For our second assigned blog post, I decided to focus my efforts on Scrabulous.com, which is a gaming site where individuals have the opportunity to create accounts to challenge other account holders to the classic game of Scrabble for free.
Initially, I was surprised to discover that it took about 15 minutes before someone agreed to play a game with me. After several minutes of me attempting to request someone to play with, finally a user by the name of "Alpha Male" sent me a personal invitation to play with him. After fumbling around to get situated with the site, which I had never previously had firsthand experience with, I manged to figure out how to begin to play. I went first, and had about 30 seconds to create my word. Then, I noticed something interesting. "Alpha Male" stated "I can see that you're new at this so I will give you more time to get comfortable without the penalty of losing points". I was shocked at his nice gesture and thanked him for his kindness. While I was generating my words I noticed that he was sending me messages in the private chat column of the game. He told me that he was 24 years old, from the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and his name was Steven.
During my forty-five minute long game/conversation with “Alpha Male", I attempted to begin to analyze my impressions of his personality based on the Big Five personality traits we discussed in this course. With respect to his level of conscientiousness, he was very eager to lend me more time to get situated with playing the game, and explained the rules of the game to me every chance he could. He often asked if I needed any help or any more time if he noticed I was taking a long time to make a more. With respect to his agreeableness, he was very upfront about letting me know about his life. He told me personal information about his hobbies, how he started playing scrabble online, and what he liked about meeting new people. He was very extroverted, considering that he picked me out of the group and began to initiate conversation with me before i even thought to do so. He said that he was pretty much an open person and he liked to help people so that is why he tended to frequent gaming sites, and looked to play with newcomers.
My experience was along the lines of Hypersonal Theory and the self-disclosure aspect. He presented information about himself early on to both make me feel more comfortable, but I think he also wanted to make me tell him something about myself as well. I think that is why he presented himself as such a caring, helpful person.
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6 comments:
The concept of online gaming as a psychological space is definitely intriguing. In terms of your experience, I think it is clear that "Alpha Male" lent himself well to the Hyperpersonal Model, and the "big five" traits, but I wonder what kind of model would apply to his decision that you were new and needed more time (without facing a penalty, no less). For example, what kind of cues do you think you were giving off that led Alpha Male to believe that you were new (was it just that you were taking more time than what he was used to)?
Clearly your experience fits the hyperpersonal model. It seems that "Alpha Male" was initially nice, and from that your first impression was strong and positive. Did you expect that when you saw someone named, "Alpha Male" joined your game? I probably would have expected it was somebody with a big ego based on the person's chosen identity.
I find it very interesting that the other player picked up right away that you were a beginner. It goes to show that there are many social cues even in a synchronous online conversation that people can pick up on. In your example, the player may have been able to pick up on these cues because he may have had many conversations in that online game room before. If you spend a large amount of time in a particular online space, there become some very noticable social cues.
Lina Lee
Your entry is very interesting because not only did you explore a psychological space that I did not think of before but you also pointed out clearly how even one comment could allow one to make such an intense initial impression. Online gaming seems to be an internet phenomenon that allows people to form a connection instantly due to similar interests and hobbies. Perhaps that is why Alpha Male felt comfortable conversing with you in this particular psychological space. It would be very interesting to see if your impression would have been the same if you met Alpha Male in another site or situation. I also do agree that your experience fits the Hyperpersonal Theory well. It appears as if his first comment helped shape your general impression of him and it would be very interesting if you continued to speak to him expecting him to be friendly thereafter, which only enhanced his attributes.
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