Border Blending:Multiplayer Online Game Players' Relationship In Social Interaction

This article selects different types of multiplayer online game players as the research object,and takes in-depth interviews as the main research method.From the perspective of the “strong and weak ties” theory in the field of social network,the research focuses on the social interaction between players inside/outside the game and the formation and development of their relationship.The research first examines and analyzes the multi-level online game player's network of relationships at the mid-to-macro level.The study found that social interaction between players has become one of the core gaming behaviors in multiplayer online games.Under the combined influence of the rational choice of tools and the need for realistic interaction,players have formed a network structure that spans the boundaries of the game,blends online and offline,bridges virtual and reality,and has multiple levels of clear relationship networks.Based on the overall grasp of the mid-to-macro level,the research specifically analyzes the formation and development of player relationships at the micro level,and focuses on the role of social interaction in the establishment,maintenance,promotion or fragmentation of relationships.The research found that in the process of establishingrelationships,players establish different relationships in the “mobile and different world” through the gifts of circulation,the need for joint play and the perception of collective emotions.Social interaction here reconstructs the relationship network between the player's virtual and reality dimensions;while in the maintenance and stabilization of the relationship,game players look for "anchors" inside and outside the game during social interaction,by finding multiple fixations,The needs of being-togetherness,the enlarged similarities between players,and relying on the convention formed based on the community of game players to maintain and stabilize the relationship between players;while the relationship is growing or breaking,social interaction is an attempt to cross "Boundary" behavior.The social interaction between players can form intimacy and trust across the game boundary through "anchors",and expand the virtual and reality boundaries with each other,so that the relationship between players can be further improved.But the boundaries of player individualization still exist,which may also cause the relationship between players to be stagnated.However,in summary,the relationship between players is still still generally follows the path of “the individual / collective communication——a mixture of individual and collective communication——the re-aggregation of the individual communication”.Although the ties can be strong or weak,the relationship never exists a priori,but is formed and developed dynamically in the interaction.At the end of this article,we focus on where the relationship formed in the network/games should be placed,how the trust between players dynamically accumulates,and where the boundaries of different worlds are,In order to explore the cultural context how actors transcend individual and collective,virtual and reality,online and offline binary opposition in network society.