The practice of convergence, participatory culture, user-generated content, and so forth has many implications both socially and professionally. Professionally speaking, it changes the nature of which media content is produced and how media companies interact with their consumers. Socially, it alters the way in which people conduct their daily lives and interact with one another.
From a professional standpoint, apart from the legal point of view (further explained in ownership), it alters media product tremendously. Media producers are now more incline to produce only half a product, leaving the rest to the consumers to piece the other half. In a way, this benefits media companies because it cuts the cost of production significantly, especially now that production cost are big. The games industry, as we have explained, releases their games engines (middleware) for consumers to purchase, which is generally cheaper than producing an entirely new game, and they still get to retain ownership of the end product. (Castronova cited in Graaf & Washida, 2007) Piracy wouldn’t be an issue mainly because the game changes constantly even after publishment. (Graber & Burri-Nenova, 2010) Apart from that, the interaction and communication between producers and consumers are greatly altered. It used to be media producers commanding the media but now they have to cater and compromise with consumers, knowing that consumers are well aware of their ability to dictate the success of product.
From a social aspect, the main focus here would be how the games industry thrives on human interaction within a game. As was mentioned, the success of a MMOG is influenced by the players’ relationships with one another in the virtual world. With that in mind, games publishers seek to facilitate social interactions of players within the game world. As Graaf and Washida (2007) stated in their book, Information Communication Technologies and Emerging Business Strategies, people conduct their community life and social relationships within these spaces. It is these things that keeps players in tact with the game and in turn spends more money on it and contributes to the developers’ profits. To further establish players’ interest in the game, developers would initiate official forums on the Internet where players can further discuss about the games.
In summary, the practice of convergence impacts greatly from both a professional and social aspect. The dependence of both producers and consumers justifies Jenkins’ theories of convergence.
FROM PACMAN TO POOL 