THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF ONLINE GAMING: AN ANALYSIS ON THE SOCIAL RELATIONS AMONG “WARCRAFT” PLAYERS

Öz

This paper is concerned with the social aspects of “game worlds” and attempts to analyse the social relationships in a game by researching the illustration of World of Warcraft. This work aimed to obtain an understanding of how a Multi Player Online Game -World of Warcraft- could occupy within the players’ social lives. This study based on a research that seeks to discover social context of a game experience through investigating certain variables such as level of involvement in the game, the links between Ingame and real life, belonging to a game community

Anahtar Kelimeler

• MMORPGs, Virtual Worlds, World of Warcraft, Virtual communities, Game worlds

Online Oyun Oynamanın Sosyal Bağlamı: “Warcraft” Oyuncuları Arasındaki Sosyal İlişkiler Üzerine Bir İnceleme

Öz

“Oyun dünyaları”nın sosyal yönlerini ele alan bu makalede World of Warcraft örneğinin araştırılması suretiyle bir oyun içindeki sosyal ilişkiler incelenmeye çalışılmaktadır. Bu çalışma çok kullanıcılı online bir oyunun –World of Warcraft- oyuncuların yaşamlarında nasıl bir yer tuttuğuna dair fikir edinmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Araştırma, oyuna dâhil olma, gerçek yaşamla oyundaki yaşam arasındaki bağlantılar ve bir topluluğa ait olma gibi belirli değişkenlerin incelenmesi yoluyla oyun deneyiminin sosyal bağlamını ortaya çıkarmaya çalışan bir alan çalışmasına dayanmaktadır

Anahtar Kelimeler

• MMORPGs, Sanal Dünyalar, World of Warcraft, Sanal Topluluklar, Oyun dünyaları

Kaynakça

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