Communication Models in Asynchronous Multiplayer Video Games

The purpose of the article is to study the communicative features of asynchronous multiplayer video games. Research methodology. This study uses general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, as well as the historical method. The analysis was used for the existing theories that study asynchronous video games, as well as for the study of gaming experience in relevant projects. The synthesis allows us to form a general vision of the functioning of the considered class of video games in the context of popular communication models. The historical method allows us to observe the dynamics of the development of approaches implemented in asynchronous gameplay. The scientific novelty is to clarify the communicative specificity of asynchronous video games by using communicative models to describe the interaction of players in them. Conclusions. An asynchronous multiplayer video game demonstrates broad communication capabilities that differ to some extent from those presented in more familiar synchronous ones. Among the basic models of communication (linear, interactive, and transmission), no single one was found that would fully describe the phenomenon under study. It turned out that the technical features of communication in the studied video games are closer to the linear model, but organizing the communication process goes beyond it, creating various modifications. The most complex multiplayer asynchronous games build interaction based on cultural, social, and other contexts, which is more relevant to the transactional model. In other words, communication in asynchronous video games is described by a complex model that has elements of the linear and transactional models. While the communication of the first asynchronous multiplayer video games was limited to the motivation to compete, modern examples of video games are beginning to focus on more complex forms of communication