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Games As The New Pub
The Guardian Gamesblog has a column up talking about a panel held at the Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival last week. A discussion was held with several folks from the online world development business, where they discussed games as new social playgrounds or pubs. From the article: "In Korea, the gamers play online games together. It's a social replacement. It's a way for non-social people to socialise. They've even started developing games for bored girlfriends of the guys who're playing Starcraft with their mates."
"but it's a niche demographic"
It definately isn't in Korea. It also isn't necessarily that way in the US. With some 1.5 million or so people in World of Warcraft alone, 2 million Xbox live subscribers, a few more million if you toss all the other MMOs together - not mention RTS and FPS online gaming or even the masses of casual gamers who play on sites like Yahoo.
Online games don't replace straight social interaction, a more valid comparison there would be with technologies like instant messaging. But social interaction occuring within the context of online gaming is increasing. It's more comparable to a bunch of friends getting together to play Scrabble. The game is the reason the people get together, and social interaction happens as they play.
My guild on World of Warcraft includes players from four different countries located thousands of miles apart. Yet each night we get together to play and to talk about the game, but also to talk about what we do and enjoy. Teamspeak and other voice technologies allow us social interaction beyond what typing would - giving us a similar experience to a group of friends playing a game of darts at a bar. The conversation moves beyond the game.
You do have a personal bias, because you don't care for it. But having not experienced what it's like to meet people through the medium hardly puts you in a position to judge. I would never have met these people and learned about where they live if it wasn't for a common interest that can be shared across great distances.
As for my girlfriend, well she doesn't care for a lot of online games. She has also met people from all over the country through online communication. And now she plays online Scrabble with them.
Sometimes my arms bend back.