Kolko
Beth E. Kolko
University of Washington
Department of Technical Communication
bkolko@u.Washington.edu
Games as Technological Entry Point: A Case Study of Uzbekistan
This paper addresses games as a cultural phenomenon by examining reception patterns of games in diverse settings. In particular, this paper uses survey data from a project examining Internet development in Uzbekistan. In March 2003, I coordinated and distributed a survey of Internet users and nonusers across Uzbekistan. The survey sample included nearly 400 users spread across the capital, six major cities, and 12 rural areas. Of the 400 individuals sampled, approximately 80 were chosen because of their presence at Internet cafes and other public access points; the remainder of the survey followed a stratified sample across the country. Both sets of surveys were distributed in order to allow comparison of the general population with definitive Internet users. The survey included a module on games that was answered by individuals who reported having even once used a computer. Questions on the survey cover a variety of games, from solitaire to Lineage. The game-related questions on the survey were designed to generate an understanding of how game-playing functions in a country that is in early stages of Internet development.
This paper will consider the survey data in an attempt to look at patterns of game-playing in Uzbekistan and compare them to patterns in the US and Korea. In particular, the paper will examine demographics, relative popularity of game genres and game titles, and the popularity of multi-player games. All of these issues will be considered within the larger economic framework of computer use in the country. This paper is part of a larger study that seeks to argue that game-playing serves as an effective point of entry to computer technology for youth in developing countries and in areas where computer penetration is relatively low.
Beth E. Kolko is an associate professor of technical communication at the University of Washington in the USA. She is the co-editor of Race in Cyberspace (Routledge 2000), co-author of Writing in an Electronic World(Addison Wesley Longman 2001), and editor of Virtual Publics (Columbia UP 2003). She began studying online virtual worlds and gaming environments in 1994, and she has been publishing on virtual environments and online interaction since 1995. In 2000, she spent five months in Uzbekistan as a Fulbright Scholar. Since then, she has continued to study Internet development in the region. Her current work in Uzbekistan is funded by the (US) National Science Foundation.
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