Promoting Cross-Cultural Interaction in Games

4. In general terms, how do you feel about the ability to interact with players from other countries in virtual worlds? Do you view this as a good thing? Do you view this as a bad thing? Does it matter to you at all?

Overwhelmingly I can draw a few conclusions from the responses. Number one almost all of our respondents believe that transnational interaction in online games is good. While there were a few people who were indifferent or against it, this was the majority opinion. Secondly, the largest benefit mentioned was the ability to meet new friends and learn about new cultures without ever needing to travel. Finally the largest problem mentioned, was the difficulty to communicate between cultures using chat.

The fact that online games are now enabling people to become friends from halfway around the world is a wonderful blessing, in many ways. Not only does it allow people with similar interests to connect (much like a social network) it also helps eliminate barriers and preconceptions between cultures. Instead of seeing a culture as it is portrayed in music, movies, or television, the player is interacting with actual members of the foreign culture, and able to form their own beliefs about them. It helps remind everyone, that even though we live in different places we share the common trait of being human beings and therefore helps to unify the world and build cultural ties. Another thing is the fact that the Online game almost seems to establish it’s own culture. A virtual world is essentially a virtual country with laws, an economy, and culture. People learn to associate with this culture rather than only where they were born. This develops rich melting pot communities much like the origins of the United States.

Communication is a large issue in transnational gaming. It is the one area that technology cannot fix… yet. In online games communication is vital to the success of the group, unfortunately if you are playing with people from all over the world you run into language barriers when trying to coordinate your strategy. Final Fantasy XI changed that with it’s unique translation system, and while not perfect it is a step in the right direction. This is the most immediate problem needing to be solved in online gaming. Once language barriers are eliminated, essentially virtual worlds will become new cultures and new communities, with everyone associating with each other no matter where they are connected from.

These are just large points from my analysis. In my next few posts (over the next week or two) I plan to continue to elaborate from what I have discovered in reading these survey answers and continue to point out what can be done to further enhance transnational interactions, and what is so wonderful about them.