ABSTRACT
Digital phenomena have influenced the way people work, shop, study and communicate, among other activities. Furthermore, the way people play video games has been tremendously impacted by the Internet and digital devices. The possibilities of entertainment offered by video games have been considerably enhanced – and changed – in the past couple of decades due to the possibility of sharing these games with other players online. Our aim in this chapter is to provide an overview of the consumption of online games,
taking into consideration the state of the art in theory as well as research on the evolution of video games and online games in contemporary society. The Internet brought the video game phenomenon to the virtual world and converted the
games into one of the main consumption items of the digital age. According to recent research by the Nielsen Company (2010), Americans spend 10.2 percent of their online time playing games. Another recent study demonstrates that online gaming is one of the most likely reasons for compulsive Internet use (Meerkerk et al. 2006). In the online environment, the interaction between the real and the virtual is an important
aspect in understanding why these games are so fascinating. The consumption of online games is a continuous process (Malaby 2007), because only through playing will the gamer be able to develop his or her expertise. The creation and acquisition of value are not based on the purchase of the game, but on what is experienced while the game is played. The player of an online game helps to create a complex and nuanced virtual world. Their character and their digital virtual activities – their in-game labor – along with that of other players sustain the digital virtual space as meaningful (Denegri-Knott and Molesworth 2010). In the following sections of this chapter, we analyze the consumption of online games with a
focus on the evolution and the social and experiential aspects they involve. The first section is
an overview of the transition from offline to online game, followed by the definition of online games and by a section about the study of online games. Afterwards, social aspects of games are presented in two sections: virtual identities and interactions in virtual worlds. Then, an experiential elements section on game consumptions is presented, followed by our closing arguments.
