I want to share my experience in virtual community. Once there was this MMORPG massive multiplayer online role playing game. It had only few but quite popular servers in my country. Biggest one had around 1500 people playing at the same time. It also had web forum which many of payers visited.
This server ran for couple of years but now it's almost 5 years after that game server closed but the forum is still active to this day. Around 200 people log in this forum and write few hundred posts every day. Most of them could be called spam, some users use forum just as chatting board, some post the news or game screenshots or discuss sports or political events or share funny pictures or jokes. Almost every day there are few new topics asking for suggestions for something. Last one was about electronic shavers.
Personally forum helped me to choose best laptop to buy, explained few package mailing laws, helped to fix my car, several times helped me to fix my computer problems and lot more. I also repay by suggesting to other users problems and posting funniest pictures or jokes I found on the internet. Many people make choices depending of these comments rather than for example consultants in shops.
Most of the users had never met each other in real life, only see their avatars and nicknames and can only briefly know what their professions are only by reading many posts. And still some members got a well deserved reputation over the other members. I personally could maybe tell their professions only for couple people but i respect them for their posts but I don't have any need to met them in real life. Very rarely a new member appears, and most of the times if he wants just jump in into the conversations is being just bulldozed down.
There is only one great risk in it. I don't know if it could be called addiction or just really hard habit but how do you call it when people check several times a day for few weeks when the forum server is down and they cannot reach the forum. You tell me because I was also refreshing forum tab many times each day. Every time I turn on computer first thing is to check whether there are new messages or replies to my comments.
Users of this forum have very different jobs, vide range of age, very different hobbies and the only thing that linked them together in the first place was just a computer game. And still I think it could be called rock solid (virtual) community.
I think as in any other social network people tend to get 'addicted' but is this feeling of being involved and belonging to a community what makes you keep playing and coming back.
ReplyDeleteI don't think is bad as long as you don't lose the sense of reality and that there is also a world out there other than the virtual world.