Simply over two years in the past, a pal of mine died of their sleep. It was sudden. Let’s name them Ash, though it is not their actual title. They have been extremely humorous, emotionally open, and type. And since Ash and I have been buddies on Steam, I do know precisely what number of days it has been since they died, identical to I do know what they have been doing earlier than they went to mattress that night time. They have been taking part in Sea Of Thieves.
Many instances over the past two years, I’ve checked out Ash’s Steam profile and the video games they performed essentially the most, and felt a want to play them too. It is a want I am unable to actually clarify, however to me, the report of what Ash was taking part in looks like not solely an genuine report of who they have been, but in addition a extra current one. On the identical time, I ponder if it is simply me being terribly self-involved, inventing an extant connection in a set of curated supplies, reasonably than in one thing actual.
Picture credit score: Eurogamer/Uncommon
Since social media exploded, virtually anybody who dies leaves digital footprints to comply with. How genuine is somebody’s Steam profile as an expression of who they’re or have been? I requested the Oxford Web Institute (OII), a multidisciplinary division on the College of Oxford that conducts analysis on, amongst different issues, how the web interacts with our day by day lives, if this may be pinned down and dissected by science.
Dr. Tamas Foldes of the OII, whose analysis background is in quantitative social and experimental psychology, outlines a number of caveats for serious about ‘authenticity’ on completely different social media platforms. In a scientific setting they might, for instance, conduct surveys the place people price how real they really feel in several settings, run experiments that manipulate variables like anonymity or viewers, observe posts to identify patterns of self-expression, or use a mixture of all of these issues.
“I point out this as a result of there is a good probability these methodologies aren’t significantly efficient at finding out deep and private elements of what it is wish to be human – comparable to authenticity,” he tells me. There is a scarcity of qualitative work on this space, Dr. Foldes explains, and the quantitative work is not standardised.
“With all these caveats apart, I imagine that folks’s on-line presences on social media can differ considerably from their offline selves,” says Dr. Foldes. “That is because of the influences of self-discrepancy growing with bigger viewers measurement.” It is also a lot simpler to have interaction in strategic self-expression on-line – consider how some social media platforms have inbuilt instruments like TikTok’s AR pores and skin smoothing, for instance. “However is the impact reported within the literature massive sufficient to say persons are inauthentic on on-line social websites? I do not suppose so.”
Picture credit score: Eurogamer/Involved Ape
One of many different video games Ash performed that night time was Stardew Valley, a recreation they’ve 320 hours in, and with which I’m additionally intimately acquainted. I’m going by means of phases of being hyperfocused on it, however am by no means disciplined sufficient to get previous a full 12 months, or to know what to plant when. Ash had a slight West Nation burr to their voice, and after they have been my Dungeon Grasp over a decade in the past, we used to joke that each NPC within the recreation was a farmer from Somerset. I think about they planted a really neat and exquisite farm, and that they performed multiplayer. I think about they might have liked final 12 months’s replace permitting pets, as a result of they liked their very own cats. However these are issues I need to solely think about.
I ask Dr. Foldes if folks behave notably in another way throughout several types of social media, and he says there’s some proof for this. “They type of have a platform-specific self. Every platform has its personal vibe, options, and viewers, which affect how authentically customers current themselves,” he says. “On Instagram, somebody may curate enhanced images for a large viewers, whereas on Discord they may share extra intimate ideas with a smaller group. Some customers even have a number of accounts on the identical platform.” However how does this map onto gaming, if in any respect?
Dr. Foldes explains that the video games somebody performs habitually can provide perception into their preferences, however aren’t wholly precisely. Even with a complete examine, the place folks enable researchers to trace their on-line and offline habits (one thing his lab is attempting to arrange), it would not be easy.
“Recreation decisions might be influenced by issues like social circles, developments, reductions, what’s accessible, and even simply how they’re feeling for the time being. Plus, many video games provide completely different experiences – you’ll be able to play the identical recreation competitively, creatively, socially, for the story, or to resolve issues,” says Dr. Foldes.
Sea Of Thieves just isn’t solely the final recreation Ash performed, however the recreation they performed essentially the most, with properly over 500 hours on report. It is chock stuffed with emergent participant behaviour and unwritten guidelines – for instance, sloops (the smallest ship that may be crewed by a lone participant) will band collectively in the event that they see a fellow sloop in bother. I do not know these guidelines, as a result of I am not a Sea Of Thieves participant, actually. I booted it as much as see if I might join with what Ash favored about it, however I most take pleasure in taking part in Sea Of Thieves alone – as a quiet journey, listening to the wind and the ocean. Ash performed it virtually on daily basis with buddies. I can see them raucous, giggly, leaping and adventuring by means of the digital world and understanding the entire silently-agreed bylaws as second nature. It makes me want I had performed with them, to see that model of them.
Picture credit score: Eurogamer/2K
One other recreation was Civilization VI, which is unsurprising. They have been a classicist, with a number of tattoos referencing Rome, or historical gods. In the event you’d requested me beforehand, I’d have stated that Ash most likely simply performed because the Roman emperor Trajan, but it surely seems Ash was superb at Civ, having received a recreation with each single chief and each single problem accessible. Making an attempt out Civ felt like a chore, as a result of I do not need the nous or endurance to both take pleasure in or get good at 4X video games, however I soldiered on till I seen that Ash did not appear to have performed it since early 2017. Time has moved on, and reset the ‘just lately performed’ part of their profile to learn (0), so I can solely see the record of video games they’d essentially the most playtime on. When Civ VI launched, Ash performed over 200 hours of it within the area of a few 12 months. I ponder what that 12 months was like for them.
“Actually, you’ll be able to inform rather a lot about somebody simply by taking a look at their Steam profile, if it is public,” says Dr. Foldes. He notes that Steam has some social options, it is extra restricted in methods to specific your self, which can essentially restrict how a lot you’ll be able to examine it for self-expression. “Nonetheless, as a result of Steam centres round shared gaming pursuits, long-term exercise information, and elevated anonymity it’d truly encourage extra real behaviour.”
“Some folks deal with elevating their social standing with ranges, badges, and a giant buddies record,” he explains. “Others are all about mastering video games and gathering in-game achievements, targeted on serving to others by creating guides and paintings, or take pleasure in ending video games however aren’t obsessive about getting each achievement.”
This makes me return and have a look at different areas of Ash’s profile. They have been largely a social gamer – their job, although they liked it, stored them in a comparatively remoted space – which may be very completely different from my very own habits. However I can see that they’ve an ideal rating on a few quarter of all of the video games they personal. It appears to be like like they went by means of intervals of being fixated on a recreation and completely caning it, earlier than shifting on (although Sea Of Thieves was a mainstay), which is like me.
Picture credit score: Eurogamer/Uncommon
They solely reviewed 5 video games, and really briefly, which makes me suppose they needed to spice up video games they thought have been particularly deserving. They thought Return of the Obra Dinn is likely one of the finest video games ever made, and I agree. Their Wishlist provides me pause, as a result of a few third of the record includes video games that I wrote about, wishlisted across the time I did so. If it is the case that they have been studying my articles persistently, they did not inform me, however it will have been very like them to do this. Alternatively, maybe I’m greedy for which means. Correlation just isn’t causality.
Dr. Foldes says that the digital footprints we depart behind “are and can proceed to be efficient in selling a way of closeness and even ‘realizing'”. In different phrases, Fb turning pages into memorials on the request of family members is helpful for these left behind. “If we go one step additional and think about ‘realizing’ to imply ‘attending to know somebody’s true self’ it will get tough. I can think about a diary being essentially the most intimate digital footprint somebody can depart behind. I do not know of many on-line social areas that come near that degree of genuine self-expression, however possibly when you already know somebody actually carefully, you already know the place to look.”
I wish to be clear and say that I am unable to declare the grief of Ash’s closest family and friends; I miss Ash in a approach that makes me textual content their cellphone quantity a couple of times a 12 months to say I hope they’re okay. However, and this can be key, although we talked usually by means of the web, it had been years since I might seen Ash in individual. Our friendship at this early-mid stage of our lives was digital. I’ve realised in scripting this piece, maybe belatedly, that I did not know Ash the gamer. I knew the storyteller, the one that was writing a ebook about Nausicaa from Homer’s Odyssey, and was sending me excerpts of it. However now they’re gone, as a result of they did not actually use Fb or Twitter or the rest, and their Steam profile is the one factor I’ve left.
You will most likely have heard the Henry Scott Holland poem about dying, the place he says he is “solely slipped away to the subsequent room”. After I have a look at Ash’s Steam profile, it’s as if, maybe, they’ve solely logged off for some time. They may log again on at any second.
