Last Thursday's Wall Streeet Journal had an article titled "The Knights of Networking" which describes a online video game that allows users to play while communicating and socializing with one another. It is becoming a much more popular trend in social computing. RuneScape is an Englich based company, which is a free service and is very easy to download. These capabilities make it very popuular, esspecially among teenagers. Teenagers compare it to an alternative version of MySpace. The game has dull graphics, but adds an interesting and fun alternative to social networking.
This is yet another sign of the trend in social computing. As many consumers and advertisrs are looking for more targeted sites, Runescape is an example of an alternative that not only targets a new group, but engages socialization in a totally new way. There may be and should be other ways besides simply creating profiles to network with others. Maybe this approach is only interesting to yonger consumers, but that day may change. With online video interaction and online phone calls become more frequent and cheaper, there will be more "real life" ways to interact.
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