Here is a continuation from part 1. This section considers fan interaction made in one of the websites in part 1 and discussed my experience with fellow fans on through the site.
E-Discussion
For my e-discussion I decided to post and communicate with fans on the discussion community on PlayOverwatch.com (see fig 1.3 and fig 1.4). On this site, there is a range of discussion threads which are devoted to talking about Overwatch. The site was straightforward to use, with an easy process of signing up putting in personal information such as email address for which I had to wait for a verification email to ensure my account was fully set up. When creating my account, I was also asked to choose a username and avatar to create my online identity, to which I chose my favourite in-game characters.
When first entering the discussion threads there is a thread for new members titled “Welcome to General Discussion – Please Read!” (see fig.1.3) which helped familiarise new members with the rules for posting on the site. This post was written by an official member of Blizzard, enforcing an official tone which members must abide by and also establishing that this site, although was for fan discussions, was in control of the game developer. I felt confident to post on this site, as by looking on other threads discovered that members were more than willing to respond efficiently and helpfully to those who had questions. I created a new thread I was asked to give the thread a title and then my question underneath (see fig.1.3).
Within minutes I had received many responses to my question, all of which fully replied to the question which I had posted and replied with what they considered to be useful and helpful information (see fig.1.4). The replies that I received made me feel welcome within the community and confident to engage in further discussions on the site. Overall, my experience through communicating with fellow fans proved to be a positive one. Members were eager to share their thoughts and vent their frustrations together and helped to give an increased level of information to those who may have not had such knowledge. This community has shown that they have come together through being consumers and buying a video game and want to communicate with each other through their “common relationship” with Overwatch (Jenkins, 1992, p. 123).
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