So, I'm meant to be talking about online gaming communities. The problem is, despite the fact that I have a lot of experience of online communities and I've studied them before, I have little to no experience of them in a gaming context. I don't play anything like World of Warcraft or Ultima Online. I don't play games anywhere near enough to justify investing the amount of time a subscription based game would require (not to mention the cost involved). Also, of the games I do play, I don't really play online. However, I do know people who have been involved in these games. I even have a friend who met her partner through WoW.
The attraction of these games is obviously the fact that they offer an experience that a single player game can't. The experience of playing with humans. In its simplest form, this is just the fact that, no matter how well a game is written, your opponents can never be as interesting as a real human opponent. The simplest example I can think of is playing Worms. The AI was rather uninventive, so while it could place a shot with almost pinpoint accuracy at times, and deliver maximum damage, it couldn't compare to the destructive power I could wield by using fairly suicidal tactics. Playing against people changes this. You get that inventiveness and unpredictability in your opponent.
And then there are the community games. Where the allure isn't that you're playing against people, but that you're playing with people. The co-operation element. That inventiveness and unpredictability is now on your side. And not only that, but the other players have to decide how co-operative they wish to be. In a normal online community, peace and harmony and working together doesn't have any reward other than itself. In a game, that co-operation is key. You have to work towards that common goal. But there can still be those of a mischievous or vindictive nature who decide to work against this. How the community then deals with this is another interesting facet of the experience.
Then there's the other layers of the interaction between the members of the community. You have the option within the game of merely keeping interaction to game-related things or you can take it further. A game community could become something very much outside of the game, where it's a community of its own, merely brought together because of the game. So another attraction is the idea that these communities can transcend what the game offers. Relationships are not limited to what is beneficial to progress in the game but can encompass whatever the members enjoy.
Then, there's the other side of an online community. The darker side. Antagonism and a lack of co-operation. In these instances, the game allows players to be more active in their reactions to these things. If someone antagonises their community, they aren't just given the option to ignore them or block what they say, they're able to fight them off. To counter antagonism with (at least simulated) physical repercussions. They allow you to actually punch a loudmouth in the face.
Gaming communities offer what other online communities do, but with attractive extras that the environment of a game allows. The players are engaging in a simulation and that simulation brings them together through shared ideals. But it can also cause them to clash as opposing ideals are inflamed by the ability to simulate conflicts as real engagements.
