The Social Benefits of Computer Games

Proceedings of the 44th Annual APS Conference (2009), pp. 62 - 65 The Social Benefits of Computer Games Paul Fong (paul.fong@cdu.edu.au) Information Technology Management & Support Charles Darwin University, Darwin NT 0909 Australia Peter M. Forster (peter.forster@cdu.edu.au) School of Health Sciences Charles Darwin University, Darwin NT 0909 Australia Abstract Psychological Sense of Community (PSOC) has been identified as beneficial to the development of identity and the building of resilience and well-being in everyday life in Australia. However, a decline in the experience of PSOC in society has been associated with corresponding increases in loneliness, isolation and alienation. Some critics have identified computer games as playing a key role in social isolation and the weakening of communities. Are such criticisms fair? There is evidence that participating in virtual communities can contribute to a person‟s PSOC and that people who play some types of computer games have social motivations for playing. We studied the Sense of Virtual Community (SOVC) and relationship motivation experienced by players of three types of computer game: Stand-Alone Games; Local and Wide Area Network (LAN/WAN) Games, and Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPG). Results show that those who play MMORPG have higher levels of SOVC than players of other types of games. They also show that those who play MMORPG and LAN/WAN games have higher levels of relationship motivation than players of Stand-Alone Games. The results suggest that, far from feeling isolated, the players of some types of computer game feel connected to others and derive a sense of community from their game playing. Psychological Sense of Community Psychological Sense of Community (PSOC) was identified by Pretty, Bishop, Fisher, & Sonn (2006) as beneficial to the development of identity and the building of resilience and well-being in everyday life in Australia. Sociologist, Robert Nisbet (1962 pp.32-33) was one of the first to assert that communities of place (formed by those who live and/or work in geographically-bounded spaces) were losing their ability to serve as a focus for a sense of community because of our greater than previous ability to select our communities. Licklider and Taylor (1968), who helped create a predecessor to the internet, forecast that communities of common interest, such as virtual communities sustained entirely by computer networks and telecommunications equipment, would replace those of place.  The possibility of such a social dimension to computer game playing began in 1958 with the creation of 'Tennis for Two,' by William Higinbotham, of Brookhaven National Laboratory, New York. It was not until 1987, however, that the first-ever graphical online multi-player game, Air Warrior, was released. A period of growth of such games followed with the rapid evolution of video consoles, home computers and the means to distribute the games. In 1991 the first graphical Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG), Neverwinter Nights, was released for the PC. Another significant development followed in 2003 when Linden Laboratories released the Massively Multi-participant Online Environment (MMOE), Second Life. World of Warcraft, released by Blizzard Entertainment in 2004, became the most popular and widely subscribed MMORPG with over eight million copies sold (Timeline of Video & Computer Games, 2007). Sarason (1974) identified a decline in the feeling of PSOC in society, with corresponding increases in loneliness, isolation and alienation. Others identified computer games as playing a key role in this social isolation (Media Analysis Laboratory, 1998). A television advertisement shown in the Northern Territory portrays an adolescent gamer as, “Daniel spends his weekends killing dragons with a mouse,” followed by, “that‟s not living Daniel!” Are such criticisms fair? There is evidence that participating in virtual communities can contribute to a person‟s PSOC (Forster, 2004; Hodge, 2004) and that people who play some types of computer games have social motivations for playing (Bijvank, Konijn & Bushman, 2007). Virtual communities provide some people with a sense of freedom and empowerment that they find difficult or impossible to get elsewhere (Winder, 2008). The aim of the present study is to investigate this issue by measuring the PSOC of three groups of gamers that are expected to vary in predictable ways on this dimension: players of (1) stand-alone games; (2) Local Area Network/Wide Area Network (LAN/WAN) games and (3) MMORPG games. Although players of stand-alone games can compare their performance to that of 62 © The Australian Psychological Society Ltd  other players, stand-alone games are, as the name implies, designed to be played by individuals. LAN/WAN games allow, and indeed encourage, gamers to form groups and play other groups within the game environment. When played over a LAN, the gamers are usually present in the same physical place, whereas WAN gamers usually play via the internet in remote physical locations. MMORPG games are designed to have no ending and to be played by individuals or groups interacting over the internet. Many thousands of individuals are likely to be interacting within the same environment at any time. Interaction with other gamers is required to play an MMORPG successfully.. In this study, gamers‟ relationship motivation – the desire to form meaningful, long-term relationships with others, will also be assessed. It is hypothesised that gamers who play MMORPGs will have higher PSOC and relationship motivation than gamers who either play LAN/WAN or Stand-Alone computer games. Method Design A between-subjects design was used, with type of game (stand-alone, LAN/WAN or MMORPG) as the independent variable and two dependent variables: Sense of Virtual Community (SOVC) and Relationship Motivation. Participants Four hundred and fifty five participants over the age of 18 volunteered to take part. Participants were recruited by posting an invitation into fora associated with online games and into an online forum for psychology undergraduates at Charles Darwin University. Of those who completed the whole survey, 84 preferred stand-alone games, 108 preferred LAN/WAN games and 193 preferred MMORPG games. Materials PSOC was measured by the 18-item Sense of Virtual Community (SOVC) Measure developed by Blanchard (2007). The SOVC was designed to assess the feeling of being part of a supportive community by participants in a virtual community environment. The SOVC assesses feelings of membership, identity, belonging, support and attachment (Blanchard 2007). Participant responses are measured on a 6-point Likert scale. Blanchard (2007) reports a Cronbach alpha of .93 for the scale. Relationship motivation was measured by the 20-item scale developed by Yee (2006) for measuring the motivations of gamers. Participant responses are P. Fong & P.M. Forster measured on a 6-point Likert scale. Yee (2006) reports a Cronbach alpha of .76 for the scale. Participants were also asked to rank their preference for the three types of games investigated in this study. Procedure Ethics approval was obtained from the Human Research Ethics Committee of Charles Darwin University. Gamers who accepted the invitation to participate were directed to the website where the online survey was located. The survey website guided participants through the demographic and game preference questions, the SOVC questions and finally the game motivation questions. Results Results from 70 of the initial 455 participants were excluded due to failing to complete sections of the survey. A Missing Value Analysis of the remaining data determined that there was no pattern to missing data. The survey data were transformed to a normal distribution by converting outliers to one score higher than the next most extreme score. A one-way MANOVA was conducted to determine whether SOVC and relationship motivation scores were different for gamers with different game playing preferences. The MANOVA reveals a significant difference among the three types of computer games on the combined dependent variables F (4, 676) = 8.11, p < .01, Wilks' Lambda = .91, η2 = .05. Univariate ANOVAs for each dependent variable, using a Bonferroni adjusted alpha level of .025, revealed that both SOVC scores F (2, 382) = 16.14, p < .001, η2 = .07 and relationship motivation subscale scores F (2, 339) = 10.84, p < .001, η2 = .06 were different across the groups. Table 1: Means and Standard Deviations for the Three Types of Computer Games Stand- LAN/WAN MMORPG Alone (n = 94) (n = 178) (n = 70) Sense of Virtual M 77.53a 82.96a 84.35b Community SD 10.35 9.27 8.64 Relationship M 14.14a 16.00b 16.67b Motivation SD 4.39 3.60 3.75 Note. Means in the same row that do not share subscripts differ in the Tukey honestly significant difference comparison using a Bonferroni adjusted alpha level of .025. 63  Post-Hoc analysis using Tukey's honestly significant difference (HSD) test found that gamers who played MMORPGs had significantly higher SOVC scores than gamers who played LAN/WAN and Stand-Alone games. With regard to the scores for relationship motivation, it was found that gamers who preferred to play MMORPGs or LAN/WAN computer games had scores that were not significantly different. However, the scores for both these groups were significantly higher than those for gamers who played Stand-Alone games. Discussion The findings of this study are consistent with those of other studies, such as Bijvank, et al. (2007), which show that some gamers have social motives for playing their preferred types of computer games. This study extends those findings and shows that gamers who prefer MMORPGs have higher PSOC than gamers who prefer other types of games. People who score higher on PSOC tend to agree with such statements as „I care about what other group members think of my actions‟ and „I have friends in this group‟. We also show that gamers who prefer computer games with the clearest social component have higher relationship motivation than players who prefer Stand-Alone games. People who score higher on relationship motivation tend to agree with statements such as „Friends in the game have offered me support when I had a real-life problem or crisis‟ and „I understand real-life group dynamics much more after playing the game‟. This result clearly contradicts the stereotypical image of the computer gamer as someone who is lonely, alienated or isolated. Instead, computer games with interactive components may be regarded as just another way in which people can make contact with each other. The present study does not allow us to say whether games with an interactive component cause increases in PSOC and/or relationship motivation, or whether gamers with higher levels of these factors are drawn to games with interactive components. Further experimental studies will help clarify this point. Furthermore, the method of locating participants was a potential limitation of the current study. Most participants were located either through fora for online gamers or through an online forum for psychology undergraduates. Thus, the sample may not be representative of gamers as a whole. Further studies using different methods of locating participants are recommended. This study is not inconsistent with those that assert that there are negative consequences associated with some computer games. The connection between playing violent computer games and increased levels of aggression is well established (see Anderson & P. Fong & P.M. Forster Bushman, 2001; Anderson & Dill, 2000, for example). What is clear, from this and other studies, is that many computer gamers, particularly those who play games that allow or require interactions with other gamers, are enjoying positive social experiences from their game playing; they are giving and receiving friendship, support, and a sense of connection, belonging and community. Given this information, the designers of computer games may like to choose to follow the light side of the force and create games that accentuate the pro-social dimensions of games. Acknowledgments With thanks to Mal Flack and Professor Kate Moore of Charles Darwin University. References Anderson, C., & Bushman, B. (2001). Effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, and prosocial behavior: A meta-analytic review of the scientific literature. Psychological Science, 12, 353-359. Anderson, C., & Dill, K. (2000). 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