Traditional media generally follows a linear production cycle that begins with the Author, who then creates the text, which is then distributed and lastly consumed by the audience. Managing this type of audience is considered a rather easy and straight forward process. The marketers first identify a target market and then the advertisers deliver a product that the market can consume. This involves nothing more then a one-way communication process and basic quantitative research. The main concern is how many people use the media product and furthermore it was based around ‘market share’. It is appropriate to look at the audience as a mass market and therefore deliver one message that fitted all. (Humphreys, 2003,p. 2)
Today’s audiences are emerging as somewhat different. The audience has managed to escape and is now resisting delivery. Consumers have seized control and now expecting and even demanding that corporations will not only listen to their views, criticisms and input, but they must also enter into active dialogue with them. The traditional marketing has given way to a more open-ended exchange between producers and consumers. The producer is learning to build relationships with the audience and more importantly making sure the audience is ‘bonding’ with the actual media product. (Banks, 2002,p. 188-189) Research has also shifted and is now more focused on using qualitative data rather then quantitative. The media industry is concerned about the quality of the relationship rather then how many people used it. The new audience has different practices, expectations, materials, tools and technology. (Jenkins, 2003,p.1)
An area of new media that is driving this innovation is massively multiplayer online gaming (MMOG). A determinant of this change is technology, in particularly on-line networking. A recent new employment in the media industry has been introduced and businesses are developing, implementing and assessing strategies to exploit the World Wide Web. The Internet introduces a potential new e-commerce market that can be sold services, information and product. (Banks, 2002,p. 188) At first the E-Commerce markets aim was often to accumulate as many numbers around a particular interest area, and then form a stable base of regular users who could be sold to advertisers. (Banks, 2002,p. 189) This traditional ratings process saw a recent crash and a decline was evident in the ‘market share’. It was here that it was realized the audience can escape the net and ignore any constructed advertising techniques. As John Banks (2002,p.189) said “Internet technologies and the users forming around them are in the process of constructing a very different audience...� The internet-based communication tools and technologies enabled consumers to archive, annotate, appropriate, and reticulate media content into ways they desired. It was at this stage that the audience began to construct different expectations, and for the first time the media industry was forced to listen and enter into active dialogue. Corporations began to use interactive new media to solicit feedback. This was via e-mail and interactive websites that are now emerging to be important and influential intermediaries. They are helping actively manage the relationship between the broader online fan base and the corporation. This data is helping corporations understand the emerging trends in audience/consumer practices, expectations and demands. (Banks, 2002, p. 189)
Gaming creators have become aware that simple demographic statistics are no longer enough to establish a relationship with the user; statistics say nothing about their tastes, preferences and purposes. Gaming creators base their research around fan-based content. The gamer’s audience is something to be built, dynamically negotiated and coordinated. (Banks, 2002, p.191) Because of this development in consumer relationships and technology the online gamers are now actively contributing to the activity in the gaming networks by creating their own content through the activity of playing and through the creation of new ‘mods’, new levels, new ‘skins’ and new modes of play. This content is then used by the development companies who then produce it and release it for commercial trade. As the gamers become co-creators, the traditional productive cycle is forced to adjust. (Humphreys, 2003,p.2) This new feature has partly defined the relationship between gaming creators and gaming fans in a range of complex ways. This relationship has been shaped with a series of internal interactions, tensions, negotiations and comprises. A key expectation of hard-core gamers is that game companies will now actively listen to, engage with and support the fans that form around game titles. Fanatical gamer fans expect that game development companies will build a collaborative relationship with them. (Banks, 2002, pp. 194-195)
The result of this new production cycle is massive turnovers which Hollywood box office rival. In the U.S.A computer and videogame software grew eight percent in 2003 to $7 billion. (Humphreys, 2003,p.1) This new medium is ultra engaging and has the player population demanding more complex physics and graphic engines. As the technology grows the gaming fans ability to be part of the vary materials that constitute to the gaming network also grows. These trends give the creator and the gamers a closer engagement, which allows the gamer to be part of the network itself. This dynamic suggests that gamers are increasingly co-creators.
1. Banks, J. (2002) "Gamers as Co-creators", in Balnaves, M., O'Regan, T, and Sternberg, J. (ed.) Mobilising the Audience, Queensland: University of Queensland Press, pp. 188-212.
2. Humphreys, S. (2003) Online Multi-user Games: Playing for real, Brisbane: ANZCA 2003 (Conference 9-11 July 2003)
3. Jenkins, H. Interactive Audiences? The 'Collective Intelligence' of Media Fans, retrieved August 10, 2004, from http://web.mit.edu/21fms/www/faculty/henry3/collective%20intelligence.html
Massively_Multiplayer_Online_Gaming
Erin Tainsh 15:05, 15 Oct 2004 (EST)
