Multiplayer Online Games: Origins, Players, and Social Dynamics

Multiplayer Online Games (MOGs) have become a new genre of “play culture,” integrating communication and entertainment in a playful, computer-mediated environment that evolves through user interaction. This book comprehensively investigates the technological origins, human factors, and social dynamics of MOGs, including online dating and online gaming; augmented games and virtual reality; serious games; eSports and game streaming; casual and mobile games; and the growth of indie games. MOGs represent a highly sophisticated, networked, multimedia and multimodal Internet technology, which can construct entertaining, simultaneous, persistent social virtual worlds for gamers.