Structural foundation for interactions in online games

The article examines the structural foundations of interactions between gamers in online games on the example of the youth segment of Russian audience of computer games. The analysis of the main elements of in-game mechanics structuring the communicative interactions of gamers in online games is carried out on the basis of the B. Latour’s actor-network theory, allowing us to consider the game as an actor of socio-technical interactions. According to the results of the author’s research conducted in 2019 – 2020 by means of online questionnaires, the mechanisms of long-term and short-term association of players in online games are highlighted and the structural bases of their interaction are characterized: the dominant and secondary motives of group formation in video games, the factors of prolongation of contacts between players. It was revealed that gamers give preference to short-term gaming teams with a free exit. A long-term play group is recruited from people who know each other, with whom they maintain contacts in everyday life while playing is perceived as a form of joint leisure. It is shown that an online game creates a field for active construction of new social connections between the members of the gaming community. The potential of the possibilities of including game mechanics and “non-human” actors in new forms of gamification of education is outlined.