Gamepaddle Video Games. Education. Empowerment. Michaela Anderle & Sebastian Ring (Ed.)

New Ways of Communication

Social network services enhance networking among friends, families and likeminded. Young people also make use of the platform for self-presentation, identity work and social integration – activities closely linked to development tasks in adolescence. Gamers can also share game-related information like automatic status-updates on achievements, gained levels, links to game-movies, artwork and information on gaming-events like LAN-parties or -fairs that can be commented or liked by their community friends. The worldwide most frequently used social community is currently Facebook, but there are also a lot of other sites connected to each other that are popular among young people: video-platforms like YouTube, gamers’ forums or communities, digital game distribution platforms like Steam, hardware-related communities like X-Box Social and many online magazines and sites with comment and discussion threads provide room for discussions among users and distribution of information.

What Motivates Young People

During the phase of adolescence, young people make use of web 2.0 platforms and social network services because of certain motives: they use them for amusement, information, distraction, development tasks like identity-work and social integration (JFF et al., 2011: 13). Young people are seeking orientation in a complex world and society, are discovering different role models, reflecting on their suitability for their own life and working on their value systems. Furthermore they want to play an active part in society, want to experience self-efficacy and participate in shaping this world. These motives unite today’s generation of young people across milieu borders. But when we look at the way young people use the media, their specific preferences and actions, we find big differences. One differentiating factor is gender. Boys are more likely to turn to technical and game-related activities. Especially young male gamers prefer to play in a same-sex peer-group and deal with topics like assertiveness or breaking taboos. Girls rather turn to other forms of play, like singing or dancing games as well as casual games, played offline or online in social network services or on the smartphone (MPFS, 2011: 45).

Playing Games and the Social Web

Video games are a prime example for convergent media worlds (Gebel, 2009: 151). Game related content can be found on a variety of sites on the internet and within social network services. The communication on games influences what we think of video games, gamers and the way games are played in many ways (Mia Consalvo (2007) describes this with respect to mainly professional content as paratext). First of all, young people are able to find information resources. They can easily stay informed about their favourite games, hardware and gaming trends, events, e-sports and other things. Commercial and professional content providers (developers, magazines, blogs etc.) use web 2.0 and social media platforms for their purposes as well as educational institutions do. Depending on the aims of the protagonists, the social web can be an important resource for marketing and advertisement as well as for educational purposes like raising awareness for certain topics. Information can be easily received and also spread among the users of social network services. Over viral communication, information is quickly spread among the peer group. Many websites offer buttons for sharing content via social network services like Facebook, Twitter, Google plus or others. More and more games also allow sharing achievements within a game. Whatever is posted, liked, commented or shared online is more or less strongly related to the identity of the young people communicating and its relevance for the peer group. Digital gaming worlds – understood as video games and the sphere of communication about games within the convergent media worlds – are becoming more and more connected. Most online games feature tools for communicating with your teammates. Also external tools like Skype or Teamspeak encourage provide communication tools and many game-related platforms community-functions, too: Broadly used game distribution platforms like Valve’s Steam, Sony’s PlayStation Network, Microsoft’s Xbox live, game- or developer-related platforms like Blizzard Entertainment’s (the creators of World of Warcraft, Starcraft or Diablo) battle.net, Rockstar’s Social Club or platforms for browser gaming like bigpoint.com feature networking and self-presentation functionalities. For the process of developing an own identity and finding one’s place in a social environment, the participative functions of web 2.0 and social media platforms bear potential.

Finding Orientation, Critique and Participation

Social media and web 2.0 platforms are not only used to exchange information. They also serve as a platform for presenting oneself and getting feedback from others. Working on one's identity is an important development task while growing up, and social media can be useful for these efforts (Wagner & Brüggen, 2013). Young gamers can present their personal interests, games they play, achievements, avatars and information on games they consider relevant for themselves or their peers. Platforms can be distinguished in regard of their thematic focus or function, interests of platform providers and of course the community members themselves. Adolescents create their own media environment by connecting with others and subscribing to feeds and podcasts etc., depending on the way platforms and content meet and fit their specific interests. Young people’s shares in online-communities and the values embedded in social media communication can function as a source of orientation for others. During adolescence the peer-group becomes more and more relevant as a guiding instance for developing own values. Being aware of what others play and how they discuss certain game-related topics as well as commenting on others’ actions and getting feedback can be described as a resource for identity development. Not only individual issues are discussed online, but also ones of broader social interest, like discussions on violence and video games, the image of gamers in society, the role of video games in school education etc. But what young people find online might not necessarily be right in a moral sense or useful for a successful development. An important task for educators is to help young people develop media competence, to encourage critical reflection on content found online and also to motivate young people to participate in online discourses on topics that are relevant to them.

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