Call of Duty and social life

[J0hnny_swindl3r]

Hello! My name is Nynke and I am a student Cultural Anthropology, at Utrecht University. I am interested in what effects gaming has on gamers’ social life. To examine this, I want to ask you if you’re willing to answer a question about this. Your anonymity is fully guaranteed! You can join my research to reply on the questions below. Thank you!

What do you think about the relationship between Call of Duty and your social life? Did you make friends in other countries (or in your own country), who you get acquainted by playing Call of Duty?

My social life really cosists of family, work, my car buddies and the gym. I have a COD Black Ops t-shirt with my gamer tag on the back of it that I generally wear at work or at the gym. this particular t-shirt seems to be a great conversation starter with many people who either play the COD series or know someone who is a near obsessive with the game. i.e. a father talking about his kids, girlfriend talking about their boyfriend, etc.
A lot of my co-workers in other departments of my facility will have a surprised look and say "oh, wow, you play, too!? thats a badass shirt. whered you get it? when do you usually get online? whats your KD?" etc. etc.
Ive developed friendships and great conversations from this t-shirt, as COD somewhat represents a community of obsessives such as myself and others and brings us together. this is generally done because the game brings an intensity, a focus, a drive, a rage and absolute joy to ourselves as we play. Its our way to get away from life's issues and sometimes we feel as if we are the only ones who feel the disconnect. Where in fact, we are all the same..

...so to mix our social life with our gaming life is always a pleasant experience for me.

[Ramski13]

In general - I play on line with a combination of people :
guys from the boards
people I have met on line
friends of mine that have the game

Game impact on my social life? Little, I work ,have a family and other things going on in life - it is a great way to decompress and de-stress. People I have met online I wouldn't necessarily call "friends", but some I know better than others, outside of the ones I also know in real life.