Graduate Student, School of Anthropology and Conservation
Thesis Title: Playing together and ritualization in online games
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Michael Fischer
David Zeitlyn |
About
With a background in communication studies (Bachelor's and Master's degrees), I am now pursuing a PhD in social anthropology at University of Kent at Canterbury. Being an admirer, user and researcher of new media, I am interested in the interactive transformations of society and technology, the ability of new media to lead to the establishment of online communities and how the social context informs the way technology is designed and used. In addition to theory building research, I have a strong interest in applied research, in particular, user experience research. As technologies and various parts of our lives are increasingly interconnected, concepts and principles stemming from online games research can be adapted to other types of technologies or products and inform design and marketing processes.
Online computer games are increasingly seen by game studies and industry as `more than games', i.e., places where players form and maintain relationships by playing together. However, currently, these practices of playing together and their roles for gameplay and the relationships of the players are not presented and explained in an integrated manner. In this context, my research focuses on exploring social aspects within and around two online games, World or Warcraft and Star Kingdoms. Specifically, I investigate the emerging practices of playing together with fellow players, friends, family and romantic partners and their functions in an integrated fashion. To achieve this aim, an ethnographic study was conducted (using participant observation and semi-structured interviews) and the data were analysed qualitatively and quantitatively through a ritualization framework inspired by a multidisciplinary perspective on secular ritual (coming from anthropology, communication and media studies and social psychology). Within this framework, ritual and ritualized play (but also ritualization as a process) were defined as referring to practices through which the game is enriched with new meanings that go beyond the game being `just a game'. These new meanings include those centred on relationships/social interactions and identity.
