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An observation is that the computer is becoming an extension of the brain. The internet is blurring the boundaries between the real world and the web and it is becoming harder to discern the difference. This is particularly so for gamers where the game is reality, for a time at least.
The research we are doing in Asia and in Australia on Youth identities and somatic metaphors is revealing a distinct persona (metaphorically represented by Still Waters running deep) that makes them suitable for the emerging gaming environment in Singapore and Australia and the much more advanced markets of Korea and Malaysia.
There is a number of trends that are driving interest in multiplayer games and affinity communities. Our 'Still waters' is personified by metaphors of hiding, the past and protection, has a strong desire to escape his/her own shaky and unappealing identity into another identity – be it to feel part of “my sports team” or “my band”. Gaming potentially becomes another means of sloughing off the identity imposed by their day to day lives or jobs.
Providing the opportunity to experience different identities in different gaming communities in a single night, meeting people from all over the world online and even adopting different roles using MMORPS has potential appeal to their escapist tendencies.
Gaming offers a safe way of meeting people and interacting – from your own bedroom – enabling 'Still waters' to try out different personas and feel better about themselves. If played out in more aggressive ways, it also potentially provides a degree of backlash against societies that stereotype you because you don’t have the best career prospects, best designer clothes and the widest circle of friends.
The female market is the key market for role play games - MMORPS. Fantasy is clearly better than reality for many – with make-believe now more possible, there is little doubt that this trend will continue.
For girls in particular, there is also a tendency to sentimentality. The past provides a more comfortable stage of being where there wasn’t the same pressure to be popular and cool – attractive to boys.
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