The way that videogames have been played has evolved drastically since their inception. Originally, they were only played at an arcade and required money per play, but throughout the last fifteen years or so the introduction of the internet facilitated this evolution into the consoles that we have today. One of those consoles the Xbox, produced by Microsoft (Wikipedia), has been on the forefront of both gaming and cultural evolution. The Xbox has created a sub community within the entirety of the gaming community that is made up mostly of people who own one of the consoles and to a lesser extent, anyone just interested in them in general. This community uses the internet to interact with one another all across the globe at any time, and they do this through multiple ways. Those who own the console can use any online site such as Reddit, and other blogs while also using the message and chat features present within the Xbox, where as those interested must rely on the sites only in order to communicate, if they communicate at all. All of this has created a platform with which people who want an “escape” from daily life can enjoy the company of others who have similar interests.
This is the home page of the Xbox, the someplace where the interactions take place, notifications appear in the bottom middle area of the screen.
This community is facilitated by the developers of both the Xbox and the games themselves and then this information is processed and then reacted to by the rest of the people that constitute this group, i.e. the gamers themselves. Any person regardless of age, race, ethnicity, and gender can be a part of any of the game communities that are a sub part to the larger Xbox community, but all games have a core audience, but that doesn’t mean the whole audience falls into that category, just a large amount. A person will create an online persona with a “gamertag” that people can use to search them up and add them as a friend or send some kind of communication. This person can control the amount of information that can be shown to a complete stranger, such as their name, the games they play, etc. You can however receive invites to join a verbal party, something where you actually talk to one another, this requires a microphone of some sort and an internet connection. Or you can just receive a message much like a text from the individual you can them respond to that with a message back, turning it into an actual chat. All of the interactions that happen are done through the device and the use of a controller is what gives the individual themselves the “control”, a notification is received that alerts you when something occurs. But recently the people over at Xbox have evolved the community to allow cross play with other consoles, such as PC (Forbes). This has increased the people who can be interacted with tremendously however, with this there is less control over the type of interactions that occur. These interactions can take place daily as simply logging on introduces you to the possibility of being contacted.
This is the main type of text related communication, as you can see it is set up much like a typical message board or text message.
All of these contacts are filtered through the Xbox itself or the joint phone app that gives the person access to the full features of their Xbox account, except for the ability to play the games through it. Not being able to directly access the game through the phone can cause some challenges but the features that are present do more than enough to counteract this and create a space that communication and interaction are vital. Not everyone in the community uses the app as most probably do not know about it, and the features that it offers. But everyone who has an Xbox can interact without ever knowing if the other is on a phone or not, so long as the interaction is not in the game itself. This system does not present many restrictions as far as the place of the interactions of this community. This can further be seen by the numerous different websites, blogs, and discussion forums that bring people together to discuss this community as a whole. The limits of this community is the internet itself and the sharing mechanisms that go along with it.
These people that actively involve themselves in the community, do so as a means of entertainment and “escape” from the real world. When asked about his Xbox use, my friend stated, “Playing games while talking to my new friends here or old friends that live in different cities, I always feel connected to them even though we don’t see each other every day”. This use also largely come from his use of the Xbox as a “break from my daily routine of classes as a way to clear my mind”. This is the case for many users but then there are a few who are “pioneers” on the gaming community whose input is taken as more important, these are the full time gamers who can make a living off of their skills in a certain game and use that to influence all the community. These people have obtained this celebrity level and this notoriety can help to increase the online community as more people can begin to get into gaming and then use the Xbox as he more casual player do or strive to become one of the best so they can have an influence in something.
The Xbox is a growing community that has players there from the start 15 years ago, to new players that just found out about videogames. This large player base means that the amount of traffic in the system is huge and for that new rules must be implemented to bring a sort of order to this, whether these are necessarily good or bad is to be deemed by the community. But beyond this an Xbox connects people who would most likely never meet each other in games designed to have a good time and take a “break” from the real world. The actual system is merely a conduit for all the people to meet in this space, and in that way, flaws happen and things may not go as planned. Nonetheless, the community sticks by one another even when differences may arise, because they have all chosen tis one device to spend their time on and communicate with.
Sources:
Interview with friend who remained Anonymous
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox
https://www.csoonline.com/article/3264658/privacy/microsoft-to-ban-offensive-language-from-skype-xbox-office-and-other-services.html
https://www.dailyworld.com/story/opinion/2018/04/05/cyber-world-more-trick-than-treat/479938002/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2017/10/17/microsoft-sony-nintendo-ps4-is-becoming-the-odd-console-out-from-xbox-one-and-switch/#32b66ff02beb
Interview with friend who remained Anonymous
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox
https://www.csoonline.com/article/3264658/privacy/microsoft-to-ban-offensive-language-from-skype-xbox-office-and-other-services.html
https://www.dailyworld.com/story/opinion/2018/04/05/cyber-world-more-trick-than-treat/479938002/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2017/10/17/microsoft-sony-nintendo-ps4-is-becoming-the-odd-console-out-from-xbox-one-and-switch/#32b66ff02beb