Hey. I’m Mike Phillips, a Junior majoring in Information Science, Systems, and Technology in the
An Internet phenomenon that I am interested in is online gaming that exists in the “metaworlds” that Wallace described. I know online gaming is probably a relatively dated concept considering MUDs and all, but as a dude who only plays video games on gaming consoles, Xbox Live was my first taste of this experience. I used to play Halo 2 online all the time in high school but this was something that I both loved and hated. It blew my mind that I could go on Xbox Live at anytime of the day and play against people from all over the world who liked to play just as much as I did. Before I could play Halo online, multiplayer Halo was a big hassle. Someone had to bring his controllers and/or games and/or console to a friend’s house so we could take turns playing against each other four at a time. Xbox Live allowed us all to play at the same time from the comfort of our own respective homes. The fact that I could play a game with 32 people at the same time was the coolest thing I could think of at the time. As I started to play against people I didn’t know personally though, I started to become disgusted by some of the things I would hear other players say. I like to trash talk just as much as the next guy, but the truly malicious nature of the things certain players would say to each other and to me left a bad taste in my mouth. People would throw out so many racial, homophobic, Anti-Semitic and generally ignorant slurs that I would sometimes just have to mute my headphones. It didn’t quite shock me that people had these feelings, but it did shock me that they would share them so readily with the others that they were playing with so such candor. The fact that I could hear their voices saying these awful things was something that also got under my skin after a couple of rounds. I still like to play when I have the time but sometimes I wonder if people I know think such terrible things that they will only express to strangers under the guiss of a gamertag.
1 comment:
Your post about gaming interested me. You mentioned the difference between gaming on one console with a bunch of people in the same room and gaming on multiple consoles with a number of people in different locations. I'm surprised you didn't consider the possibility of gaming with those same people in the same room. What if you decided to go to a LAN party or something where you played with the same people you played with over the internet? You'll probably still experience trash talking, but would the amount and severity be comparable? Does the fact that verbal communication exists whether gamers are in the same room or in different countries lead to comparable behavior? Internet gaming in different locations as opposed to the same location. I just thought you might want to keep that in mind as we continue impression formation.
Post a Comment