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In this article I will take a close look at how the culture of role play games (RPGs) affects the social networks of those who play them. I will analyse the effect of older pen and paper role play games, as well as newer computer based versions, and take a close look at how the internet has impacted the social aspects of role playing.
A role play game is any game where the players assume a role other from that which they occupy in normal life. It is usually marked by some sort of special and unrealistic characteristic, such as a capacity for magical spells or cybernetic implants, neither of which is regularly available in ordinary life. There are many varieties of role play game, but the most popular and well known are those that descend from Dungeons and Dragons, so these are the ones I will be concerned with here.
Dungeons and Dragons belongs to a category of games known as pen and paper role playing, because nothing is required to play them save a pen and some paper. A hallmark of all these role play games is the simplicity of the requirements, which one might say was carried on into the computer generation through requiring only the game to play, except that this is not the norm for games now. These pen and paper games have inspired large numbers of computer games, including Might and Magic and World of Warcraft, enough to be considered the founders of a genre which has become increasingly popular.
Pen and paper games generally require a fairly static group of players, as the character progression system does not encourage new players to join the group. In addition to this, it tends to foster a close sense of teamwork, as it pen and paper role play games are not competitive. Together, these two aspects make it difficult for anyone new to join, and can lead to solidification and potentially even an unnecessary rigidity, nether of which is particularly forgiving of expansion. On the other hand, it is possible for new players to join, and some groups are extremely fluid with a high turnover of players. In either case the potential for social networking is low. As well, many people play it for escapism, and prefer not to leave their life at the door as it were. Still, this is not very different then any other social club and in truth it has very little effect on the networking possibilities available to the players.
Computer games are an entirely different matter. Single player games such as Might and Magic may e dismissed out of hand, as they are no different then any other games and the impact of games as a whole is not under discussion. However, MMORPGs are a completely different matter. There are many forms of MMORPG, but without exception they allow or, more usually, encourage players to form player-run organisations. Usually called clans, or sometimes guilds, these organisations allow players to band together to aid each other and to compete with the other groups. Most of the players of these games use them as a form of escapism, fleeing from the drudgery of normal life to a place where their efforts are rewarded. In RPGs, everything you take visibly contributes to your growth as a player, and your status can instantly be seen by the items you use and your skills in combat. Once in the game, though, it is highly interactive and the anonymity provided by the internet encourages interaction on an equal level. It is easy to form friends, although such friendships are extremely fluid and liable to shift without warning. Clan members, however, usually form close bonds of mutual support, willingly lending a hand to another member or leaping to their defence.
Membership in a clan will sometimes extend into real life, but usually not as because of the anonymity of the internet it is impossible to know if someone you meet is a fellow player, much less in your clan, and in any case clans will encompass players from across the world. From a networking aspect, it is rare for one player to be introduced to another because there is usually no reason to although large numbers of players will be contacted in the course of normal interactions. So networks built will typically be very large, but extend to only a single level, and not apply to life outside the game.
So the formation of social networks is greatly aided by playing online role play games, but this network is separate and distinct from the one occupied in real life, outside of the game. It is considered bad form to publish contact details or webpage addresses online, but friendships are often maintained through instant messaging. As instant messaging is also often used to maintain real life social links, this can lead to an overlap between the online and offline networks.
While social networking is relatively unaffected by pen and paper role play games, the online alternatives have quite a significant effect. They allow the building of a large network of social contacts, and although these usually do not carry over into real life it could be argued that more and more of so called 'real life' is actually occurring online. Hence it is not particularly odd that social networking and the formation of friendships is gradually shifting online, along with the rest of human activities. In conclusion, while pen and paper RPGs are little different then any other club or hobby, MMORPGs have a huge influence on the lives of their participants. They enable large virtual networks of contacts to form, and generate an entire online community with its own forms rituals and rules of conduct, really no different then any other society or social gathering- save appreciably larger!
Written by Joshua Swanson, PHP programmer and sometime philosopher. You can read more of my stuff gaming articles here, or check out my free MMORPG
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