Laura Oioli

DIGITAL PLAY AND MEDIA TRANSFERENCE

De Grove, F.; Cauberghe, V.; & Van Looy, J. (2014, April 08). In Pursuit of Play: Toward a Social

Cognitive Understanding of Determinants of Digital Play. Oxford University Press.

Digital games are becoming more and more popular in today’s world, to the point where they

become a mediated format. For understanding digital play, this article presents the Social

Cognitive Theory, which is one of the main theories that explain the determinants of playing

games in a variety of contexts without forgetting the important aspects of the medium. In

addition, the Social Cognitive Theory shows and proposes the processes at the base of human

behaviors as well as to understand some of the motivations for playing digital games.

What cognitive processes do is to slightly control the impulse to behave in a certain manner;

therefore, people are self‐directed in their actions, they are capable of imagining and know in

advance what can happen by how they behave.

Consequently, we can have different results from behaviors. These outcomes can be either

positive or negative and depending on the origin of production they can be later categorized.

Generally, there are two main types of outcomes, which can either be self‐produced or

influenced by factors that are external to the person. With the first outcome, the main thing

people do is to create personal goals and then examine and judge their actions according to

certain standards. Instead, with the other outcome, the behavior is affected by material,

sensory, token, and social outcomes that are combined altogether. Either way, both types of

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results are interconnected. In order to handle the functioning of these outcomes is self‐efficacy,

which is based on the idea that everybody has the capacities to produce such behaviors.

The Social Cognitive Theory is particularly used in communication, as it gives the individual to

be aware of its surroundings and observe others within the context of social interactions.

When an individual observes a model behaving in a certain manner and know the possible

consequences, the person memorizes the sequence of events and uses the information to guide

subsequent behaviors. This is particularly significant in the field of Professional Communication

because this model can also be applied in conversations. Therefore, depending on how people

talk to us or the type of words they use, the person receiving the message may choose to

replicate in the same manner as the speaker does.

De Grove, F.; & Van Looy, J. (1970, January 01). Young people at play: Behaviors, motives and

social structure. Ghent University. 2014.

What this paper aims to do is to find answers in what drives people in playing digital games, as

well as investigating the process of game choice and if different types of behavior impact these

decisions. However, instead of focusing only on a single theory (like the SCT), it dives into

different aspects that may influence humans in gaming.

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First of all, time (like frequency and duration of play) and the content that is played are

important factors in determining the motives and justifications for someone to play digital

games. Moreover, it is also thought that the motives for digital playing are already pre-existing.

Another relevant question in regard to the reasons in why an individual decide to play is

whether actions originate from conscious decision making or whether they are habitual. That's

why knowing the habits of a person is essential in this study, as it predicts the behaviors. A key

characteristic of habits is that they are developed through redundancy and within contexts that

are contingent with the behavior.

Another important aspect to keep in mind is the gender of the person, as boys and girls have

different motives, as well as behaviors, for playing digital games. In fact, researchers have found

out that female players are more likely to spend less time on digital games compared to male

players who instead are more driven to invest more time. Furthermore, the type of gender also

reveals that female players are more prone to play games that are more casual, story-telling,

and easy to understand whilst male players are more inclined to play so-called core genres,

which are more into adventure, action, and sport. Lastly, the social environment and context

are also other significant factors in deciding which games one plays and how much time people

are willing to spend on it.

This academic article helped me to expand my understanding of digital play into the

communication field because it brought up features and aspects like time, habits, gender etc.

that have an influence on humans in gaming. Friendships that people have on networks have an

impact in affecting behaviors and for instance, when friends chat about a game and then play it

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together, that entails a relational behavior. It’s not only about online play chat, but also how in

real life the talking of game that people have related can engage the start of a conversation

that it’s not online but face-to-face.

Wright, J.; & Embrick, D. (2017, November 30). The Emotional Work of Family Negotiations in

Digital Play Space: Searching for Identity, Cooperation, and Enduring Conflict.

With this Journal paper, the goal of the study is to analyze different cases and situation in which

digital play has an impact on relationships between friends, family and partners. Overall, the

research doesn’t have a straight answer on whether digital gaming is bad or good for a

relationship, but rather, it tells different stories of people and how in certain situations playing

games has a different effect on the relationships in which people are involved, directly or not.

First of all, connections are not only made through social media like Facebook, Twitter, Linked-

in etc., but also by simulated fantasy worlds and online games. Moreover, because of the

development of new social networks, new typologies of social skills are needed in order to

reach both the truthfulness and manner of formulating comments online by gamers in many

messaging forums. Furthermore, this article focuses on multiplayer online games, specifically

on World of Warcraft (WoW) which is a simulated digital world that create online universes

where gamers can play activities both socially or alone.

They primarily recognize two ways of seeing digital play. Some scholars believe that an excess

of technology and use of online game play may have negative effects on players’ social abilities,

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like interacting with people in real life, as well as impacting their cognitive development. Other

scholars, instead, think the opposite and that current technology has helped many families to

take advantage from social media outlets. Furthermore, daily gamers are less likely to send or

receive digital messages to communicate, and discovered that game players are actually more

social in some respects compered to non-gamers.

Said that, the effects that digital play has on relationships is always different, and depending on

the situation people are in, the personality that the gamer has, the environment and many

other factors, the outcome will change.

The significance of this article is to show that digital play is a form of communication, even if it’s

in a different form. Because we live in a world where technology is constantly increasing, online

communication has become part of our life. Digital play has a role in communication because

many people need this “tool” as a way of escaping from the stressful life and enjoy time with

others that have the same passion of playing games. Furthermore, for shy people online play

can help them to feel less anxious and instead try to approach into a conversation with

strangers and eventually find friends.

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Flynn, R.; Richert, R.; & Wartella, E. (2018, November 30). Play in a Digital World: How

Interactive Digital Games Shape the Lives of Children.

Many people still wonder if digital play has a bad impact on children, especially if influenced

from a very early age. The authors in this journal discuss the effect that interactive digital

games have on kids to help them become smarter, stronger, and kinder with the others.

Firstly, the authors make a clear idea of what they mean by “digital play”, which they consider

to be games that have some kind of interaction instead of non-interactive screen media (e.g.

television shows).

They have dispelled the myth that games can make children lose their cognitive and social skill

thanks to studies that have discovered that playful activities can actually support learning if

children are cognitively and actively engaged, have social partners, iteratively expand the play

and experience joy. However, not every educational digital app have these features, which are

needed in order to make a positive impact on them.

Digital play has a different impact on the interactivity that kids can have, which are very

different from traditional tory or passive screen media. Therefore, depending on the level of

activity they have with the game, they have different outcomes of cognitive engagement. From

only watching and listening, use of the fingers, to a full-body action, the information received

change. Either way, they can learn from processing and encoding information to exchange

meaningful dialogue, messages and even feedback.

Specifically, they analyzed the game Sesame Street as it has shown which features engage

children in more basic things like learning letters and numbers, as well as greater things such as

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teaching social and life skills, like making healthy choices on food and fitness, and also how to

get along with others. Moreover, it focuses on helping children become smarter, stronger and

kinder.

What this article does, is to show how digital play can be used in a functional way in order to

help children improve in different aspects. When it comes to Professional Communication,

functional digital games on kids will lead them to have empathy as well as a more ethical

mindset toward others, and use principles of play to promote children’s sense of

understanding. What digital games also does is to encourage cooperative interaction, meaning

that children learn to work in a team and communicate with the members toward a shared

goal. Therefore, it is crucial for children to have an interaction with digital play to promote their

social and emotional development.

Shen, C.; Monge, P.; & Williams, D. (2011, September 19). The Evolving Virtual Relationships: A

Longitudinal Analysis of Player Social Networks in a Large MMOG. University of Oxford.

In this study, scholars examine the different processes on the formation, maintenance, and

decease of relationships online. Therefore, it focuses on the effects of evolutionary

determinants in the context of social interaction formed in multiplayer gaming.

One surprising thing they mentioned is how even in online worlds, the number of relationships

one player could have is limited as in real life. In fact, ties are both hard to initiate and to

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maintain over time. Interactions take time to develop as building strong and trusting

relationships is a long-term effort. Then, people have to take care of the relations they have

since they constantly change. Furthermore, the amount of time and cognitive effort needed to

sustain the ties varies according to the type of network content.

In summary, personal ties undergo variation and because individuals have limited relational

carrying capacity, these new connections need to reach certain features in order to not decay.

It is common to get into random encounters, and these often bring people together regardless

of individual preferences which instead could have influenced a rejection of someone's

company.

To achieve a certain relational goal, evidences claim that it's harder to initiate a new

relationship from scratch instead of exploiting existing ones. Therefore, people are motivated

to recover and work on their already-existing ties. Over time, these bonds are then clarified on

their benefits.

As people spend more time gaming, they become better at identifying compatible partners and

also in keeping them. Additionally, compatibility grows as ties age. Therefore, the longer a

connection has been maintained, the less likely it is to decay.

Another restriction is the level of experience, as multi-playing in groups requires that all the

members have similar levels, consequently the ties between players of similar characters are

stronger.

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This study on the relationship based in online gaming assisted me to extend my perception of

how online connections tie into the communication field because it shows how online

relationships are very similar to the ones in real life.

In reality, we all struggle with our friendships and people that are connected to us. However,

through communication and understanding of the other person, we are able to restore those

connections and maintain them over time. It is also real that initiating a new conversation and

connection with a stranger, it's harder, and that's why we work on the ones we have.