Author: Obed Pen-Ogbolu (Page 7 of 11)

How do Multiplayer games affect our social skills? This is something that I as a gamer have been curious about. As a competitive player, I’ve played against many different people, talked to multiple different people, and received many offensive messages. It has really made me wonder whether these people interact this way with real people face to face. Of course I have considered the possibility that some people show their true selves online where they can hide behind a gamer tag, but that doesn’t change the fact that these people still do, in some way, shape, or form, interact with people in society. This is why I want to research how gamers interact with others and what kind of social skills they develop through the multiplayer communities they interact with.

Fishman, Andrew “Video Games are Social Spaces: How Video Games Help People Connect” | JCFS Chicago | https://www.jcfs.org/response/blog/video-games-are-social-spaces-how-video-games-help-people-connect

Andrew Fishman is a social worker who also runs a support group called “Level Up: A Group for Gamers” for teen gamers who converse with other teen gamers about how video games have impacted their lives. Fishman’s article talks about how video games create small communities within the games for people to converse, and how conversing with these people help improve their social skills. Fishman states, “Online video games can allow players to talk to others and make friends at their current ability level even when they are not emotionally or physically able to leave their homes. This can help build the skills and confidence necessary to try it in-person.” This quote is saying that people who are not comfortable with leaving their homes or speaking face to face are given the chance to communicate through these online games. Through that communication, they are able to gain skills and confidence needed to converse and interact with people in person. This is something I heavily agree with. I am someone who is very introverted and not much for trying to make new friends unless they have something I know I can talk to them about. Here is where these games are key for me. They allow me to interact with people about these games that we players are so fond of. Now that I have found people with common ground, I am able to make more friends than I ever thought I would. Over 70% of the friends I have made have been made through some kind of video game connection. These games have even led me to communities where I was able to make even more friends. Online Fishman, as a person who runs a group for young gamers to converse with each other, also believes that Video Games lets people easily communicate with one another, allowing them to build their social skills in a positive way.

Entertainment is a must when it comes to our lives. I don’t think I have met a person who didn’t seek some sort of entertainment. One of the most common forms of entertainment is video games. Of course, video games come in many different forms. The ones I’m more interested are multiplayer games. I like to be competitive, improve my skills to try and be the best. Beating people online boosts my confidence a little, but it also gives me the chance to interact with people online. I am not much of a talker, or a communicator, so it’s not like I converse with people a lot. But when it comes to video games, I tend to be more talkative. Maybe it’s the feeling of people not knowing who I am, or me not directly talking to someone face to face that makes it easier. Sometimes I don’t even talk to the other player, we just communicate and find out what type of player we are through how we play the game. Getting to communicate with people like this got me curious. Will playing these multiplayer games and interacting with people online improve my social skills? Will I find it easier to talk to people? Of course those questions also got me thinking, if it does affect me socially, then can that effect be negative? The only way I will find my answer is through research. When I do research on this project, I expect to find a lot of psychology and sociology. When it comes to studying how people interact with others, we will often find it on the topic of sociology. Studying the interaction of people who play multiplayer games with society is the main target of this research, and when it comes to people who play online video games, I can only think of a negative outcome. I expect to find a lot of negativity in our social lives when it comes to people who play multiplayer games, as there are many people who play multiplayer games that are regarded as “toxic,” or people who spread negativity to the gaming community. If the research I do goes the completely opposite direction, or results in something I did not expect at all, then it will just make me want to research it more. A completely unexpected outcome is actually way more interesting than one you expected. That just means there is a whole other layer to what you are researching, and what you do know is just the surface. For the sake of my curiosity, I hope I find an outcome that is out of this world, but it also makes me wonder even more. Will the outcome affect how I see multiplayer games, and if so, will I ever play those games again? I probably will but it’s still fun to be curious.