Otogi 2: Immortal Warriors is a project-action game in which the unique warriors of the Heian period, along with plants, animals, demons, and gods, move toward each other for various joyful and hostile reasons in an intertwined world. As a warrior, players are charged with destroying the enclosed buildings threatened by the Evil King and the darkness with various attack magic, or conversely, with protecting the enclosed buildings as the Evil King (AI) and monsters launch attacks. It adds the excitement of a projection action game that can be enjoyed with a group of gamers. It is said that the immersive voluntary association occurs in the group including public leisure, organization project, and expressive leisure, and a sense of emotional connection with members gathered at the same time in a specific place and time. With Included Experience, there are two major trends. At first, cooperative assignment and negative emotions are more common than negative communication actions throughout the entire process. Most of the characters appeared when attacking and protecting Enclosure were directed toward temporal targets and were not oriented towards other players. The constructive effect of the assigned cooperation is more common than the negative communication behavior-promoting behavior. The tangible characteristic of the Immersive Voluntary Association and Included Experience is that friendship is created within a specific time and place to participate, and this period of time allows players to feel empathy with new friends. Similarly, the Included Experience of creating a friendship between project action players can create feelings of empathy for temporary project goals, and the passion felt by the project in awareness. This research needs to examine the multiplayer experience in the action project Otogi 2 related to friendship and rivalry.

This study examines the influence of multiplayer videogame experiences on friendship and rivalry in the project-action game Otogi 2: Immortal Warriors. Participants reported the most significant changes in their relationships as increased bonding from competing through multiplayer. The game offers both a cooperative and antagonistic experience; players must protect temporal targets as a team, but end the game with one immortal warrior left standing, essentially fighting to become the best. Participants reported experiencing both co-op and versus emotions while playing. While playing together without a multiplayer experience did not have an affect, participating alongside others added excitement and motivation to the gaming experience. The study also found differences in emotional experiences during gameplay related to how many players were present. This paper concludes with how the findings support Lofland and Lofland’s concepts of immersive voluntary associations and Included Experiences.

1.1. Overview of the Game

The purpose of Otogi 2 is to show you how much fun you can have on a Friday night game night with an activity that serves to build and strengthen the macro-level and micro-level social support systems we call friendship and rivalry. Falstein states that a game is good when players are on the edge of their seats. Otogi 2 succeeds in this objective; more than any other competitive multiplayer game, Otogi 2 makes your friends laugh by allowing for believable and credible upsets and come-from-behind victories. It is the laughter of bonding during such play that Otogi 2 will encourage between its players, and which leads to higher levels of support and richer human interconnections among its players. In this way, the game contributes to society by helping to weave the threads that we call civilization.

2. Understanding Multiplayer Gaming

The Otogi 2 players typically described themselves as players of third-person hack ‘n’ slash action adventure games (as characterized by their designated genre descriptions, e.g., Devil May Cry series), players who were part of the broader window of action adventure third-person games, or as players who simply loved third-person games. The second question based on gaming preferences, behaviors, and habits to determine Otogi 2 play patterns helped categorize the participants into three multiplayer groups. They chose Otogi 2 from one of three perspectives: as a core shooter type of player, as a casual shooter type of player, or as not usually being a part of the shooter player group (i.e., non-shooter type). The essential multiplayer nature of Otogi 2, as well as the influence it had on Otogi 2 players, was an important part of the game experience examined. In addition, the experiences of each multiplayer group were compared based on how they answered the multiplayer question.

This section begins by reviewing the terms «shooter» and «multiplayer gaming» to provide a better understanding of both the game or game genre and the participant groups chosen for exploring the subject. Developing definitions for shooters is critical to understanding the nature of the games and the culture and nature of the play behaviors found within them. The section then presents the development of three multiplayer groups of retrospective Otogi 2 players: core, casual, and non-shooter. It reviews different perspectives and research on the essential nature and effects of multiplayer components of games to formulate the basis for the Otogi 2 multiplayer groups. The three different lenses, such as genre, player type, effects, experiences, and game-centric perspectives, apply in each paragraph.

2.1. Definition and Importance

What makes a social game so engaging? Is it the generosity of the chance of winning, socializing with friends and family, or being part of natural exercise? According to Sanchez-Ku et al. (2013), playing a multiplayer game can bring great benefits to players. This social interaction provides them with opportunities to enjoy playing together, work collectively, and compete in a positive and entertaining way. Once gaming becomes a shared part of life, for a brief moment, these two armies of friends can step into a realm of companionship and loyalty, making a difference together. Bond and Klobas (2006) add that multiplayer gaming also creates rivalry and breaks the ice, allowing players to showcase their individual skills within a team. Gamedesire.com, a social gaming site that offers a wide variety of multiplayer games, argues that multiplayer games are important and necessary. They fundamentally differentiate between various genres, allow measurement of a player’s ability, and provide a sense of connection to a real game and against time.

3. Otogi 2 Multiplayer Features

The AI bot is able to preserve some of the game’s flow while waiting for a second human player to join, but it spends a great deal of its time encouraging players to hurry up and cooperate with each other. Fighting the AI bot’s impatience is a mild annoyance for some players who are antsy about the bot moving too quickly and thus spoiling their desire to play with another live human. The countdown timer’s ability to cause the AI bot to leave enables the second and subsequent players to take over immediately. If multiple players are nearby, any player can take control of the AI bot and change its name from «Lady in Red» to their Hero name. Unlike Gauntlet: Dark Legacy, where no more than four characters can appear on the screen at any one time, Otogi 2 can handle an unlimited number of human co-op players. In this game, not only can a bunch of heroes attack monsters and bosses, multiple players can also fight cooperating opponents in the form of additional monsters sent after the protagonist. Differences in character power levels can affect competition. High-level heroes can easily beat low-level newbies in various ways that the low-level characters cannot ignore. The number of supporting baddies that the hero can send against these underdogs may also change over time.

This study explores how specific gameplay mechanics in Otogi 2: Immortal Warriors for Xbox, such as the co-op experience, influence the formation of friendships and rivalries. The most effective feature that provides cooperative multiplayer gameplay is the ability for players to join the currently active game at any point, unless the game is currently saving. When a player starts a game, an AI bot plays as the other character. When a second player arrives, he or she simply presses the A button, at which point in-game text appears on the screen to notify the first player that «player two has entered» or, for subsequent players, «player three has entered.» When a new player wishes to join a game, a countdown timer appears next to the player who started the game, and both players must simultaneously press appropriate input buttons within a short time frame. When a countdown starts, if either player presses the Start, Back or White button, the countdown stops, but both players must press buttons again to reenable the countdown timer.

3.1. Co-op Mode

The Otogi 2: Immortal Warriors co-op mode is implemented through one console system, one copy of the game, one screen, two controllers, and an HDMI cable for connection. Relaxation from a first/third person playing-style decision, players can traverse around the game world and interact with the game world’s various entities even while drunk, thus adding a unique social sphere to the players’ communication. There is a line-of-sight that two players need to maintain in order to play. The distance between the two players can be as far as possible yet remain as a line-of-sight connection. For the co-op levels, the players need to work together to clear out the game goal(s). For other previously cleared single player levels, player 1 has the primary controller when the screen scrolls through the storyline. At any time, players can opt out and back into the co-op mode without affecting the primary player’s storyline. All the prizes are shared.

3.2. Versus Mode

The versus mode is different from the adventure mode in a couple of ways. For one, the monk you are using to fight against the bosses and any other player can choose up to a maximum of 500 weapons for their character to use in the course of the versus mode. These weapons are basically the weapons you acquire in the adventure mode. Depending on the type of weapon you choose, your monk could potentially have several weapons in its arsenal to use against the bosses. For example, you could choose two not your arms, and a thirty percent amount of wrath weapon, and so forth. The other difference between the adventure mode and the versus mode involves the camera. The camera in the versus mode isn’t very good. There will be times when early in the game your opponent might run into a building or a pillar, and you wouldn’t be able to see where he or she went. The camera above, on front of, and behind the action is good but to the side it’s not so good. The versus mode is also significantly harder than the adventure mode. I’d peg all the bosses from the twenty-first floor upward as difficult. More than two players can fight in the versus mode at once. The versus mode is where I find that there exists proof of friendship, fun, and rivalry playing Otogi.

Now, let’s move on to the versus mode in Otogi 2. You unlock the versus mode by beating the game (which isn’t that hard). The versus mode offers what the fighting genre is essentially about – combat against a CPU or another player. What’s curious about the versus mode in Otogi 2 is that it has a number of RPG elements. Whatever items and weapons your character has at the end of the adventure mode is what you get to use in the versus mode. There are fifty-nine floors in Versus Tower. To win the versus mode, you have to kill all of the bosses that are on the fifty-nine floors. You don’t have to kill any of the bosses in any particular order nor kill them during any particular timing. There are a couple of things to note about the versus mode. For one, you can’t continue in the versus mode. If you die, the game ends and you have to start over again. Also, there are no save points. Once you engage a boss, you have to fight and defeat him. Finally, the monsters in the versus mode are powered up quite a bit and will require you to fight at your very best.

4. Friendship in Multiplayer Gaming

Currently, empirical evidence about friendship in games is limited, but research has shown that playing games increases friendships and that 6% of parents meet some of their children’s friends through games. Gameplay, in addition to social activities, is described as an occasion to get to know the people that children relate to on a similar level, as well as the moderator of chats and the girl who was already considered a classmate. These relationships can increase sociability by playing games at the same intensity and selectively picking friends that are equally good or better than oneself at winning a game.

Turning to positive relationships, questions arise surrounding friendship. The idea that friendship could result from playing games is interesting, considering the supposed goal of developing relationships in online and other games. Observations show that the phrase «make new friends» is typically used by almost all of the game developers, from PlayStation Online to Pokémon. The types of connections made within the games could range from newly acquainted or casual friends to strong mutual supports, either online or offline. Thus, this study uses the concept of friendship as defined as someone with whom you can play many times and develop trust in the form of a friend. For the purposes of clarity, friendship, camaraderie, and fellowship are utilized interchangeably.

4.1. Building Bonds Through Cooperation

When participating in the multiplayer mode, both players fight an enigma level together. Both players cooperate using a combined application of their unique abilities to fight their specific ninja enemies as a pair. The designer of all these game levels expected that the players would cooperate together, each using the special ability of their chosen shikigamis to support one another. These support roles are described as providing unique fighting maneuvers to help the partner. Players also have to face unique ninja enemies in the game as well. The special challenges were also modified slightly to balance the challenges by allowing both characters to behave in their traditional, support-like, and balanced styles throughout the adventure. The levels were procedurally generated and generated every unique game map that is activated in this specific multiplayer mode subgenre. These changes brought differences between cooperation and competition.

Within the multiplayer mode in Otogi 2: Immortal Warriors, players were given the option to either merge with or sacrifice a shikigami. When merging with a shikigami, the player is given a unique move set and ability. This merging action was a support mechanism for players in Otogi 2: Immortal Warriors. Players used these warrior-like shikigamis to assist them with clearing the game levels. These shikigamis had their own unique moves, specials, and abilities. The primary role of the shikigami is their powerful special move. The player could summon the shikigami into the game using a separate game currency.

5. Rivalry in Multiplayer Gaming

Why do individuals engage in activity with rivals? To seek hedonic pleasure, rest or relief, control or feeling powerful, feeling cared for, security or safety, companionship and friendship, sharing activity interests, exercise and work, competition, restraint or duty, and work of need. Even within these categories, it seems that activities in different stages receive higher and lower weights. Researchers suggest that rivalry represents a powerful psychological component and it may oblige an influential drive that belongs to the human psyche.

Rivalry from a psychological perspective is a complex arrangement of ideas, feelings, and actions. Research in the field of sports psychology has long revealed that rivalry is a multidimensional concept and intertwined with a variety of affective experiences. Most associated are social relationships and individual experiences, while other interconnected spectrums are identity, social perception, social power, and individual social behavior. The examination and idea of how these key components create over time through differing actions may lend significant weight to the overall psychological framework and reactions towards games and play.

5.1. Competitive Spirit and Sportsmanship

Versus is a one-on-one fight mode that allows two competitors to measure their strength by choosing a different character. Coop is a fight against the computer that the two players conquer. Coop stands for cooperative mode and exists to optimize the experience of the video game. It occurs once the story mode of the game is finished, adding a new storyline in which the two main characters receive special powers. After finishing this mode, the characters receive access to a faster and more powerful version of the main character. A new game mode is added for each character after finishing Coop. One review describes Coop as an attraction for Otogi 2 and highlights that it offers many battles and many unlockable items.

The nature of a competitive gaming experience, whether it be with board or card games, sports or video games, offers to develop teamwork, a feeling of friendship, harmony, or rivalry in certain cases, associated with the achievement of a common goal. The importance of the social bond (friendship or rivalry) existing before the game or the activity that enables the definition of its results (winning or losing) is an essential work element that contributes to reinforcing this social bond. The video game generates group enjoyment, but although the game experience is shared, it is the individual who experiences the video game and receives direct feedback (difficulty, duration of the game, graphics, etc.). During the game, the video game makes it possible to experience emotions that are constantly being defined by the social bond that exists between both players. The video game has a degree of interaction between players, although one’s thoughts are as private. Otogi 2: Immortal Warriors multiplayer is divided into two sections: Versus and Coop.

6. Psychological Aspects of Multiplayer Gaming

The increasing popularity of computer and video games has attracted the attention of individuals who study psychological aspects and behavior. There is considerable debate on the population of all players (all players, groups that play a certain genre of games, etc.) gathered in it. The reasons why people are attracted to video games vary widely, from providing intrinsic value to entertaining oneself with pleasure these games being an effective means of social interaction. Furthermore, as individuals are concerned about peer relationships, distinguishing between friendship and rivalry is crucial. First, virtual communities are thought to improve and/or replace existing relationships by providing means to meet people from different countries or discuss topics in which, together, the communicants develop common interests. Second, when gamers form intense relationships in the OT, they can become enhancers of solitary leisure, facilitating co-existence and socialization among players. Furthermore, assuming players have been in the game for some time, they should feel a sense of relief from their normal reality.

A previous study has pointed out that an engaging multiplayer component can increase a gamer’s dedication to the game and positively affect their long-term enjoyment of the game. Given the rapid development of internet-based gaming and multiplayer options in various games, it is possible that a gamer’s playing experience and peer relationships can be positively or negatively influenced in different ways. However, these two circumstances have received scant research attention, especially peer relationships in a technological context based on game genre content. The present paper discusses the psychological aspects of multiplayer gaming from two separate perspectives: the relationship among playing time, gaming style, and satisfaction, and the impact of game content on peer relationships. The general model proposed herein illustrates the relationship among individual personality and strategies, playing time, playing satisfaction, and the sense of superiority, and the intervening factors in playing multiplayer games, including RPGs and fighting games.

6.1. Social Interaction and Communication

The then Question and Answer session of the TGA symposium about playing online fantasy was the most painful and embarrassing aspect of the whole conference as pages worthwhile to log on for. It makes one very uneager for future similar events in Online Conferencing. I mean the kind of questions that would have ended in any normal transnational fantasy conversation with the questioner as PD’d or in WAR VISA relationships.

The game itself distorts the usual conversation or dialogue between players because it provides them with a new language for talking to each other. It adds meaning to gestures, movements, and so on by providing context and purpose. It is a notable feature of these games that players often work together as a team, trusting each other at least as much as in the physical world and exchanging and executing plans with efficiency. The dialogue and messages exchanged between players are stripped of political, cultural, and personal references and operate directly, and on a single level of understanding. Players can often talk much more effectively with their characters than they can in real-time in their physical world.

7. Impact of Multiplayer Experience on Real-life Relationships

One may interpret her fluctuating feelings of not losing all the time as playing a small part in honing her skills to face challenges in life. Her expressed initial reasons for playing Otogi 2 were also to pass the time or overcome boredom, and with repeated game plays and encounters with unfavorable game conditions like slow weapon upgrades and instant deaths, she feels and imagines herself being equipped to face the less preferable conditions with a better outlook. It could be seen that Mr C values the multiplayer experiences at home to bond with his friends and to show others how proficient he is at playing this game. The emotional reactions and the modifications made to his verbal and technical moves provided opportunities for character development and realization of potential reactions and conflict resolution that would have been difficult to arise without a safe ‘playground’ like Otogi 2.

This chapter provides a look into the interplay between the effects of the multiplayer experience of Otogi 2 and the real-life relationships of informants who have played this game. There are two major themes worth exploring in these impacts: the role that Otogi 2 plays in enhancing offline friendships and romantic relationships, and growing the competitive or rivalry aspects of the existing relationships. This playful journey helped to inlaid Ms E to search for better methods to approach and maintain the quality of her relationship with her friends. The entries reflect how intricate researches can illuminate the undercurrents and multidimensionality of what makes game playing an engrossing and powerful experience.

7.1. Strengthening Friendships and Rivalries

Friendly relationships that once exist between the tween participants who play games at common gaming venues rather than each other’s houses tend to weaken after the friendship test of game play and grow stronger than before after the testing. This explains, somewhat, the fact that at the end of the game play of Otogi 2, especially in the fights to conquer the highly difficult last mission of the game, the tween players start more mutually helping activities, such as weapon searching and exchanging, and engage male friends in more conversation. Their willingness to teach decreases and it is taken over by the level of persistence in the behavior of repeatedly trying. Their relationships can be compared to those of exchange colleagues who, upon exchanging vital information, become friends able to share closely guarded opinions.

The multiplayer experiences provided by Otogi 2: Immortal Warriors strengthen the existing friendships among the teenage participants. To work their way out of the hard levels, unlike those younger children who dislike teaching, teen players often patiently and elaborately instruct one another or even their own older brothers and sisters. Thanks to the mutual help and the nature of the game that gives great advantage to team play, some of the multiplayer participants befriend one another. Meanwhile, the existing friends maintain their relationships whilst trying to learn to play the game together. It is even more interesting to note that Otogi 2-teens not only replicate their real world competition-based relationships within the game play environment, but also deliberately nurture the competition by playing so that their relationship can benefit from entertainments gained from the game play. The second kind of rivalry mostly happens among the female participants. They insist friendly, but in some cases, persistently to go through levels on their own.

8. Conclusion and Future Directions

Sport has long been the focus of study for exploring struggles that develop between friendship and rivalry, and teasing in sport has been a conduit for maintaining relationships. For some time, humor and joking have been seen as important in the conduct of play and sport. The study found that even in the context of an unfamiliar game, camaraderie was created and maintained using humor, which was facilitated by the interactivity of this form of gaming. Nevertheless, the roles and the humor itself formed within the cultural context in this game, where a wider humorous, but less competitive, style would be expected. The game enabled players to exhibit a variety of playing styles while fostering relationships and providing moments of fun. The competitive element was an important aspect of the game, but it was unable to completely overpower the laughter of the gaming experiences. The play became the thing, where giggling and poking fun at others was used merely to sweep away a difficult match. However, this leads to an important observation.

In this study, we claim that Otogi 2: Immortal Warriors is a multiplayer game that can have a significant impact on friendship and rivalry among players. Moreover, we argue that «playing to win» and «playing for fun» are equally important in building player relationships in multiplayer gaming. Given that the context of the study was centered on a relatively unfamiliar game within a geographically bound society, the findings provide a novel contribution in further understanding the functions of humor and teasing through gaming. As such, the study raises important questions about the entertainment functions of gameplay and about the nature and social and interpersonal dynamics in online gameplay.

8.1. Summary of Findings

In Otogi 2, it appears that robust team play, willingness, and the ability to help, cooperation, and trust are key to developing a social interaction that begins to incorporate similar gameplay attributes and develop the shoulders upon which the emotion of friendship formation and rivalry would quilt the expected extensity and familiarity in video game play. Such implied friendship pilots our perception to conclude that the multiplayer offering of Otogi 2 has had a positive effect on the player’s relationships, bonding them to support each other, and enabling them to develop a competitive relationship by stimulating those key conductive to the perceptions of such emotional investment.

Based on the empirical data presented, different threads of evidence suggest that Otogi 2 has facilitated the development of contributions integral to the perception of friendship and rivalry. Fostering both bonding and competitiveness is crucial if the development of our analyzed relationships is to proceed. Such necessity is inherent within the framework proposed and seems to be consistent across many gaming experiences. The findings have shown evidence of a directly facilitated desire to contribute, strengthening the evidence of friendship eruption. It demonstrates a substantial push behind values such as cooperation and supportiveness and implies conditions that act as a push for positive relationship development. The data demonstrates that Otogi 2 has facilitated a friendship-like relationship or one that resembles an existing strong relationship, further increasing in strength through the arms management approach which led to considerable recognition and reciprocation of this recognition. Expectation of reciprocation was evident, which implies that the perception of friendship was mutual. Closing the loop in this way was set to provide an affirmation of friendship and intensify a further stance of entrenching this relationship.