystical cults and similar tactics designed to separate fools from their money. We spend our time rejecting bad strategy in much the same way that body builders spend hours repetitiously training muscles.
  - Your GPLO might be fascinated with the games for any of a number of reasons that could include role playing, social activity, buying and selling virtual assets, organized teamwork, competition or just calming down with some soothing exploration of a beautifully rendered world.
  - Anyway, getting all of these people to log in at the same time, and cooperate in a teamwork victory, is no small feat.
  - Your authority comes directly from your knowledge of the game as well as your ability to work with others.
  - In my last game, there was a young man who coordinated expeditions each weekend where fifteen to twenty players navigated their way through a complicated maze filled with hazards. When he first started doing this, he was shy and hesitant, no doubt because he was leading people with advanced tech degrees, as well as doctors, lawyers, teachers, a tank gunner recently back from Iraq, me – all sorts of people.
  - I’m not sure any of us would have had the same respect for his superior abilities if we had met him in real life. And without multiplayer games, I wonder if he would have ever realized he had those superior abilities in the first place.
  - We gamers are constantly reminding ourselves (and each other) to look beyond surface impressions.
'Rage against the machines', Prospect Magazine issue 147 June 2008 - Printer Friendly Article

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psychology socialization on 2008-07-13
- As in many modern online games, co-operation is the only way to progress
- "In Warcraft I've developed confidence; a lack of fear about entering difficult situations; I've enhanced my presentation skills and debating. Then there are more subtle things: judging people's intentions from conversations, learning to tell people what they want to hear. I am certainly more manipulative, more Machiavellian. I love being in charge of a group of people, leading them to succeed in a task."
- 15 more annotations...
- - Byron report—one of the first large-scale investigations into the effects of electronic media on children. Its conclusions set out a clear, rational basis for exploring the regulation of video games.
  - pril release of the hugely hyped Grand Theft Auto IV (GTA IV)
  - Susan Greenfield
  - Greenfield sets herself the task of exploring one of the "great questions" facing us: what will interactive electronic media mean for personal identity and society over the next hundred years?
  - generational rift
  - In September 2007, a 30-year-old Chinese man in Guangzhou died after playing an online game for three straight days—the fourth death since 2005 directly attributable to excessive game-playing.
  - Amsterdam
  - a 2007 poll of 1,178 US children and teenagers concluded that 8.5 per cent of youth gamers (aged 8 to 18) could be classified as pathological or clinically "addicted" to playing video games.
  - Where she sees an identity-dismantling intoxication, Johnson finds "a cocktail of reward and exploration" born of a desire to play that is active, highly personal, sociable and creative.
  - According to the Entertainment Software Association of America, the world's largest gaming association, the average American video game player is now 35 years old and has been playing games for 12 years
  - 40 per cent of all players are women
  - The potential problem with games is their addictiveness and the consequences of this addiction.
  - And most research—including a recent $1.5m study funded by the US government—suggests that even pre-teens are not in the habit of blurring game and real worlds. This finding chimes with an obvious truth: that a large proportion of "problem behaviours" in relation to any medium or substance exist for resolutely old-fashioned reasons—lack of education, parental attention, security, support and experience.
  - "15 years from now, the prime minister of the day will have grown up playing computer games, just as 15 years ago we had the first prime minister to have grown up watching television, and 30 years ago to have grown up listening to the radio. Times change: accept it; embrace it."
  - Within the virtual worlds we have begun to construct, players can experience the kind of deep, lasting satisfactions that only come from the performance of a complex, sociable and challenging task.
Leadership's Online Labs

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pyschology socialization leadership on 2008-07-13
- Tens of millions of people are honing their leadership skills in multiplayer online games. The tools and techniques they’re using will change how leaders function tomorrow—and could make them more effective today.
The Four Hundred--As I See It: The Digital Leader

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psychology socialization leadership on 2008-07-13
- IBM has come to believe that fantasy games abound with unintended rewards for aspiring business leaders.
- Having studied guild leaders, researchers concluded that the skills needed to manage dispersed gamers are applicable to real-world challenges that managers face in a distributed work environment.
World of Warcraft: the WoW factor - Times Online

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psychology socialization wow on 2008-07-14
- When WoW was launched three years ago, the world's most successful comparable online game had nearly half a million paying subscribers, a figure widely considered to be the largest audience any such product could enjoy. Today, World of Warcraft is anticipating signing up its 11 millionth customer.
- the impact of World of Warcraft is far greater than any statistics can define. The game has become a part of their cultural landscape, as much a touchstone for their vocabulary, storytelling and humour as influential books, albums and films have been in previous decades.
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- - The popular comedy show South Park has based an episode entirely around WoW jokes.
  - Arguably the greatest success of World of Warcraft lies in its ability to become a major part of the social lives of millions.
  - Organised into teams called guilds, WoW's players help and support each other's progress through the game, and in the process chat to one another, discover each other's histories and forge firm friendships.

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Kalle Ahl

5 items | 21 visits

Updated on 2008-07-18
Created on 2008-07-10

Category: Computers & Internet

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Kalle Ahl's List: Games and Psychology / Socialization

Darth BunnyWabbit: Dear Parent, Spouse or Friend of Hardcore Gamer

'Rage against the machines', Prospect Magazine issue 147 June 2008 - Printer Friendly Article

Leadership's Online Labs

The Four Hundred--As I See It: The Digital Leader

World of Warcraft: the WoW factor - Times Online

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