Online Gaming: The effect on Personal Relationships

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March 17, 2012
Online Gaming: The effect on Personal Relationships
 
Abstract
Online gaming has been a development built on the technology of the internet. The internet, being an innovation that allowed people to interact with other people globally created new ways of building relationships. The ability of the internet to build relationships allowed the resilience of online gaming to create a wide variety of audience amongst different cultures around the world. In respect, though online gaming allowed people to create new relationships, other relationships are bound to be affected by the new relationships that are created by online gaming. This paper will discuss the different factors that affect relationships that involve online gaming, whether with other gamers or with people who do not engage themselves into online gaming.
Keywords: Online Gaming, MMORPG, relationships
Globalization has caused major changes in how people interact with one another. In the age where the internet allows people to see and talk with different people in different areas while staying inside ones own domain have caused innovations that people have become inclined into. One of which that have been developed to harness the internet are the different online games. Online games are virtual environments in which people are able to create a new realm of social relationships; users are able to build their own groups, and organizations that share a common belief, goal or preference (Chiou & Wan, 2006). In the world of massive multi-player on-line role-playing games (MMORPGs), the environment can be equated to the real world in which the virtual environment does not stop when people go off-line, it continues even when people come and go which allows different people to interact with different people. The internet itself is said to be not addictive, but the different activities embedded within the system, such as online games, are the ones that can become addictive to people (Chiou & Wan, 2006). This paper will analyze how online games affect the different relationships of people who engage in the game with the people around them, such as their family and friends.
Previous researches have created results that illustrate that the excessive use of online games can result in negative outcomes, such as negative impacts on academic performances, increased anxiety, escape from reality, youth violence and crimes, and the deterioration of interpersonal relationships (Chiou & Wan, 2006). Online games, in a way create a whole new environment in which the users are nudged away from their "real" lives and become dislodged from the people they know. The effects of online games create an image in which people become aloof from their friends and family, that people who are into online games destroy their relationships with the people in their lives. Much research that have been done are based on quantitative research paradigms, involving in-depth interviews of online game addicts and not necessarily why people engage in such; results in which qualitative methods are used (Chiou & Wan, 2006). New researches have tried to create new results and discussions in which online gaming is perceived in building new relationships or being able to strengthen old relationships.
Online games, one of the myths that surround it is that it only appeals to children and adolescents (Cole & Griffiths, 2007). People don`t realize that those who engage in MMORPGs are those who can be independent and should be able to sustain their own lives, studies show that the age of players are mostly 23.6years and a significant number, 28.2% are over 25years of age, and only a small number of people were under 18years (Cole & Griffiths, 2007). Another study showed that 36% of gamers are married and 22% have children (ESA, 2005; Yee, 2004, 2006 as cited by Hertlein & Hawkins, 2012). The relationship of the age of the players and the relationships of these players with the different people is significant to look at because in theory, these people are capable of deciding for themselves and are able to live independently and are able to live up to the consequences of their lives. Previous researches made assumptions that gamers are socially inactive, however, the new studies show that people who played online games have created good friends within the game (Cole & Griffiths, 2007). New relationships have been forged within the game that allowed people to interact with different people even if the environment differs from where they live in. This created a new image of online games, being something that is highly socially interactive which allows people to interact and share there lives to different people (Cole & Griffiths, 2007). In relation to pre-existing relationships such as family and friends, studies show that people does not necessarily engage in online games alone, they share their online experiences with their "real-life" friends and family (Cole & Griffiths, 2007).
Unlike the previous findings that players tend to be dislodged from reality and tend to use online game to escape from reality, the new findings show that online games is a tool that friends and family use to bond together and create a stronger relationship. MMORPGs involve the necessity to join guilds or clans to accomplish primary objectives and progress within the game (Hertlein & Hawkins, 2012). Playing MMORPGs require players to interact with other people who play the game, which encourages teamwork, camaraderie, and collaboration. It can also increase the understanding between the different relationships within a person. Previous studies show that video games helped families to achieve a certain level of togetherness which was not experienced previously (Mitchell, 1985 as cited by Hertlein & Hawkins, 2012).
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