A statement is often made that time is money. Assuming that this is true, online game play represents a tremendous financial resource that is being tapped in many ways. In some recent research, I discovered that online game play is much more significant than I had imagined. A single game, World of Warcraft, had logged over 5.93 million years of online user game play by 2010, according to Jane McGonigal, with no end in sight (Olivetti, 2010).
Online game play offers an experience that can't be recreated with a traditional idea of a game. For example, World of Warcraft held the Guinness World Record for subscribers in 2010 having reached 12 million subscribers (Guinness World Record, 2010). Obviously, a twelve million player board game would not be a possibility. Likewise, 12 million participants in dodge ball would present a futile scenario. It is only through massive servers that interaction of this scale can occur.
The energy that is expended in online game play is substantial. The consumption of electricity alone is tremendous. Assuming a typical CPU consumes 500 watts and the average residential rate for electricity is $0.12 per kilowatt hour, the cost of the electricity to play World of Warcraft had exceeded $3,000,000,000 by the time Jane McGonigal made her claim in 2010. This cost doesn’t account for the mental capabilities that have been dedicated to online games by the aficionados.
Online game play creates a sense of community that is unrivaled because the participants share a significant interest to start the interaction. This common interest provides an environment that can be highly conducive to collaboration. Many games have the option to form alliances and work together toward a common goal. These alliances may form across racial, social, and religious lines that would not normally be breached. Players can participate in the game from any area of the world where broadband internet service is available. This feature of online gaming allows cultural barriers, which would otherwise exist, to be ignored. Perhaps, through online gaming breaking these barriers, we may see barriers in the physical world fall as well.
References:
How Online Gaming can Change the World. (Olivetti, 2012). Retrieved from: http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/03/18/how-online-gaming-can-change-the-world/
Most popular subscription-based Massively Multiplayer Online Role Player Game (MMORPG). (Guinness, 2010). Retrieved from: http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/6000/most-popular-subscription-based-massively-multiplayer-online-role-player-game-%28mmorpg%29
1 comment:
I've actively participated in online gaming myself for a very long time. While I never quite got into World of Warcraft, I was addicted to StarCraft in my college years immediately following High School. You are right though, online gaming has presented ways to cross social barriers that probably wouldn't be crossed otherwise. There I was, raised in a drug-ridden section of the city, on the same "team" as the rich kid from the suburbs as we worked to protect our created fortresses in a game online. To this day, I am a part of a Madden Football league that includes guys from different areas of the continent. I love it.
Post a Comment