Gamespot is an online magazine devoted to the world of gaming. With sections of the website dealing with a different platform and endless pages within these sections each presented as an article whether it be a review, preview, feature or simply a news article, there is plenty of chance for the users of the site to comment on any item they see fit, whether they agree or disagree with the subject at hand.
In the forums section of the website it is similarly split into sections and subsections within each "room." For the purposes of this assignment I looked into the Xbox 360 forum, and several categories within it. Firstly I looked at a thread titled "Achievement Hackers brought down today". On an Xbox 360 console playing games unlocks achievements which generates a gamerscore for your profile. Recently there have been many users utilising hacking technology in order to alter their gamerscores, making them higher without actually playing any games. This was an interesting thread to observe, as it has grown to 6 pages of responses. As each page holds approximately 18 posts, length depending, it is clear to me that this issue is very important to Xbox 360 gamers in this online community. Users often "flame" the people who have cheated to enlarge their gamerscore, calling them cheaters and various other insults. One user, named DZBricktop, said "I think achievements on games that i really, really enjoy, are great. But overall points mean nothing. But for games like Just Cause, Hitman Bloodmoney, CoD2, Crackdown, etc., i love the achievements. Because on games like those that i had fun playing, i enjoy going through the game more than once and unlocking some cool achievements." Another user, named volcomstoner180 said "man those cheaters got what they deserved. that sucks for them they cant ever get the same achievements again even if they do it legit."
The users are constantly debating over whether or not is fair of microsoft to enforce such a harsh punishment, with some saying that cheaters deserve it and others arguing that its pointless because a gamerscore doesnt actually mean a thing. As these forums are moderated like many other places, users cannot be aggressive in the way they exert their opinions. So a whole lot of slang is used, such as noob to describe someone new to the xbox, or w@k to say something isnt very good, its whack.
I dont think they would discuss such issues in the same way offline, because there is a lot more consideration of others in a spoken conversation, and a speaker couldnt get away with being so confrontational without some sort of backlash in a spoken conversation. Online someone can post a retaliation to your post, but you can choose to ignore it completely.
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2 comments:
Nathan,
This does sound an interesting site that you looked at. What would be the point of people altering gamescores without playing them? Surely they'd just be cheating themselves? It all seems a bit pointless to me? I was glad that you applied the terminology of 'flaming' into your discussion. I think the points you make about how people respond differently in forums compared to online are valid, and worthy of further discussion?
All the best
Emma
Hey Emma,
Yes I definitely agree with you here, being a gamer myself i must admit I was rather biased whilst writing this, as not only is it dishonest at its core it is cheating, and im glad microsoft have found this. Gamerscores are a new media technology "prestige" as a fellow gamer anywhere in the world can see your score and form a judgment of how good a gamer you are based upon it, attaching the prestige of a higher opinion if you have a higher score. It is all rather pointless as the score does not actually do anything but further your reputation in the gaming community, but try telling that to a die hard gamer!
Nathan
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