Gamer Relationships

People will sometimes call gamers introverts. They'll call us shut-ins and say we need to socialize more. The people that say these things are uninformed and generally base these statements off of preconceived notions. The simple fact is there are two types of games. Those you play on your own and those you play with others and while solo games have been popular in the past, most games now focus on multiplayer to one degree or another. One of the reasons that studios push multiplayer now is that they have found that people really like playing online with each other. The other reason is that it means they can get more distance out of half the content. So from a monetary point of view, it makes sense that developers would focus on the multiplayer aspect. The question is why do players gravitate towards them? The answer flies in the face of all the people who would dismiss gamers as introverts with no drive to socialize. The answer, is community.

There are two types of multiplayer games and each has its own unique community. The first type is
what are known as MMOs (Massively Multiplayer Online games) and the other are simple multiplayer games. The difference between the two are the number of other players one would come in contact with. MMOs tend to have a community that strives to grow, by the very nature of the game style. Multiplayer communities tend to be fairly competitive. That is not to say the two don't intermingle from occasion to occasion but we're going to try to keep it simplified at first. With multiplayer games, the story is oft times irrelevant and frequently shoddily thrown together (or non existent) whereas the majority of the development is focused on the multiplayer. There are games that buck this trend but that's not entirely relevant to this discussion. These games are typically FPS (First Person Shooters), RTS (Real Time Strategy), racing, and fighter games. These games have a tendency to attract competitive gamers and the community that revolves around these games is likewise competitive, although frequently they are friendly rivalries. These games are more akin to a sport than MMOs tend to be and players enjoy that style of interaction. Within these confines there exists two types: the Solo play and the Team play. With Solo play you typically have a ladder that each player is trying to get to the top of. These interactions are almost exclusively rivalries. Team play, on the other hand is an environment where you are required to work together in a competitive environment. These are typically what eSports revolve around and the relationships that are formed between players are identical to that of sports teams.

While those aspects are interesting in their own right, they aren't my focus. I'm more interested in the MMO relationships. MMOs range in style from FPS to RPG (Role Playing Game). These have varying types as well but we're going to focus on the MMORPG. Typically in an MMO, you create a character and then play the game to level up until you reach the Max Level, at which point you will begin the "End Game". End Game varies from game to game but usually focuses on players working together in large groups to overcome an obstacle. While leveling up, players will usually be solo until they are required to do a dungeon. This is typically the moment in the game that introduces a player to the idea of working with other players to achieve a common goal. These dungeons are usually fairly easy and require little organization as they are designed to be introductory in nature. However, as a player levels they will find themselves coming upon dungeons more frequently and thus being required to group more often. At Max Level the player will often find themselves joining a guild or a group of like minded players who want the same things out of the game.

Guilds are where the majority of player interaction occurs. People socialize and otherwise get to
know each other in chat while leveling or farming for resources or other activities. When players take on a raid, they do so with a clear command structure: this is the leader, these are the supports, these are the tanks etc etc. Raiding takes a very militaristic approach with strategy and preparing for an assault. Most raids last anywhere from 3 to 5 hours and can continue 3-5 times a week. Working so closely with the same people to achieve a common goal has a way of bonding people together. It is this connection that breeds the friendships that people form inside games. We call these groups, digital families. You often meetup in Discord or follow each other on Twitter or other social media platforms. You learn about each other, likes and dislikes, gaming style, attitudes, etc. These relationships can extend past the game and into the real world and will often last for years, if not decades. These are real connections. These are actual relationships. Some of them are even stronger than offline relationships. So the next time someone tells you that gamers are introverts, you can set them straight.