What it’s like to be a gamer in social media world ?
Monday afternoon. The hour is about 5.00 pm. We are sitting at Starbucks, while we are waiting of Spyros to buy a coffee. From the smell I guess that he bought a hot cappuccino caramel. He is sitting in front of us smiling, checking one last time his mobile and then the interview begins…
Firstly, let us introduce you to this interesting personality… Spyros is a young man, twenty-two years old, who studies in the Applied Mathematics Department in Crete, he owns a pup and is drummer in a band, named “Hidden Park”. As the majority of people today he also has a quite active social media “life”, which is mostly connected with his two hobbies: photography and mainly gaming. Gaming for him is a way of creative expression and at the same time entertainment and relaxation. It’s a kind of escape from the worries of real life. That’s why Spyros is involved in not only one but four different kinds of it. Concerning the electronic gaming he prefers the field of strategy and first person shooter, such as Bioshock, Total War or Call of Duty but except from that, he is into table-top gaming (role playing games) and Larp (Live action role playing). As he told us, Spyros spends a lot of time in his daily life for this hobby, especially for the second category (role playing games) and usually in evening hours, because as an undergraduate the rest of the day is dedicated to his studies…
Well, let’s face it, he has a social life, too!
For him gaming is a form of communication with the other players, that’s why he prefers playing in groups. What is interesting to mention here is that between online gaming and Lan, Spyros tends to choose the second category because he prefers to know the people with whom he plays. As gaming leans on collaboration, it is more enjoyable for him to cooperate with his friends.
We could say that this part of Spyros is inextricably linked with social media. Even more, they contribute to its processing because through them not only he communicates and collaborates with the rest of the players but also, via the online pages, he has a more extensive perspective of what is going on. For example, at Facebook he can visit the page of Requiem for Greece (LARP), so as to share content with others, such as photos, ideas or generally posts that concern the game. Skype is also a useful tool because even at RPGs or online gaming it helps them to communicate with each other and play through it. What is more, Facebook and Youtube is a source of information about all the categories of gaming whereas Spyros is updated for their evolution and progress. Finally, he also uses the gaming social network client “Steam” for the purposes of the game. Through it, our interviewee collaborates with other players so as to “run” their game.
Okey…We got it! Spyros is a gamer…well to be more specific..Spyros is a dedicated player and internet with its “secret powers” helps him to be even more into this. But when he is not meeting with it how does he use social media? An answer was the 9gag platform. To be honest it was expected…We all visit 9gag!!!
In general, his activity at social media started at the age of sixteen years old with the creation of a Facebook profile and then he continued with a Youtube account and a Flickr profile. Especially on Facebook, in which he is constantly connected through his mobile phone, Spyros told us that he tends to spend about six hours during the day. The main use of it is to communicate with his friends -especially other gamers- whose probably does not even know in person- that’s why in many cases he doesn’t even have their mobile numbers. Additionally, Facebook is a form of information for him about the news, taking into consideration that he doesn’t watch TV. In controversy with the biggest part of users, Spyros does not like uploading photos on his profile (for this purpose he uses the Flickr platform, which is more professional). He actually prefers to share music, movie’s quotes or funny stuff that may others like, too. Also, as he admitted Spyros is more keen on sharing content at other’s profile, except the fact is something “catchy” -so he is going to share it at his own “wall”-.
What is more, in our try to penetrate even deeper to his thoughts about social media, our gamer told us that he has done many tries to create a more professional profile rather than a personal one, but the fact that his friends love to share to it a type of inappropriate content, did not help to achieve it.
Furthermore, as Spyros believes that somebody can learn a lot of things about himself from the social media profiles ( online CV as he calls them), he is very careful of the stuff that either uploads or shares and sets only some issues as public, like photos or posts, for his social media friends to understand what kind of person he is.
Finally, Spyros believes that this new trend has to offer many opportunities to young people not only concerning the entertaining domain but also at the professional area. From a personal experience our interviewee revealed to us that on Flickr platform, an urban photo taken by him, had attracted an editor of a traveling magazine who communicated with him in order to collaborate…
It’s all about how smart somebody uses social media!!! ;)
Last But Not Least…
How all this action is connected with his mobile phone ?
Spyros, like most of us, had downloaded on his mobile the Facebook app, as well as, Flickr and Youtube. However, for him the most useful of those apps tends to be Facebook, in which he is constantly connected, especially in order to communicate with other gamers. Even if for him, the mobile phone is mainly a tool with communicative purposes, he can not disregard the usefulness of it for the gaming. He do have on it gaming platform or apps but also for the RPGs Spyros usually saves at his mobile different kinds of pdf with information and rules, so as wherever he is to have the possibility to have a look at it. Concerning now the collaboration with the rest players through it, he admits that it’s more immediate and quick for the communication between them. What is more, for the online games it’s the most safe choice of collaboration, so as not to lose internet connection while playing.
Nevertheless, Spyros supports that the “key” for his activities is internet and not that much the device. So, this is the reason why in the question “For how long you could live without your mobile phone?” he actually answers “If i have internet connection from somewhere else i withstand live without it for a long, long time. Otherwise, maybe for a week”.
That’s was an article created by the interview of Spyros Tzanakis (thank u for that!!!) as part of a general research for the use of social media by young people for the course “ Mobile Reputation” at CMC Panteion Uni.
