Online Gaming and Voice Communication

Online gaming is connecting your gaming console to other gamers through the Internet and playing with them or against them in a variety of games. Online gaming creates social relationships between gamers. We live in an era fueled by technological development. Each new discovery changes the way we communicate with each other. Gaming is becoming a more an easier and more socially acceptable way to interact with people. In a study conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project reported that online gaming has already become a commonality in the youth market. An astounding 65 percent of students are gamers. (Villarreal, 2003) With the popularity of gaming increasing, more people are playing video games. The invention of online gaming allows players to interact with one another in a 3d world. Before they were forced to communicate via text based communication, but has now moved into the realm of voice and 3-d cooperative play. (Gallaga, 2000) Voice communication is a huge step in this medium because it allows players to communicate with one another while they are playing. ''Now I can talk trash without getting killed in the game because I'm typing on a keyboard,'' said Joe McCloud (Takahashi, 2002) Each new emerging medium of communication shapes the overall way we communicate with one another and deserves to be studied to understand how this affects us. The dependent variable is the amount of self-disclosure, and the independent variable is the amount of online play with voice-enabled communication. Online gaming as a form of computer-mediated communication is increasingly important as the youth market increases and their buying power expands.

Research shows that gamers form increase liking and trust with the addition of voice communication in online gaming. (Hughes, 2003) Voice communication in online gaming is a form of computer-mediated communication. “The headset feature adds an extra dimension to the fun and strategy, because the game calls on you to work on a team, and it helps to bark directions, questions and encouragement back and forth.” (Villarreal, 2003) Voice communication combined with online game-play is a huge step towards intimacy and social bonds through the gaming medium. ''Sony has some support of voice, but I find it works much better with Xbox Live,'' Chung said. ''And that lets you talk about the game and your strategy and really get to know the gamers that you meet. After you die a few times together, people start getting into it.'' (Takahashi, 2002) The social presence theory informs us that text based communication doesn’t enforce the strength of social bonds as much as face to face communication does because it deprives people of the sense that they are jointly interacting with one another. "We decided online gaming without voice is like playing football in the dark," says Allard, general manager for the Xbox. "It's possible. But as soon as someone turns on the lights, it's like, wow, what a difference." (Chmielewski, 2002) Voice communication is closer to face to face because voice intonation is a form of social cues that leads to strong interaction and bond forming. ''It's just like having someone playing with you in your living room,'' said Brady O'Connell. (Takahashi, 2002) Sony’s Playstation 3 delayed the console’s release for months just to allot time to fully develop the system’s network capabilities. Phil Harrison is the president of Worldwide Studios for Sony Computer Entertainment. Harrison stressed that the future of Sony gameplay will be in online gameplay. Sony will go as far as allow video conferencing during play. Harrison said, "We're going through a radical change. We will be creating and servicing a network and this represents a fundamental shift," he said. "I fully expect the developers conference will be focused on this shift from a disc-based business to a network-based business." (Kim, 2006) John Allard, general manager of Microsoft Xbox division believes in online gaming so much that he said, “ [online gaming will be] the tipping point that will change the video industry’s place in the entertainment world, and catapult gaming beyond the scale of comic books, way beyond, to the scale of TV.” (Davies, 2002)

For game developers, the opportunities these trends present are enormous. But unlike in the past when success depended on leveraging the latest technological advances, the key to capitalizing on the trends in online play lies in understanding the sociological