Virtual Community, Schmirtual Community

Virtual communities, physical/meatspace communities, hybrid communities.. Man, Thursday's communities discussion was rather interesting, but I think I have to say that I might be slightly more uncertain about communities than when the class session started. Several of the online, but not solely virtual, communities I am a part of online are basically extensions of pre-existing communities aka hybrid communities. For example, online gaming communities (Steam, Xbox Live, PSN) where most of my online friends are people that I knew and know outside of that community, Facebook, our blogging groups (the disparate levels of my contribution aside), etc.

While the communities noted above do have a virtual component, I am hesitant to refer to them as virtual communities considering Wilson's definition noted in this week's blog assignment. The communities I most actively participate in blur the line between virtual and not. So, I think I'll have to refer to what feels like kind of an obvious example in online forums and/or websites with commenting areas.

Now, I'm not deeply embedded in these communities and I kind of hit and run when I do directly participate in them. For example on a site like Engadget or Kotaku I might see an article that has something that seems noteworthy and I'll make a quick comment "replying" to the author of the article or other people who have made some comment that I usually feel is completely insane. I don't know these people, my entire impression of their sanity and other characteristics are completely dependent on the persona and voice they choose to project in the context of that site, article, and comment post. However, I recognize their names and typically know what to expect from their comment as soon as I see their name and I obviously have some sort of connection to that individual, even if it is tenuous. Beyond simply conversing with people there is a sense of belonging or obligation to these invisible characters in some cases.

In at least three instances I can recall someone has offered to share invites to beta products, usually Google stuff, and I've felt a sense of obligation to go back to the same community I got the thing from and share that with other people who might have missed out. Occasionally, these "beta" communities that are inadvertently created in sharing invitations with other people may continue to perpetuate these things.

There's no way I'd call these people friends, but I don't think friendships or tight relationships are required to create/be a part of a virtual community. I look at this situation much like my neighbors in meatspace. My neighbor and I are part of the same community, but we don't really interact outside the occasional hello or whatnot. Sure establishing ongoing interpersonal relationships on these sites might make one more apt to come back or get more involved, but the shared space, exchange of information, and parallel interests shape and make the community a unit.

These virtual communities haven't really bled into non-virtual interactions very often, but there have been times where I've read something someone in the virtual community said and I've shared that with someone I know in the physical world who shares the same interests, but isn't in that particular community. However, most of my interest in the topics of gadgets and games really take place online. Not because my friends don't share those interests, but that information is online and my interest in the topics basically reside on the web and with these communities now.

Obvious technological and economic barriers to entry aside, I think there has to not only be a shared interest, but also a shared level of enthusiasm or knowledge about the topic the community focuses on. Much like a neighborhood community and neighbors are defined by physical proximity, virtual communities are defined by mental(?) proximity. In regard to the communities I noted above, there has to be an interest, familiarity with, and understanding of games and consumer technology that is beyond a fleeting interest.

The stuff after the jump is basically more of the same, but I quickly mention a previous deeper level of involvement in an online community: Online RPGs.

The situations noted above are communities I often listen to, but actual interactions are sporadic and usually pretty quick. However, if I think back to middle school, I recall being pretty heavily involved in completely virtual communities that I was introduced to through a meatspace community and then migrated from the hybrid community completely into the virtual. Both of them involved gaming, but at completely different ends of the graphical/technological spectrum.

I had a friend who was rather interested in Dungeons and Dragons, but that wasn't really my cup of tea. However, he started playing MUDs (multi-user dungeon ?) and showed me how they worked, what client he used, etc. While its not much more than a pen and paper role-playing game like Dungeons and Dragons, text-based MUD RPGs somehow seemed cooler (in retrospect it combined two of the nerdiest things ever, computers and pen and paper role playing games) than sitting around a table, rolling dice, and waiting for my character to die so I had an excuse to go home. After that I played the beta version of a game released by Sierra, I think, called The Realm pretty heavily. Again it was more nerd stuff, an online RPG, but this time it was personal - I mean graphical.

Anyhow, these were more than programs that sat on a home PC, I had to connect to a server with dozens of other people and navigate my way through a shared space while carrying on conversations, trying to kill others, or fighting "computer controlled" enemies. Although I was playing the game, these virtual communities cropped up around the game and people from all over the world would be doing the same thing at the same time, talking about random stuff, or whatever. Although interactions didn't spread outside the context of each game, there were people I "knew" in each situation and I could give them stuff, help them, ask for help, etc. Not that I was super attached to these communities, but I was deeply engaged in the communities and would notice when people were gone for extended periods, permanently quit playing, game moderators changed, etc.