Gaming and MMO's - A Whole New World?

The article called “Where Everybody Knows Your (Screen) Name by Constance Steinkuehler and Dmitri Williams claims that “massively multiplayer online games” (or MMO’s) are a “third place” when speaking of social interaction. They compare it to things like pubs, coffee shops, and other common hang out places. They also suggest that participation with these MMO’s helps in the “formation of bridging social capital.” They say that these social relationships function as a way for individuals to be exposed to the diversity of worldviews, despite the fact that they don’t provide deep emotional support. Another reason they give for it being positive is that there are no “prerequisites, requirements, roles, duties, or proofs of membership”, and they can be seen as a home away from home due to traits like “rootedness, feelings of possession, spiritual regeneration, feelings of being at ease, and warmth.”

However, they also mentioned the fact that the effects are negative for both individuals and communities by adding a point from Oldenburg saying, "The essential group experience is being replaced by the exaggerated self-consciousness of individuals. American lifestyles, for all the material acquisition and the seeking after comforts and pleasures, are plagued by boredom, loneliness, alienation."

The article states that bridging social capital occurs when individuals from different backgrounds make connections between social networks. It also says that what these types of tentative relationships “lack in depth, they make up for in breadth.” Therefore, bridging social capital doesn’t provide a lot of emotional support, but it is good in that it can broaden social horizons and worldviews and provide the participants with “access to information and new resources.” They say it can also be a good thing in regards to the bonding type of social capital if it acts as a sort of “super-glue” to strengthen already existing relationships with family and nearby friends.

They come to the conclusions that MMO’s can have both strong and weak ties and that they function more as a bridging device than a bonding ones. They admit that the relationships built through gaming may not be as beneficial as “real-world” relationships due to “geographic dispersion and the nature of third places themselves.” They say there is importance in having a balance of both social bridging and bonding; strong and weak ties because on one extreme, a person is very connected but unsupported and uncared for, and at the other end, the person is loved and sheltered, but isolated from newness (Galston, 1999).

I agree that gaming can both be a positive and negative thing. I haven’t experienced much with it, but I know that if I were exposed to it, I would enjoy being a part of the gaming community and gain from it in some ways, while losing out on “real-world” social ties in other ways. I think that as long as you don’t become obsessed or overly dependent on it, it can be helpful to connect to others around the world so long as you still remember your real life and the people in it.