The numerous social networks that surround the Video Games and Gaming World are not only growing by leaps and bounds, but also attracting extremely loyal and tenacious fans. Mixing, melding, and forging the uber pwnage of video gamers and the interaction of a social networking togetherness you only get with an online cooperation formed into a web site.
Chat rooms and forums; in game chat and party groups; and guilds and clans design the social aspect of the online gaming industry. From the simplicity of the flash based games like Ogre Island, to the complex downloadable PC console games like World of Warcraft the online gaming world has come from a diverse beginning.
The earliest PC games of Solitaire, Backgammon, Pinball, and Hearts Kubet warped into a series of Doom style RPG’s. Most of this original game play was solitary. With the invention of Its Your Turn’s creative ingenuity, we began to take solitary turns together. One player at a time taking his or her play turn and sending email alerts to the other as the game progresses. Ultima Online was a major player in the MMORPG sector of social interaction in gaming. With the emergence of Blizzard Entertainment came the opportunity for gamers across the nation to connect and compete in mass PVP wars complete with a pre game chat feature. This feature allows you to socialize and chat with other players before actually entering game play to better know your opponents and allies.
Soon after came the outbreak of in game chat. While chat boxes early on were extremely basic only allowing simple text and minimal emote options, they have evolved into a major beast powering the gaming industries social connection and actually spawning new ideas for development. These new chat features include multiple chat channels and hundreds of emotes which are text commands that create sound and motions. Examples are: /hug, /wave, /dance and for you Age of Empires players /boo which will play an audible audience of “booers” dissing your opponent.
Game developers are increasing the time spent on statistics figuring out how to leverage and apply growth to social networks by introducing new and competitive games, creating a subset of gamers in the social networking arena of the Internet. Global reach has unlimited the geography factor by initializing influence to an audience if infinite proportion. While gamers have always been cloned into a bundle, class, or faction of their own, seemingly separate and disconnected from the masses involved in the online social networking movement, I say gamers are the force behind the socialization age of technology.