Promoting Cross-Cultural Interaction in Games

Just a little about me. I’m Ray, a Communication and Chinese Major at Trinity University. Right now, I am looking at question three of our research survey, which asked our participants to elaborate on any cross-cultural experiences they have had in online worlds. Many of the participants talked about their experiences playing Final Fantasy XI, a massively multiplayer online role playing game that utilized an auto-translate feature, which allowed players who didn’t speak the same language to engage in simplistic communication. Despite this useful tool, many of the participants also discussed the limitations of it. Many said that more thoughtful conversations could not be done with this feature, and many more said even with the feature, many Japanese players were very hostile and had this “JP-Onry” mentality toward North American gamers, which basically meant they would never play with North American gamers.

Many of our participants also speculated on this hostility. Some said that it was the different playing styles between the Japanese and the North Americans. The Japanese value the team dynamic over the individual, and work together to complete quests. In contrast, North Americans are said to play selfishly in online and not really care about their teammates.

Others thought the animosity was because North Americans were very rude, and one other interesting viewpoint  was the hostility was due to the Hiroshima bombing. While I believe rudness is definitely an issue, and differing playing styles can also be a problem, I feel as though much of animosity can be attributed to the inability to communicate.  For any foreign player trying to play with a english player who has no knowledge of their native tongue, collaboration can be a little difficult. Add in a couple negative stereotypes floating around about a group of players online, and it can become difficult to get players from opposing sides to communicate, let alone collaborate on quests.  

 An interesting thing to note is that not everyone said that Japanese were hostile, a few players, some of whom previously studied japanese, were able to have pleasant interactions with the Japanese. So clearly, not everyone is being discriminated for speaking English. However, cross-cultural interactions seem to be, as one gamer put it, 50% hate and 50% love, and there doesn’t seem to be a simple way to get rid of all this animosity. So with that in mind, couple questions to consider.

1. What are ways to improve cross-cultural interaction in online virtual worlds?

2.  Should GM’s become an integral part of helping promote thes cross-cultural interactions?

3. How do we improve upon the auto-translate feature in FFXI and should it become a part of all online games?

In reviewing and analyzing the raw data from the survey results, it is becoming apparent that we all notice the barriers that restrict our interactions amongst one another.  Many of the responses were critical of the language barriers within games but also praised new technologies, especially FFXI’s auto-translator and Google’s new aim at providing live translations.  How developers will treat these emerging trends is still unknown to us gamers, but it seems more than reasonable to suspect that games in the near future will help foster cultural transactions.  But the criss-crossing of cultures may sometimes present challenges.  First, it is obvious but important to note the differences in cultures and cultural norms; how someone interprets communication will nevertheless be unique to another gamer on the other side of the world, how we cope with these (sometimes) “radical” differences to our own is daunting and mysterious, in a way.

Some respondents reported that cross-cultural interactions should not be forced upon the gamer, but instead it should be an option, or an opportunity.  Some gamers may choose to stay in their guilds or play with gamers that they enjoy playing with.  As some noted, isn’t that the point of a game: to have fun?

Question #4 on the survey asks, “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?”  Lucky for us, many view transnational interactions as a good thing, but many are critical or mildly skeptical of it.  As stated, language is a vital issue when analyzing interactions amongst gamers.  Gamers responded saying that they wish communication were easier and more efficient with non-English speakers.  Some gamers felt that broken English took away from their gaming experience, while others praised inproper English, some referring to personal experience commenting that they used games to learn and improve their English skills.  Many made friends in the process–even, get this, a couple got married after meeting through online games, take that e-harmony! (FFXI btw, I believe)

Yet, in this futuristic world we live in (yes, at least I think it’s futuristic!) the boundaries of reality and alter-reality (virtual worlds) are becoming less and less vague.  Technological Singularity poses new questions for the future of humans and humankind… but an essential aspect of the survey responses suggested that gamers just wanted to play with other gamers, other human gamers.  With the question of singularity unfolding, what does it really mean to be human and how will this definition change–it inevitably will?

Lots of questions surfacing with only hints of answers on the way.  Hopefully more research will provide more results alluding to progress.

Posts will be published on the WRI blog and “This Blog’s World” correspondingly.