Search

Historical video games set in famous places in the world history have grown in popularity. The current study extends prior work in analyzing how social realism (a dimension of perceived realism focused on regarding game characters and events as authentic) is related to entertainment outcomes, assessing the extent to which sense of place further contributes to these outcomes, and examining how these experiences encourage tourism. As an internal replication, we surveyed international fans of the Assassin's Creed franchise about their experiences with one of four different games set in modern history (Unity, Syndicate) or antiquity ( Origins, Odyssey). For modern historical games, increased social realism was correlated with enjoyment and increased sense of place was correlated with appreciation. For all games, sense of place was positively associated with tourism intentions. These findings are discussed in relation to the role of perceived realism in the experience and influence of playing historical video games.

World of Warcraft (WoW) Classic (released August 2019) allows players to return to the original game experience. This study considers how WoW players experience game content through media nostalgia and sense of place and investigates how social presence impacts these components of experience. Survey questions addressed 306 participants’ experiences in WoW, feelings of nostalgia and sense of place in Azeroth, and experiences with social presence in WoW; open-ended questions were asked about their motivations to play WoW. Prior overall WoW experience and higher sense of social presence increase personal nostalgia scores (replicating previous research). Sense of place scores increased with higher sense of social presence but were overall lower for current WoW Classic players. Social presence proved an important component of both personal nostalgia and sense of place. These findings expand and extend researchers’ understanding of the relationships between nostalgia, sense of place, and social presence within this unique site of study.

The connection between player and avatar is understood to be central to the experience and effects of massively multiplayer online (MMO) gaming experiences, and these connections emerge from the interplays of both social and ludic characteristics. The comprehensive social/ludic measure of this player-avatar interaction (PAX), however, features some dimensions with theoretical/operational gaps and limited reliability, and is available only in English (despite evidence of potential cultural variations in player-avatar relations). The present study aimed to a) enhance and refine the PAX metric, and b) translate and validate a common metric that bridges English, German, and traditional Chinese languages to facilitate future comparative research. Through exploratory factor analysis of data from MMO players in each of these language-based populations, an improved 15-item common Player Avatar Interaction (cPAX) scale is presented, with four dimensions: relational closeness, anthropomorphic autonomy, critical concern, and sense of control. The metric is shown to be reliable within and across populations, and construct validity tests show expected associations between scale dimensions and both player-avatar relationship types and senses of human-like relatedness.

The connection between player and avatar is central to digital gaming, with identification assumed to be core to this connection. Often, scholarship engages single dimensions of identification, yet emerging perspectives reveal that identification is polythetic (PID) ‐ comprising at least six sufficient (but not necessary) mechanisms. The current study investigates the intersections of polythetic identification mechanisms and two different approaches to player‐avatar sociality (as a marker of differentiation): general types of player‐avatar relationships (PARs) and discrete dimensions of player‐avatar interaction (PAX). Secondary analysis of an existing dataset of gamers revealed two main findings: (1) players reported overall diminished identification when they engaged in non-social relations with their avatar, and (2) increased liking and perspective-taking were most likely with human-like social relations, which require differentiation from rather than identification as the avatar. These findings are interpreted to suggest that player‐avatar identification and differentiation are conceptually independent relational phenomena that are experientially convergent ‐ some relational orientations and dynamics are associated with distinct combinations of identification mechanisms.

Abstract. The Video Game Demand Scale (VGDS) is a 26-item, five-factor scale designed to assess the cognitive, emotional, physical, and social demands experienced by video game players. Given the international relevance of video games, cross-cultural research focusing on gamers beyond the US community holds promise to substantiate and refine extant approaches. The current study introduces a German-language VGDS, which was tested for measurement invariance with respect to the original US scale as well as predictive, convergent, and concurrent validity (replicating the original VGDS validity tests). Results revealed configural and partial metric measurement invariance when compared with data from the original scale. Validity tests between the German-language VGDS and common measures of task load, entertainment, need satisfaction, and game ratings largely replicated original results. Overall, we conclude that the VGDS is a reliable, valid, and useful contribution to media psychological game research and suggest areas of future work for which an interactivity-as-demand focus might benefit.

Social media allows users to explore self-identity and express emotions or thoughts. Research looking into the association between social media use (SMU) and mental health outcomes, such as anxiety or depressive symptoms, have produced mixed findings. These contradictions may best be addressed by examining different patterns of SMU as they relate to depressive symptomatology. We sought to assess the independent associations between active versus passive SMU and depressive symptoms. For this, we conducted an online survey of adults 18-49 of age. Depressive symptoms were measured using the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System brief depression scale. We measured active and passive SMU with previously developed items. Factor analysis was used to explore the underlying factor structure. Then, we used ordered logistic regression to assess associations between both passive and active SMU and depressive symptoms while controlling for sociodemographic covariates. Complete data were received from 702 participants. Active and passive SMU items loaded on separate factors. In multivariable analyses that controlled for all covariates, each one-point increase in passive SMU was associated with a 33 percent increase in depressive symptoms (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 1.33, 95 percent confidence interval [CI] = 1.17-1.51). However, in the same multivariable model, each one-point increase in active SMU was associated with a 15 percent decrease in depressive symptoms (AOR = 0.85, 95 percent CI = 0.75-0.96). To inform interventions, future research should determine directionality of these associations and investigate related factors.

Over the past thirty years, research situated in many individual sub-domains of psychology has investigated the potential impact of video game play on behavior. Interestingly, although researchers in the various sub-fields are (presumably) versed in the results of the published research, there nonetheless remain significant individual differences in opinion across researchers regarding what exactly the given literatures “say.” Previous work has suggested that some individual difference factors, such as prior gaming experience, can account for some of this variance. The current study expands this work by examining several additional individual difference factors including field of study (e.g., whether one primarily studies links between video games and aggression, cognitive skill, or well-being) and video game knowledge. Both types of individual differences were associated with differences in belief regarding the state of the literature. In particular, video game knowledge was negatively associated with the belief that video games can lead to addiction and cause aggression and violence, and higher knowledge scores were positively associated with a belief that games can model prosocial behavior. Results are presented in a larger discussion of how researchers’ primary domains of knowledge influence the study of technology of effects, such as those from video game play.

Research on the impact of instructor-guided Facebook usage in college classrooms shows that the technology can increase students cognitive and affective learning, yet the role of social media in the classroom remains contentious. Analysis of open- and closed-ended survey data from 87 students enrolled in university courses from 15 institutions showed that students participating in a class Facebook group reported more interest in and perceived more value in course content, felt closer to the course and perceived their instructors as more involved. Effects on perceived closeness to course instructors and classmates were negligible, and effects on instructor immediacy or credibility were not found. As an out-of-class communication tool, Facebook increases student interest.Students who joined course Facebooks groups saw greater utility value of course content.Academic and social reasons are listed for participating in course Facebook groups.

Game streaming is emerging as an increasingly popular form of social gaming even among non-professionals. As such, players have to adapt to the presence of a digital gaming audience consisting of people who are either synchronously or asynchronously participating in their performance and engaging with them remotely via digital media. While individuals’ experiences with physically collocated (non-digital) audiences is well-studied, it is still unclear whether digital audiences trigger similar socio-cognitive mechanisms or whether individuals process such audiences differently. The current research examined the potential impact of both synchronous and asynchronous digital gaming audiences on players’ feelings of closeness, as well as the social demand these audiences elicit, across both US and German players in two separate studies. The second study was designed as an exact replication of the first, as a robustness check. Results indicate that while players could recall details of the conversations, synchronous streaming had no impact on feelings of propinquity with, or social demand from, the audiences.

One of most unique elements of video games often attributed to their critical and economic success is their interactivity—the requirement of video games to actively engage the player into the on-screen actions of the digital world. Scholars have focused on interactivity as a core variable to understand a variety of uses and effects of gaming, but conceptualizations vary and are often non-specific. This chapter proposes a multidimensional construct of interactivity based around the notion of demand (the extent to which a video game requires or “makes” a player engage), specifying potential cognitive, emotional, social, and physical demands common to video games. A Video Game Demand Scale is validated on a sample of gamers (N = 660) that uncovers latent factors associated with each of these dimensions of demand (also bifurcating physical into device and exertion dimensions). Exploratory structural equation modeling is used to demonstrate predictive, concurrent, and convergent validity with other variables critical to understanding the experience of video game play.

This article proposes a validated 15-item scale that merges theoretically divergent perspectives on player-avatar relations in extant literature (parasociality as psychological merging and sociality as psychological divergence) to measure player-avatar interaction (PAX). PAX is defined as the perceived social and functional association between an MMO player and game avatar, inclusive of four factors: emotional investment, anthropomorphic autonomy, suspension of disbelief, and sense of player control. These four factors were stable across two large multi-game (N?=?494) and game-specific player samples (N?=?458), in both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Construct validity tests show scale dimensions have expected significant relationships with a sense of human-like relatedness and player-avatar relationship features, and predictive validity tests indicate theoretically likely and relevant factor associations with gameplay motivations and MMO genres. Historically, player-avatar relations have been examined as parasocial.Emerging research suggests variable relations: non-social to parasocial to social.A 15-item merged metric of player-avatar interaction (PAX) was developed, validated.PAX integrates para/social dimensions: emotion, anthropomorphism, realism, control.Construct/predictive validity tests for two large samples support the metric's utility.

Participants formed impressions based on social media profiles.Profiles had different avatars and creation contexts.Nonhuman avatars create more physical uncertainty and less task attraction than other types.Avatars designed for task attractiveness may lower uncertainty about task attractiveness.Avatar cues and context impact attraction. When making judgments about others, people use whatever social information is available in online environments. Such is the case for forming impressions of others. One type of such social information is a user's avatar. This study examines different types of avatars (photographs, cartoon humans, and nonhumans) created for task, social or dating/romantic situations to study the effect of avatar type on judgments of uncertainty and task-specific attractiveness. Data suggest various patterns of uncertainty and attractiveness in these situations. Both the graphic from of an avatar and the context of impression formation have effects on subsequent impression formation. Judgments of uncertainty and attraction were affected by both the graphic from of avatar and by the consistency between the context of impression formation and the attractiveness cues of the avatar. These findings are discussed as are implications for future research.

Research on elderly people's ICT acceptance and use often relies on the technology acceptance model TAM framework, but has been mostly limited to task-oriented uses. This article expands approaches in technology acceptance and use by developing a model to explain entertainment-related uses of new media technology by elderly people. On a theoretical level, we expand the TAM perspective by adding concepts that act as barriers and/or facilitators of technology acceptance, namely technophobia, self-efficacy and previous experience and expertise with technology. We develop an expanded TAM by testing the role of these concepts in two studies on entertainment media technology. In Study 1, we investigate behavioural intention to use 3D cinema among N = 125 German elderly media users Age 50+. In Study 2, we focus the actual use of a computer game simulation by N = 115 German and US elderly media users Age 50+. Findings in both studies point towards the central role of perceived usefulness, here modelled as enjoyment, as the reason for elderly people's use and acceptance of entertainment media technology. Perceived ease of use is seen as a precondition for enjoyment, particularly for interactive media.

Examines differences between a motion controller and a traditional controller.Cognitive skills predicted performance for both controllers.Motion control was significantly more frustrating.Evidence that traditional controller was more naturally mapped for gameplay. This study examines differences in performance, frustration, and game ratings of individuals playing first-person shooter video games using two different controllers (motion controller and a traditional, push-button controller) in a within-subjects, randomized order design. Structural equation modeling was used to demonstrate that cognitive skills such as mental rotation ability and eye/hand coordination predicted performance for both controllers, but the motion control was significantly more frustrating. Moreover, increased performance was only related to game ratings for the traditional controller input. We interpret these data as evidence that, contrary to the assumption that motion controlled interfaces are more naturally mapped than traditional push-button controllers, the traditional controller was more naturally mapped as an interface for gameplay.

A growing area of video game research considers factors external to games that might predict both observed in-game and physical world decisions. One factor may be an individual's habitual behaviors, such as their physical activity routines. Because the authors tend to automate behaviors that they repeat in stable circumstances or contexts, virtual re-creations of those stimuli should prompt the same behavior in the game environment. Moreover, as virtual worlds become more similar to the physical world, behaviors the authors learn in physical reality might influence virtual behaviors. The authors ask two research questions: (RQ1) Is there an association between real-world habits and in-game decisions? (RQ2) Does the nature of the in-game task influence any relationship between real-world habits and in-game decisions? A quasi-experiment of 110 students at a large, mid-Atlantic university demonstrated that physical activity routines bias in-game transportation decisions, particularly when prompted to pursue a specific goal over a free exploration task.

Industry estimates suggests that smartphone gaming – playing video games on smartphone device, accessed via the device’s app market – accounts for a growing segment of the entire video game play market. Yet, very little is known about the processes by which smartphone users search for and download these gaming apps. Exploratory data combining behavioral observation with post-behavior talk aloud sessions found that users tended to (1) evaluate only one game, (2) spend little time evaluating that game before downloading it, and (3) based this decision on familiarity or price considerations (with both implicitly based on rating). Privacy concerns were rarely mentioned, and classic motivations for video gameplay (such as challenge, competition, and socialization) were not represented. These data suggest that smartphone gaming might be a qualitatively different experience in terms of its uses and effects than other forms of gaming and mobile entertainment.

We approach narcissism in two constructs - vulnerable and grandiose narcissism.Vulnerable narcissism has significant influence on SNS users' privacy control.Grandiose narcissism has no influence on SNS user's privacy control.Such distinct effects were found when controlling other personality predictors. This study suggests narcissism as an important psychological factor that predicts one's behavioral intention to control information privacy on SNS. Particularly, we approach narcissism as a two-dimensional construct-vulnerable and grandiose narcissism-to provide a better understanding of the role of narcissism in SNS usage. As one of the first studies to apply a two-dimensional approach to narcissism in computer-mediated communication, our results show that vulnerable narcissism has a significant positive effect on behavioral intention to control privacy on SNS, while grandiose narcissism has no effect. This effect was found when considering other personality traits, including self-esteem, computer anxiety, and concern for information privacy. The results indicate that unidimensional approaches to narcissism cannot solely predict SNS behaviors, and the construct of narcissism should be broken down into two orthogonal constructs.

Game streaming—viewing live or recorded broadcasts of others’ video game play—has become widely popular in recent years due to the emergence of platforms such as Twitch and YouTube Gaming. We position game streaming as a form of collaborative game play, with implications for how we study games and communication. We first review the social history of gaming before explicating game streaming as a gaming activity that involves public performance and varying levels of social interaction and synchrony. The influence of these three core elements on the uses, processes, and effects of game streaming as an entertainment activity are discussed through the twin perspectives of communication and media psychology.

Using the rational actor perspective as a guiding frame, this exploratory study examined individuals' social media diet (i.e., amount, frequency, and duration of use) as a function of task load and expected goal attainment. Surveys were distributed (N=337) focusing on Twitter and Facebook usage for informational and relational purposes, respectfully. Increased task load - conceptualized as a cognitive cost - directly negatively influenced Twitter use but only indirectly influenced Facebook use as a function of perceived benefits. Across conditions, perceived self-efficacy was negatively associated with perceived task load and positively associated with goal attainment, and goal attainment was a significant correlate of increased social media usage. Interpreted, we see that a transparent technology such as Facebook has no cognitive costs associated with its use, while an opaque technology such as Twitter seems to have a salient cognitive cost element. Further, we found that older users of Facebook were more likely to judge the channel as more cognitively demanding and themselves as having lower self-efficacy in using it. Finally, results indicated that for both Facebook and Twitter, males perceived both channels as more cognitively demanding than females. Theoretical and practical explanations and applications for these findings are presented.

This paper proposes a new and reliable metric for measuring character attachment (CA), the connection felt by a video game player toward a video game character. Results of construct validity analyses indicate that the proposed CA scale has a significant relationship with self-esteem, addiction, game enjoyment, and time spent playing games; all of these relationships are predicted by theory. Additionally, CA levels for role-playing games differ significantly from CA levels of other character-driven games.