Going Social with Your Gaming - How Gaming has Transformed from a Lonely Hobby to a Social Activity

In the early years of gaming, it was for the most part a solitary pastime. Young people shut away in their bedrooms, isolated from the world as they stared into a glowing cathode ray screen. As computers, consoles and video games became more technologically advanced, this started to change. Multiplayer games, streaming, and online multi-communication applications have transformed gaming into a social phenomena. There are so many online games that you can play, even card games and games like word search that once only existed in the physical can now be played online. No need to worry about the fact that you left that deck of cards at home or left your puzzle book on the train. Just get online and start playing these games as you would in the physical.

Multiplayer games aren’t a new thing, despite what you might think, they have been around for quite a long time. The move towards more social gaming became much more prevalent as the first consoles were released. As Nintendo and Sega offered a number of ports for controllers on their consoles, games started to offer multiplayer modes.

However, video games didn’t make the real move towards being a full social experience until the advent of internet gaming. Some people would invite friends over to play multiplayer games before this, but that was the exception rather than the rule. The introduction of internet gaming changed the way people game forever.

While the modern gamer is versed in games like Fortnite, PUBG and COD it didn’t start that way. Counterstrike and Soldier of Fortune were two of the first online multiplayer games to really grab popularity in a mainstream way. Maybe it is because the open world environment combined with competition against many people resonates so well, either way war based games are still the most popular with online multiplayer games.

Over time things like speaking over headsets have been added to add an extra social layer to the games. Many people spend as much time interacting with their friends when playing Fortnite as they do in any other capacity.

Live streaming has taken the social aspect of gaming to the next level, by allowing gamers to share their experience with the world in real time and in the most vivid way possible. Live streaming has created mega stars and brought a sense of community to the gaming world. Watching a streamer on YouTube or Twitch is as enticing to players as playing a game in some instances. There are live chats included with most streams which allow gamers to be a part of the experience and interact with other players on a much greater scale than ever before.

There is no doubt that the gaming world has changed beyond recognition in the past years. It’s no longer a place for the socially inadequate. It’s a mainstream, social phenomena that will continue and expand. It remains to be seen what other technological innovations coming in 2019 and the following years will be introduced to further enhance the social aspect of gaming.