Dr. Rachel Kowert, this week’s guest.
Ever made a friend online through a video game, a gaming messageboard, or a service like Twitch or YouTube? Those relationships can be great, and I certainly have a lot of “internet friends” that I’ve never met in person. People have even met boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, and wives through video games –most often massively multiplayer online games. But sometimes parents and other professional pearl clutchers worry that you can spend too much time with online friends and that your life is the poorer for it.
In this episode I talk with Dr. Rachel Kowert (co-editor of the book The Video Game Debate) about friendships and other relationships formed in online games. Can these kinds of friendships substitute for offline relationships? Are they better or worse in some ways?
About the podcast:
Audio Credits
- “Robot Motivation” by The Polish Ambassador, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
- Wagon Wheel Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
- Over Under Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
Great if you can make friends online, but it’s much more difficult to do it in person.
I’ve been online gaming for 10 years. Women often become the focal point of thirsty guys, who have girlfriends, wives or are creepers wanting to have multiple online relationships with no commitment. Of course, there are many girls (or guys) seeking this type of attention from these thirsty guys, by having gamer tags like, massive jugs or blondebombshell. The online community has changed. Xbox has a club area that is filled with thirsty guys and predatory adults. Along with these thirsty gamers are children who play amongst them. I believe that children should not be playing with adults. Parents should secure the console so they can’t interact, but they often have no clue how to do it, nor do they realize what type of atmosphere the gaming community has become.
Creepers and predators have become very good at manipulation. With the right voice, the right words, and tone, they seek out that lonely, introvert, girl that is desperate for someone to love them.
The creepers will continue to jump around games, groups, clans until they find a that girl.