in writing from the copyright holders

John Halloran, Yvonne Rogers, Geraldine Fitzpatrick
unpublished
The social experience of multiplayer gaming is mediated by the communications tools that are available to use. Until recently, these have been largely text-based, but with the advent of new voiceover IP tools like Roger Wilco and Xbox Live, voice-mediated communication is becoming increasingly common. We present three studies of multi-player gaming, where we analyse what happens in terms of the social experience when players are given the opportunity of talking to each other rather than
more » ... To do this we use a conceptual framework called FFIPS, which stands for Form, language Functions, Identity, Presence, and Social protocols. Our findings show that voiceover IP for multiplayer gaming appears to be well-suited to supporting a distinctive and enjoyable social experience, both by providing high 'presence' (i.e., increased energy , engagement and vividness), and by revealing information about players' real identities. KEYWORDS Multiplayer games, voiceover IP, voice-based communications , text-based communications, social experience INTRODUCTION The scaling-up of computer games from single-player to multiplayer has meant that gaming can now offer an experience that is quite different from that of playing alone against a computer. Rather than an individual pursuit, multiplayer gaming has become a social experience-one that can constitute a 'social pleasure' [7].
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