While online games strip away many of the cues that foster empathy and cooperation, they also introduce important new avenues for connection. Understanding this is essential for designers seeking to build communities where players treat each other with respect and understanding.
- Design isn’t neutral. Game systems and mechanics have a profound impact on player behavior and community dynamics. Designers must consider this social impact from the start.
- Designers must actively counteract dehumanization and the erosion of empathy via thoughtfully crafted mechanics and community systems.
- Giving players agency over self-presentation can foster inclusivity and connection, but can also be misused. Design needs to mitigate this risk.
- In online gaming, parasocial relationships — one-sided connections with figures like streamers, characters, or communities — influence player behavior, shaping their attitudes, choices, and interactions within the game and its community.
- Designers have a unique opportunity to study online social evolution in action. Paying attention to how players adapt and innovate informs better design.
Challenges to connection in online spaces
Researchers are increasingly studying the unique ways we communicate and build connections online. While some dismiss online interactions as “not real,” the social dynamics and relationships formed in these spaces have very real consequences. Multiplayer games are at the forefront of this social evolution — our designs hinge on understanding how players interact, offering valuable insights for improving cooperation in all digital spaces.
Deindividuation
While games promise connection, they often operate in digital environments that strip away our humanity. Reduced to text, avatars, and sometimes voice, we lose the subtle cues essential for social understanding. This deindividuation makes it easier to view other players as obstacles or tools, rather than as individuals with their own thoughts and feelings. The resulting disconnect fuels the disruptive behaviors that undermine online communities, ultimately causing harm and diminishing the well-being of those involved.
Absence of social norms
Much of our face-to-face behavior is governed by unspoken social norms that evolved for effective cooperation. Digital spaces often lack these nuances, leading to misunderstandings and a decreased sense of social obligation toward others. This vacuum can be particularly challenging in cross-cultural play, where different norms further increase the risk of misinterpreting actions and intentions.
The temptation to “other”
When social cues and a sense of shared humanity are diminished, it becomes easier to categorize others as different and less deserving of empathy. This can lead to negative stereotyping, particularly of players from marginalized groups or cultures different from our own.
Beyond reduced cues: Evolving social signals
New forms of communication
While traditional theories like “reduced cues” suggest online communication is inherently limited, it’s clear that society is evolving new systems of social signaling. As game designers, we are uniquely positioned to shape this evolution.
Games are laboratories of social interaction — in crafting virtual worlds, we design the rules and tools that shape how players connect. We continually observe how players adapt existing tools or invent new forms of communication within our games.
By understanding and intentionally supporting these emergent social cues, we don’t just improve our games, we contribute to the overall language of online interaction and make it richer and more inclusive for everyone.
Trust, disclosure, and gating
Digital spaces offer unique dynamics for building trust. Online communication can feel impersonal, leading to defensiveness and limited self-disclosure. Yet the very same environment allows for greater control over self-presentation and pacing of interactions, which can impart a sense of safety and encourage quicker self-disclosure.
This duality is particularly apparent when considering cozy, community-driven games. Understanding this paradox is vital for designers:
- Greater self control — While control over self-presentation is empowering, it can also create a false sense of security, making players vulnerable to manipulation by those with harmful intent.
- Reduced accountability — The perceived anonymity of online spaces can lessen inhibitions, which can reduce shyness. This disinhibition can also lead to harmful behavior without the social consequences present in offline interactions.
- Opportunities for connection — For those facing social anxiety or insecurity, online spaces offer a chance to explore identity and form relationships at a comfortable pace. This can be a powerful tool for self-discovery.
Safety considerations for design:
- Manipulated trust — Design features that foster trust carefully to mitigate abuse potential. Ensure that there are safeties in place to dissuade and address bad actors.
- Balancing control and vulnerability — Empower players with options for self-expression, but pair this with systems that build awareness of potential risks.
- Intentional community building — Facilitate spaces where genuine connection thrives, making it harder for manipulators to exploit trusting individuals.
Early “virtual worlds” were excellent examples of this, affording players a chance to present themselves more in line with how they wanted to be seen. Research has even suggested that relationships formed online may have a higher success rate than those beginning offline. This could be attributed to the way online spaces allow individuals greater control over their self-presentation and the pace of revealing personal information.
When creating shared spaces, we have a duty of care to prioritize the safety and well-being of players.
Parasocial relationships
Parasocial relationships are one-sided relationships where we feel a sense of connection to a person we don’t actually know in real life. Celebrities, fictional characters, and even online personalities can become the focus of these feelings.
In the world of online gaming, parasocial relationships play a powerful role in shaping player behavior. Here’s why this matters:
- Streamers as role models — Popular streamers become influential figures in a player’s gaming experience. Their attitudes, playstyles, and opinions can shape how individuals approach the game and interact with others.
- Bonds with characters — Well-developed characters in games can evoke strong emotional responses. Players may form parasocial attachments, influencing their in-game choices, how invested they become in the story, and their desire to protect or support that character.
- Community ties — Online games often have strong communities built around specific content creators, esports teams, or even in-game factions. Players can develop parasocial connections with these groups, driving their sense of loyalty, community participation, and potentially even rivalry with other groups.
Research has suggested that parasocial relationships can have a detrimental effect on our emotional well-being, especially if we lack healthy attachments in our day-to-day lives. Also, people can develop image issues if they are holding themselves to unrealistic standards. Research is still early in this space (Lotun, S. et al. 2024).
Characters in your game have the power to shape perceptions at any age.
Power of immersion
Research on immersion in virtual reality has shown that a higher level of immersion can create more empathy than other media. This is because the stimuli in virtual reality experiences are closer to a direct experience; in other words, perspective taking is better in a fully immersive environment.
Game design as a force for change
While these issues are complex, designers are not powerless. Understanding this inherent disconnect is the first step towards designing systems, communities, and experiences that counteract these dehumanizing forces.
Now what?
In addition to the resources provided, if you’re interested in going deeper on any of these topics, try searching the following terms:
- Computer-mediated communication
- Deindividuation
- Attachment theory
- Parasocial relationships
- Shared humanity
- Nonverbal cues
- Emoji/emoticon semiotics
- (Digital) paralinguistic cues
See related content for more!
References
- Bacca-Acosta, J. et al. (2023). Insights into the predictors of empathy in virtual reality environments.
- Bargh, J. A. et al. (2011). Can you see the real me? Activation and expression of the “true self” on the Internet.
- Maltby, J. et al. (2006). Extreme celebrity worship, fantasy proneness and dissociation: Developing the measurement and understanding of celebrity worship within a clinical personality context.
- McKenna, K. Y. A. & Bargh, J. A. (1999). Causes and consequences of social interaction on the Internet: A conceptual framework.
- Lotun, S. et al. (2024). People perceive parasocial relationships to be effective at fulfilling emotional needs.
- McCutcheon, L. E. et al. (2002). Conceptualization and measurement of celebrity worship.
- Turkle, S. (2012). Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other.
- Walther, J. B. (1996). Computer-mediated communication: Impersonal, interpersonal, and hyperpersonal interaction.
- Walther, J. B. (2011). Theories of computer-mediated communication and interpersonal relations.
