Bridging the online/offline divide: The example of digital gaming

• Online/offline is connected as users meet demands on collaboration to achieve goals.
• Online/offline is linked through preferences for leisure that supports sociability.
• Online/offline division is highly contingent on the practices engaged in.
• Techno-utopian ideology hides preference for ties between users based on similarity.
• Homophily facilitates shared norms, which produce stable social groups.

Studies of virtual worlds are often based on the dichotomous ’real world’/’virtual world’, yet research has indicated that this division is far from unproblematic. The aim of this study is to examine empirically the link between online/offline using the example of social online gaming. The data consist of individual and group interviews with 33 adult gamers. The results explore three themes—sociability and design; group membership; norms and rules—and show how on-and offline are inexorably linked through the social organizational demands of Internet gaming. Individuals ground online group membership in offline relations and shared characteristics, aiming to maximize game-play gains and support sociability. Gaming with ’people like us’ facilitates creation of norms and expectations, which aids in producing stable social groups. Thus the boundary between online and offline becomes contingent on links between people. The study shows how important offline connections are for online interaction.