Online gaming isn't new, but it has become more prevalent over the past decade. As online gaming grows, there are some implications that should be noted. The rise in online gaming popularity leads to socialization in alternative means, but also allows for people to escape from reality.
'Clan'- or 'guild'-based play has become an accepted (and expected) aspect of multiplayer gaming. Many clans and guilds also have active fan-bases.Clans also allow players to assist each other in simulated combat and quests in game advancement, as well as providing an online family for friendly socializing.
Additionally, it's been suggested that a large amount of online gaming has to do with "escapism", which is the use of video games to escape reality. Professor Terry Flew, Creative Industries Faculty, Queensland University of Technology, writes that generally representations of gender in digital games are stereotyped.
In many games, male characters are portrayed in hard bodied muscled man and soft bodied nearly naked women with large breasts are general depiction of female characters. Such depiction can be observed in games such as StarCraft and World of Warcraft. In StarCraft, female character are not as strong as male characters in battle and are designed to cure damaged soldiers but not to fight. Nonetheless they appear as tall, slender, long haired human female body. Similarly, male characters in World of Warcraft, male characters are big, masculine and have hard muscled body. In addition, Terry Flew also believes that female characters in games are usually are portrayed in a narrowly stereotypical manner. as females are usually constructed as visual objects, and who waits for male rescue and they need to be protected, whereas men are adopted with more power. Such depiction of female in games reflect underlying social ideas of dominance of male over female and theme of masculinity. Although not all video games contain such stereotype, there are enough to make it as a general trait.
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| A fan-submitted screenshot of online interaction in WoW. |
Although escaping from reality is nice, it's important to keep in mind that escaping from reality is only temporary. At some point, people have to face reality to survive. When returning to reality, it's probably best to avoid bad habits that could develop when playing games online. Stereotyping everything or everyone based upon appearance alone is one of those habits.
Gaming is not inherently bad. Nevertheless, gamers must be sure to involve themselves in activities outside fictional game worlds. If virtual reality becomes possible, will the trend of online gaming change? Although this question cannot be answered now, it would probably be a safe bet that it would. Certain things, however, probably wouldn't change. Interaction would still probably be present, and stereotypes would still be used in some ways too.
Reference:
(Flew, Terry and Humphreys, Sal (2005) "Games: Technology, Industry, Culture" Oxford University Press)
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