CSCP, "Third Places," and Online Videogames

Ray Oldenburg, an urban sociologist, tells us that within society there is a "third place" outside of the first and second places of home and the workplace. He says that this "third place" exists when people gather together at a certain neutral local and interact on a level playing field regardless of social status.

A team of researchers from The University of Melbourne has used this concept as a way to understand the new trends in online videogaming and computer supported cooperative play (CSCP) illustrated by Microsoft's XBox Live. In particular, these researchers focused on how identity management and voice communication promote this socialization.

For this study, the researchers gathered together five groups of three experienced videogamers to play games on XBox Live for one hour and encouraged to interact with players who were completely unaware of the study. Afterwards, in a group discussion, players voiced their reactions. Test subjects preferred playing people to playing the computer but wanted to be matched with players of a similar ability and wanted to know at least a general identity of their anonymous competitors. The question of the voice channel produced interesting results: although many of the users thought that the voice channel was an excellent innovation, many were reluctant to actually use it either due to difficulty of use or the lack of contextual cues to determine who you are talking with at any given time.

Overall, the research concluded that identity management is important in such large-scale CSCP games to promote the trust and security found in real-world "third places." While many gamers do agree that voice communication is one helpful way of facilitating this, easier technology and programming may make such a vehicle more useful.