What conversations game playing experience affords?

Henry Jenkins wrote a nice piece of reflection on the phenomenon of Susan Boyle from the perspectives how technology contributes to her instant global popularity and the motivations that drive viewers to pass her clip around. I find myself reflecting why I keep on coming back again and again to video clips of Britain's Got Talent (BGT) performances. Though I hardly talk to anyone about the performances, for me those unlikely stars, like Susan Boyle and Jamie Pugh, or those in Amanda's words "lump of coal to be turned into a diamond", like Julian Smith and Sue Son, have a story of their own that invokes strong emotions in me every time I watch them. Incredible. Jenkins explains it best why their performances have potential to invoke conversations we have with others (I guess for me, conversation with myself) when he says (bold part of citation):

" Does the wide-spread circulation of reality television suggest the triviality of what constitutes public interests? I don't think we can answer that question without knowing what we are using Susan Boyle to talk about. Her meaning doesn't reside in the video itself -- we won't exhaust it no matter how many times we watch it. The meaning rests in the conversations that Susan Boyle enables us to have with each other. As it starts to circulate, the Susan Boyle video gets inserted into all kinds of ongoing conversations across a range of different communities, so that I've stumbled into prayer circles for Susan Boyle; I've found scientists talking about how someone with that body could produce such a sound; I've seen discussions amongst Karaoke singers about her techniques, and I've seen reality television fans trying to explain why her success would never be possible given the rules of American Idol which exclude someone her age from competing in the first place. Susan Boyle circulates because she's meaningful on many different levels and after a while, all of this has started to go meta so that we are spreading Susan's videos to talk about how fast they are being spread. "

From my research perspective how players read games, I am wondering whether game playing experience does have such impact. Does meaning in game playing reside beyond the game and in the conversations players have with others? If it does, what kind of conversations do players have about their playing experience? What about game playing that spark certain kind of conversations? Who do players engage in conversations with? What they draw from such conversations and how it impact them and the things they do in game? At this stage of my study and my literature review, I am collecting as many questions as possible to give me a good sense where should I take my research forward.

Reflecting back on my own playing experience, I remember having a lot of conversations with myself about one aspect of game playing that is most prominent when I first play MMOG. It is about conflict I have with my online conduct and personal belief. There a numerous examples but I share just this one. It may sound trivial to others but is resonated deep into my belief of what is right and wrong.

Granado Espada allows players to put their playing characters on auto mode where characters continue to fight mobs while players are afk. Very often I squad up with friends in maps where it is difficult to survive alone because of high spawn rate or when there are high level mobs. While my friends were afk, their characters would get very good drops but they were not there to collect them. When this happened, the items would remain there for a few seconds before dissapearing. I always end up struggling with my own conscious whether to take them or just to ignore them. It also happened with very good drops belonging to other players not in my squad but they happened to be nearby and afk. Should I take or should I not? Does taking and not informing the owner consider stealing? But when does ownership starts? Does it begin only when you choose to take them? But does this rule apply when they are afk? Is there an unwritten rule where players do come to a consensus about this even though they do not talk about this at all? Or does stealing in virtual world have to be looked differently from stealing in real world. So many questions and what a dilemma.

I guess, game playing has potential to invoke strong emotion when players is confronted with a dilemma in decision making, and this in turn may encourages a lot of self-reflection and conversations with others. I think "emotion" and "dilemma" are keywords I should include in my literature review search as well.