A question for those knowledgeable about all types of video/cpu games

[unknownforce]

Hi everyone.

I had a brief question for those of you whom are up to date with all types of video and computer games out there. For a research paper I'm writing, I was considering some of the positive social interactions that could potentially be caused by video and computer games. I know a pretty large amount of games, but none of the games I knew quickly jumped to mind as a type of game that would encourage positive social interaction. I'm sure there are some out there, but right now, I can't think of any well known games that might be used in such a way.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Keep in mind that it has to encourage positive social interaction, so some type of nonviolent game that allows you to interact with other people would be ideal. I thought of the Sims, but my knowledge of the game is very minimal and I was not certain if the game encourages interaction or simply encourages manipulation.

Any help is most appreciated.

 

[Eor]

World of Warcraft. While lots of people there are total douchebags, the game basically requires you to work with 4 other people to actively do thing, and then to have respect when items drop and to let the people who most need them get them. There are places set up where players will post when someone steals an item, and the stealer is generally blacklisted. At the end of the game, you have to work with 24 other people in order to do tasks and fights. The game itself is just social, as people are encouraged to join "guilds", which is nothing more then a group of friends that do things together.

There are plenty of MMO's that work like that, I'd base the research around those. Common ones are World of Warcraft, Guildwars, and Everquest. I'd also search for this one game, I think it's called Pharoh or something, that is an MMO, but without fighting. Instead it's based around a large group of people working together to build things and solve mysteries.

 

[Benden]

I agree with Eor about World of Warcraft. I recognize that it contains violence, but it also provides a forum for players to interact through the auction system, teaching them the virtues of thriftiness and budgeting via the buying and selling of goods with virtual players.

I think Warhammer Online will be good for promoting positive interaction once it comes out as its "public quest system" will promote players of different levels and abilities coming together for a common goal.

Also, I used to play an online shooter for the PS2 called Tribes: Aerial Assault. The game itself did not do much to promote any positive interaction other than team work (especially when the lack of voice chat was taken into account), but the small community that built around it was a cohesive group that promoted diversity. It allowed people of varying ages, socioeconomic backgrounds and ethnicities to come together over the internet and converse about a common cause. I joined a guild (of which I am still a member, even though the game has been dead for years), where I made friends with people from California to Boston, some in the teens, some in their 50's, but we came together to support each other like a family. This strong bond was built up around a common interest in a video game, that sprouted into life-long, real life friendships for many of us. Through this community, I learned how to administer tournaments and be a team player as well as a better friend. Because of my experience with Tribes and its amazing community, I wouldn't be so quick to write off "violent" games as being unable to foster positive human interaction in people. I bet if you thought about it hard enough, you could find a very similar situation here at SWF.

 

[unknownforce]

Oh yes, WOW is indeed a social networking game of cooperation. In fact, I'm pretty sure the social aspect is what appeals to the players most. I've never played the game myself, but I did play Everquest back in High School, and you certainly could not achieve a great deal if you tried to do everything without interacting with the other players. You also make a very valid point that it encourages positive interactions with others, because you have nothing to gain from making enemies in the game (at least, I don't think you do).

Pharoh intrigues me too. I'll have to try to find more information on it, especially if the game is lacking in fighting entirely. Even though WOW would likely work well, some experts would still argue that the overall purpose of the game is to kill creatures and gain power in a virtual world. Dogmatic experts are tough to convince, even if I was able to gather a lot of evidence to indicate that there is much more to the game than simply fighting and attaining power.

Thanks for mentioning the games! I'll have to look up more information on both games. Tribes might be worth looking up too. The description reminds me of the smash community. I'd love to use smash, but I already predict that experts would chastise the fact that the game is so competitive, even though most players still get along very well and are perfectly willing to help one another out in all situations (but that is another issue entirely, heh).

 

[diabetic_yoshi]

You definitely want to also mention Second Life. While I don't have the game, I hear it's pretty much what it sounds like. It's like The Sims Online, but much, much, better.

 

[antimatter]

You definitely want to also mention Second Life. While I don't have the game, I hear it's pretty much what it sounds like. It's like The Sims Online, but much, much, better.

yes, being able to make your avatar an animal with mammary glands is MUCH better.
i wish i was kidding about you being able to do that.

 

[diabetic_yoshi]

yes, being able to make your avatar an animal with mammary glands is MUCH better.
i wish i was kidding about you being able to do that.

And you can fly. Don't forget about the flying.

 

[Benden]

Tribes might be worth looking up too. The description reminds me of the smash community.

The Tribes community was similar to the Smash community, just on a much smaller scale. It was a fun game while it lasted, but it's dead now, not too surprising since it was a console online shooter that came out in 2002. You'd be lucky to find 10 people online at any given time. The one thing that really made the Tribes community stand out was that it was supported by one of the game's developers. He actually created servers after the game came out on his own time, specifically because the Tribes community needed some changes to make the game balanced for tournament play. He would even modify the servers as trends in gameplay developed to keep the gameplay balanced when exploits were discovered by players (i.e. preventing people in CTF games from getting in vehicles with the flag to prevent unbalanced "flag capping").

This sort of thing would never be able to happen with a game like Smash, where the user base is so incredibly large scale; although, you never know if Nintendo would be willing to make changes like that to keep the game balanced. If it did go through the effort of making a change it would have to be a huge balance error that needed correcting.

Anyway, Tribes, the game itself, was a shooter type game and didn't provide much social interaction. besides basic teamwork through pre-determined phrases (that actually were added to the game by that same developer now that I recall). However, it did provide the common ground for a great community where social interaction bloomed into an incredible experience that would be very difficult, if not impossible, to replicate in person.

 

[unknownforce]

World of Warcraft. While lots of people there are total douchebags, the game basically requires you to work with 4 other people to actively do thing, and then to have respect when items drop and to let the people who most need them get them. There are places set up where players will post when someone steals an item, and the stealer is generally blacklisted. At the end of the game, you have to work with 24 other people in order to do tasks and fights. The game itself is just social, as people are encouraged to join "guilds", which is nothing more then a group of friends that do things together.

There are plenty of MMO's that work like that, I'd base the research around those. Common ones are World of Warcraft, Guildwars, and Everquest. I'd also search for this one game, I think it's called Pharoh or something, that is an MMO, but without fighting. Instead it's based around a large group of people working together to build things and solve mysteries.

I wasn't able to find anything online about a game called pharoh, although I did find a strategy based game by the same name (looked similar to civilization). Was this the game you were referring to, or was it something else?

I also looked up Second Life, but I didn't find a vast amount of information on it. It did seem like it could potentially work though. Still, I wonder if the game encourages positive interaction or if players just have more fun messing around with it.