COMMUNITY AT PLAY

According to Reingold (1993), “MUD stands for Multi-User Dungeons--imaginary worlds in computer databases where people use words and programming languages to improvise melodramas, build worlds and all the objects in them, solve puzzles, invent amusements and tools, compete for prestige and power, gain wisdom, seek revenge, indulge greed and lust and violent impulses”. MMOG are massive multiplayer online games.

Boellstorff and Nardi (2009) affirm that Play communities existed long before massively multiplayer online games; they have ranged from bridge clubs to sports leagues, from tabletop role-playing games to Civil War reenactments. With the emergence of digital networks, however, new varieties of adult play communities have appeared, most notably within online games and virtual worlds. Players in these networked worlds sometimes develop a sense of community that transcends the game itself.

Communities at play connect players together over computer networks. They provide a context for social interaction. People in communities at play have individual value and form groups whose commitment to playing together transcends any specific game or its rules.

According to Koivisto (2003), a community at play must have these characteristics:

1) Verbal Communication
2) Character personalisation (such as avatars)
3) Support Sub-communities (the group support the individuals)
4) Support the newbies

REFERENCE LIST

Boellstorff, T., & Nardi, B. A. (2009). Communities of Play: Emergent Cultures in Multiplayer Games and Virtual Worlds. Retrieved May 15, 2009, from http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11871

Koivisto, E. M. I. (2003). Supporting Communities in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games by Game Design. Finland: Dgital Games Research Association (DIGRA) and Utrecht University.

Rheingold, H. (1993). Multi-User Dungeons and Alternate Identities. In The Virtual Community. Cambridges: MIT Press. Retrieved May 15, 2009, from http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/5.html