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Synergistic Theory: Presence and Social Constructs in the “Third Places” of Online
Games
Mary F. Casey
Convergence. It’s the buzzword in many industries that are touched by technology
in any way. Convergence may be the hallmark of new media and its effect on
communication.
broadband Internet access combined with the professional quality of digital audio and
video equipment available to consumers has even put content creation in the hands of the
Synergy, from the Greek synergos, means a combination of things that create
more than the sum of their parts. Synergistic media, such as watching TV clips on the
Web or movies on a mobile phone, or communicating with others in 3-D virtual worlds,
are becoming more accessible and being used by more consumers every day.
Understanding this synergistic media is not a matter of finding one theory to explain
phenomenon; it will take a new look at proven theories, each which explains a facet of
this rich and complex ever-evolving media, and develop a synergistic theory to further
The first steps towards creating synergistic theory to explain converging media is
to start with an in-depth look at one small corner of this new media model, which
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communication channels.
communities has been studied from both sides of the issue. Online communities, which
existed even before the World Wide Web on BBSs, MOOs, and MUDs, have been
studied for 25 years now, usually from the perspective of either educators and activists
who have a need to know how to successfully build community to better teach and raise
awareness, or PR and advertising, which wants to build community for brand loyalty and
increased spending. But there is one place online where communities spring up without a
guiding hand, and create bonds resulting in deep friendships, love and even marriage –
Muliplayer Online Role Playing Games, also known as MMOGs, Massively Multiplayer
Online Games) requires looking at the games from a number of ways. Quantitatively, we
need to look at how many players are creating communities, and who they are. This
research is currently being done at Stanford and at the Palo Alto Research Center, as well
as other universities and game companies. But this kind of research doesn’t answer why
these players are creating community. For that, a more qualitative look needs to be taken.
Some research using focus groups has been done, but data to support a convergence of
I would suggest that communities inside MMOGs are social constructs of reality,
following the definitions of the players as actors interacting with the game and each
other, sharing social meanings and consequently constructing a social reality, following
also an extension of Oldenburg’s discussions on "the third place." This theory has been
mentioned in Ducheneaut, Nickell and Moore’s 2004 study of Star Wars: Galaxies, a
popular MMORPG, as well as studies suggesting that the Internet is allowing us to create
Bracken, Lange, and Denney (2005) studied how online gamers feel spatial, social, and
co-presence. They found that all gamers interviewed felt immersed in the game while
playing, which is the definition of presence following Short, Williams, and Christie’s
1976 theory. Bracken, et al., stated that their study additionally defined online video
None of these theories alone can explain the complex interaction of people and
mediated interfaces that make up online communities. These perceived shared societies
communication and mass media. The synergistic theory of converging media postulates
compelling interest of the general public in new media communications, with adoption
rates1 reaching those of television. We will first look at current theories that explain
certain behaviors towards and with new media generally and MMOGs specifically, and
then discuss the combination of these theories and how they synergistically explain the
above-mentioned behaviors. The synergistic theory may even predict future behaviors,
without knowing what new media channels advances in technology will bring.
community inside a MMORPG. First we will define community, and review some of the
theories that have been used to explain successful online communities in the past. Next
we will consider MMOGs and community, followed by MMOGs and presence, then a
look at the background of virtual environments and online games. We will then review
the construct of social reality and “the third place,” finally discussing the synergy of these
Community
Rovai (2002) outlines the most essential elements of community: mutual
interactivity, common expectations, shared values and goals, and overlapping histories
among members.
These elements can be separated from the physical, by looking at what people do
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together, rather than where they do things together (Wellman, 1999). It is becoming
accepted that online communities are a valid social construct, and many researchers have
view, and occasionally both, as when researchers from Information Systems departments
Preece (2000) noted that one of the problems faced by online communities was
the potential misunderstandings that happen in a mainly textual exchange. Another was
that it takes longer for relationships to form, due to lacking physical cues in
She uses social presence theory (Short, Williams, & Christie, 1976) to explain this. Social
presence theory uses face-to-face communication as the standard for assessment of how
successfully media convey a sense of being physically present. The lack of verbal and
smiley face, wink, or other expression), can cause the aforementioned misunderstandings.
She suggested that in the future, software may advance to the stage of being able
to represent our actions and non-verbal cues, and this would facilitate online communities
to better mirror their physical counterparts. Indeed, advances in technology have given us
avatars that can express the gamut of emotions from sorrow to joy. (Figure 3)
Since the late 1800s, sociologists have argues that technological advances will
lean to the destruction of community, starting with Tönnies in 1887, who argued that
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industrialization was causing people to move away from their primary community based
on family and their immediate neighborhood, which he called Gemeinschaft. Instead they
formed Gesellschaft, often translated as “society,” groups that form around a common
The definition of community changes as the world changes, and today, there is
still no consensus about what an online community actually is. As noted by Sieckenius de
Souzaa & Preece (2004), there is “…no agreed upon definition. This is due to the strong
social relations, ethnographers on the roles and activities of small groups of individuals,
and technologists on the structure of the underlying software supporting the community,
each coming from a different perspective and therefore focusing only on a small part of
what the umbrella title of online communities is about. Their definition, following work
by Preece (2000), is: “An online community is ‘a group of people, who come together
for a purpose online, and who are governed by norms and policies’.” This is a necessarily
broad definition, yet succinctly states the necessary components: people, purpose, and
Community in MMOGs
Community in MMORPGs is gaining some interest as a field of study, but most
of these studies are either narrowly focused on one particular game, or are broad studies
gathering general demographic and motivation information (Ducheneaut & Moore, 2004;
Ducheneaut, Yee, Nickell & Moore, 2006; Yee, 2002, 2006, in press; Williams,
Ducheneaut, Xiong, Zhang, Yee, & Nickell, 2006). Many of these studies are taking
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One group of PARC scientists, Ducheneaut, Nickell and Moore (2004), explored
sociability in one MMORPG, Star Wars Galaxies (SWG). Based on both months of in-
whether or not the cantinas, gathering places inside SWG, fit Oldenburg’s notion of
“third place.” Oldenburg (1989) postulated that home was our “first place” and work was
our “second place,” and the coffeehouse, lounges, bars and bowling alleys we frequent in
our spare time for sociability are our “third places.” Ducheneaut, Nickell and Moore
showed that the game is structured in such a way that a player could meet the criteria of a
“third place” by feeling a duty to stay beyond the ability of the place to provide
satisfaction, and therefore, “potentially, the entire game world could be a third place.”
Although they did look at sociability, they looked at it from a design perspective – how
can game designers better create spaces in their games to encourage sociability – and not
communication and community building. How game designers can build in “community”
to answer the questions, what does the community mean to the players, how strong is the
contributes to the sense of community. His sample consisted of eleven gamers, who
standard for a virtual gaming community, and that communities usually differ in three
goals, and the importance of a particular game. He suggests that further studies need to be
done: “Virtual gaming communities offer an intriguing and diverse context for learning
Bracken, Lange, and Denney (2005) studied how online gamers feel spatial, social, and
co-presence, and found that all gamers interviewed felt immersed in the game while
playing. Social presence, again following Short, Williams, and Christie’s 1976 theory,
was felt deeply by some players but not by others, with a skill component, rather than a
lack of cues, explaining the difference. Those players with a competence in playing felt
more social presence than those who needed to concentrate on how to play. Co-presence
was felt by all gamers, with a higher level of “togetherness” felt by guild or clan
members in MMORPGs than by the casual online gamers. Guilds or clans, formal groups
from their members, and these players often communicate via voice, text, forums and
Virtual Environments
Bracken, et al., also stated that their study additionally defined online video
games as collaborative virtual environments, or CVEs. Also called VEs, for virtual
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10
environments, CVEs were originally defined as the spaces where virtual reality
technology was experienced. This special type of mediated reality has been at the
forefront of the work in presence theory since the 1980s. By the mid-90s, scholars were
definition took the meaning of a VE from something tied to a hardware system, usually of
the gloves-and-goggles type, to any space where the feeling of presence is mediated. As
such, the definition perfectly describes many of the new convergent media channels,
including MMOGs.
Schroeder’s (ed.) “The Social Life of Avatars” (2001), a number of social and computer
scientists share their experiences in VEs created as learning spaces and chat rooms as
well as games. Many of the technical and social observations were artifacts of their time;
users are seldom constrained by worries of too low bandwidth or limited access to a
that may or may not have any correlation to gender, race, size, or even species in the real
world is one of the attractions of being able to construct a shared reality inside a MMOG.
The social construction of reality theory (Berger & Luckmann, 1966) explains much of
this fascination, as it takes the concepts of actors, persons and groups interacting together
in a social system form, who, over time, play out concepts that eventually become
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11
habituated into reciprocal roles played by the actors in relation to each other. When these
roles are made available to other members of society to enter into and play out, the
in a space where an agreement has already been consciously made to suspend disbelief
and share in the reality of the game world, are socially constructing their reality. In
Online), the race and class of your character determines your role in many interactions.
The gameplay depends on each kind of character, for example, warrior, mage, and ranger,
guiding.
In social games such as Second Life (Linden Labs) or The Sims Online
(Electronic Arts), there are fewer preset institutionalized roles, therefore a more
personally constructed social reality, with more room for unusual behavior and physical
representations that run the extremes of the spectrum, from hyper-real avatars created
from photos of the players, who interact in representations of their real-life homes and
offices, to hybrid creatures living in multi-colored forests that could never exist on Earth.
especially social reality, must be held to or a player risks being disregarded, rejected, or
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Third place
The importance of having a shared social construct not connected to geography is
earlier in connection with Ducheneaut, Nickell and Moore’s 2004 study of SWG, is a
term used in the concept of community building to refer to social surroundings separate
from the two usual social environments of home and the workplace. Oldenburg states that
“third places” are important features for civic engagement and establishing feelings of a
sense of place. Putnam (2000) postulated that society is spending less time in these “third
places” and blamed the Internet, but recently many authors and researchers are
repudiating that view by suggesting that the Internet is allowing us to create new virtual
explanations alone is enough to explain the popularity of communities online, but the two
anywhere, anytime. All that’s needed is a computer, an Internet connection, and some
easily available software, and you can talk to a sympathetic friend while being
entertained in a paradise, or laugh with a group of friends while adventuring and killing
monsters.
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13
enhances both the social aspect as well as the entertainment value. Email and instant
messaging are two of the more common uses of the Internet, but both are limited in
presence. There is no feel that your correspondent is really “there” with you. Likewise,
PC and console role-playing games and simulation games are very popular, and players
find enjoyment in them, but it is generally a solitary activity, or shared with one other.
There isn’t an entire world of people to choose to play with. The synergy of presence and
social building creates the perfect environment to build community and create a third
place.
with theories that explain other media effects. The synergy of presence with parasocial
theory, the attachment a viewer or consumer gets with fictional characters or constructs,
combine in multiple media channels when a popular TV show’s associated Web page
streams condensed episodes, and gives the opportunity for fans to connect with each
other and with the show’s characters or cast members3. The consumer receives a richer
experience and forms a more loyal attachment to the characters of the show, and the
networks and advertisers are beginning to see the increased worth of bringing these
and media figures. Horton and Wohl (1956) were the first to look at the interaction
between users of mass media and representations of humans appearing in the media
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14
(“media figures,” such as newscasters, actors, celebrities and even fictional characters.)
These relationships are integrated into the “usual social activity” of the user’s lives.
Although few people form psychologically unhealthy attachments to media figures, many
people feel a fondness for media figures without believing they have a personal
relationship with them; creating additional communication channels and giving media
users the opportunity to communicate directly to the media figure will move the
relationship along the social continuum in Giles’ PSI model (2002) from mass mediated
NBC is one of the broadcast companies that are using media besides television to
give their viewers more entertainment and information related to their shows. For
example, the popular drama “Heroes” has an associated web site, nbc.com/heroes, where
viewers can not only view full or condensed episodes they may have missed in a
streaming Web player, but also get further information on favorite characters, chat with
other fans, read blogs ostensibly written by the show’s characters, or view a webcomic
starring a character who can interface with the Web. The viewer’s parasocial relationship
with “Heroes” characters becomes enhanced by the addition of other media types, and
this creates more opportunities for the viewer to establish weak ties not only with the
characters but also with other fans through the use of chat rooms and forums.
“Heroes” fans have even more chances to use multiple media channels to get
information. There are text messages available from “Heroes,” and a number of MySpace
pages and additional websites with more supplemental information. The synergy of the
15
experience far richer and deeper than simply viewing a television show could ever give.
increase communication between employees and save on travel expenses by using video
there) and co-presence (the sense of being there together), with a socially constructed
reality, gives employees the feeling that they are all in a boardroom together. Adding in
virtual meeting that contains all the interactions of being there together. The synergy of
the converging media and information channels is mirrored by the synergy of the mass
Summary
Mass media usage and effects have been studied for the past century, and quite
often, the overarching conclusion is that people are not communicating with each other
the way they used to in the past. This conclusion is used to blame or vilify mass media
for increased violence and sex in society, loss of social capital and community activity,
and general desensitization of the public towards previously shocking behaviors. While
this may be true, these inferences neglect the obvious but overlooked fact that society has
changed. Rather than focusing on the negatives, we should consider the benefits of new
convergent channels of mass media. For example, since some forms of neighborhood
best use online communities with traditional neighborhood mass media to increase social
capital. The synergy of mass media forms and organizational and interpersonal
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16
networks from being geographically based to existing in both virtual and real places, with
time shifts and collaborative work possibilities that couldn’t exist in the past. This
synergy also affects business, government, and education, which can use the multiple
media forms to enhance current communication channels and become more interactive
instead of bemoaning the loss of traditional media use and effects, we should use the new
synergistic model of new media augmenting the old ways, to create a more dynamic and
17
Resources
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spatial, social, and co- presence, Paper presented at FuturePlay 2005: The first
Brants, K. (1989). The Social Construction of the Information Revolution. European Journal of
Communication, 4, 79-97.
Ducheneaut, N., Moore, R.J. (2004). The social side of gaming: a study of interaction patterns in
a massively multiplayer online game. In: Proceedings of CSCW 2004, ACM, New York,
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Ducheneaut, N., Moore, R.J., and Nickell, E. (2004). "Designing for sociability in massively
multiplayer games: an examination of the “third places” of SWG." In J.H. Smith and M.
Copenhagen.
Ducheneaut, N., Yee, N., Nickell, E., & Moore, R.J. (2006, April) “Alone Together?” Exploring
the Social Dynamics of Massively Multiplayer Online Games, paper presented at CHI
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2006 Proceedings, Games and Performances, April 22-27, 2006, Montréal, Québec,
Canada.
Giles, David C. (2002).“Parasocial Interaction: A Review of the Literature and a Model for
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http://www.mmogchart.com.
Yee, N. (2002). Facets: 5 motivation factors for why people play MMORPGs.
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Figure 1
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1
The adoption rate of Internet usage is popularly thought to be greater than that of television,
but the actual adoption rate is much more difficult to compute. Gisle Hannemyr sought to
empirically prove the adoption rates of Internet usage, and refers to the difficulty
of determining when and where to start measuring usage, since the Internet had
more than 400,000 users before it became publicly available in 1989, and the
figure used to determine television and radio’s “irreversibility,” that point from
which usage grew beyond inventors and enthusiasts, is only 100,000. (Hannemyr,
2003). Hannemyr found the rates of Internet, television, and radio adoption over
time to be nearly equal. The Pew Internet & American Life Project gives an
Internet adoption rate of over 70% for the U.S. based on surveys as of April 2006
(pewinternet.org, 2007), and Miniwatts Marketing Group’s World Internet Usage
Statistics News and Population Stats Web page gives a world-wide penetration
estimate of around 17% (internetworldstats.com, 2007).
2
The word "avatar" was used by the early online game "Habitat" to describe their online
graphical user representations. The game ran as an online service for Commodore 64 users
from 1986 to 1988, and was not widely known. The term did not become popular until the
author Neal Stephenson used it in his book Snow Crash (New York: Bantam, 1992) to
describe the simulation of the human form in the Metaverse, a virtual-reality version of the
Internet. In the Metaverse, an avatar was an important indicator of social status, as having a
finely detailed and unique avatar showed off programming skills, whereas beginners would
only have off-the-shelf purchased avatars. This attitude is present in many MMOGs today,
when special or unique items convey the high level of skills needed to acquire it - or the cash
available to purchase it.
Photojournalist Robbie Cooper’s Alter Ego project, which photographed gamers and paired
them with their in-game avatars, has recently been published as a hardcover book. This is an
enlightening look at a random slice of gamers of all kinds. Excerpts are available on the BBC
News Web site at “In pictures: Online gamers unmasked,”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/05/technology_online_gamers_unmaske
d/html/1.stm.
3
A study is currently being undertaken at Cleveland State University looking at text messages
from characters in television shows. The USA Network and Bravo both have complex Web
sites to give additional opportunities for views of their popular cable dramas and reality shows
a chance to interact further, creating strong parasocial interactions, thought to be explained
by the uses and gratification theory. The team of graduate students are doing context analysis
on text messages from fictional characters in “Monk” and “Psych” and from contestants in the
reality show “Workout,” all of which have extensive Web pages with blogs ostensibly written
by the shows’ characters, chat rooms to interact with other fans, and highlights from episodes
available for viewing in a computer browser. It is thought that it may become a new trend in
advertising and broadcasting to incorporate mobile media usage into blanket media coverage,
which has already included Internet channels with print and audio/video broadcasting.
4
In the emailed “Network World's Convergence & VoIP Newsletter, 05/07/07,” Larry Hettick
describes attending a video conference at a facility built by the Cisco networking company,
called the TelePresence Center. The room was set up so participants sat on one side of a
table facing three HD screens. Hettrick said the other participants at the distant location
“looked and sounded like they were across the other side of the table; if fact the two “halves”
of the table were actually located in Herndon, Va., and in San Jose, Calif.”
According to the newsletter, there seemed to be only two things missing - participants couldn’t
shake hands, and they had to exchange business cards electronically instead of across the
table.
It’s interesting and apt that a company would use the name TelePresence for this next-
generation video conferencing solution, although I’m sure that most of the business users
don’t know the theory behind the name.