Investigating the aspects of

social education within

and implications for the

future

-First Person Shooter

-Exclusively online.

-Large focus on objective gameplay.

-Team-play crucial.

-TF2 usually seen as an immersive experience (Bennetsen, 2006).

Social Education in Virtual Worlds

-Examples such as Call of Duty (which showcases technological differences as well as the state of the world during World War II or the Cold War era.

-Grand Theft Auto series paints unique portraits of cultural and social differences between different decades, with games in the series based in the 80’s, 90’s, 2000’s, and 2010’s.

Social Education within TF2

-Team Fortress 2 has large focus on working as team, and helps teach fundamentals of teamwork and how to work as a unit to achieve a common goal.

-Players invest themselves socially andemotionally into the game (Arbaugh and Hwang 2006), falling into the team as a true team member.

-“Assist kill” system promotes partnership, feeling like you’re truly working together.

Items and Trade System

-Random drops prevent players from buffing themselves to reach higher in-game levels.

-Shirky’s Core Principles for Online Communities, community builds,Valve lets them and supports them.

-Trade system promotes an in-game economy.

Economy of the Virtual World

-Virtual economy used by many players to benefit in the real-world.

-Valuable items are often traded for money or video games.

-’Idling’ - (leaving the game idle within a specialised server to allow the player to receive their random weekly items)

Identity within TF2.

-Items within game let player customise classes to a certain degree.

-Players can get carried away with taunting and antagonising opposite team; cyberdisinhibition (Goleman, 2006).

-Players may forget the consequences of their actions due to removal of immediate punishment, (Jakobsson, 2002).

Social Identity of the Class System

-Classes each have different advantages and disadvantages that have to be considering when fighting for an objective.

-Strong examples are the use of Medics and Engineers.

-Players also tend to ‘connect’ with one main class that they will usually frequent.

Future

-Could be used by real life teams or groups to help indulge in group activities promoting teamwork.

-The unique gameplay design could help military forces to develop ‘thinking outside of the box’ strategic thinking.

-Violent nature of game prevents use with children, but could be effective with teens suffering from social anxiety disorders.

-Could have very effective use as a therapy.

-Removes the sudden and exposing wall of social situations and interactions.

-Future of virtual worlds is undoubtedly strong and likely to be filled with endless possibilities.

References

-Bennetsen, H. (2006) Augmentation vs Immersion, [Online] Available at: http://slcreativity.org/wiki/index.php?title=Augmentation_vs_Immersion, Accessed on: 26th December, 2011

-Arbaugh, J.B. and Hwang, A (2006) Does "teaching presence" exist in online MBA courses? The Internet and Higher Education 9 (1), 1st Quarter 2006, Pages 9-21

-Shirky, C., "Broadcast Institutions, Community Values," Clay Shirky's Writing's about theInternet: Economics & Culture, Media & Community, Open Source, 9 Sep. 2002 , [Online] Available at:lmp://shirky.com/writings/broadcast_and _community.html Accessed on: 28th December, 2011

-Goleman, D. (2006) Cyber-disinhibition, What is Your Most Dangerous Idea?, Edge, [Online] Available at: http://www.edge.org/q2006/q06_5.html#goleman, Accessed on: 26th December 2011

-Jakobsson, M. (2002) Rest in Peace, Bill the Bot: Death and Life in Virtual Worlds, in R. Schroeder, (ed.) The Social Life of Avatars, London: Springer-Verlag, 63-76