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Psychological study on video game addiction (including MMORPGs)
DanielL1
Member Posts: 2
Hi All,
My name is Daniel Loton, and i'm currently completing an honours thesis
as part of a Psychology degree at Victoria University in Melbourne,
Australia. For my thesis, I've decided to conduct an online,
international study of adult gamers, looking at whether there is a
relationship between gaming and communication styles, self esteem and
video game addiction (or problem video game playing, as it is yet
clinically unproven that video game 'addiction' exists).
Gaming is massively popular now, and particular kinds of games have
become a new avenue for communication. I've chosen to look at whether
elements of video gaming can predict a measure of communcation styles
(including verbal and non-verbal expressivity and sensitivity), self
esteem and signs of problem video game playing. The study will
hopefully identify what (if any) elements of communication are related
to video gaming, and explore the existence or prevalence of problem
video game playing.
If you have 15-20 minutes to participate in the survey, or are interested in the topic, please visit
http://www.computergameresearch.com
The survey is COMPLETELY anonymous, and the information you could
provide can contribute to a still infantile branch of research,
particularly in relation to the popularity of the actual topic
(gaming). Note you do not have to be a gamer to participate, as this
allows even more interesting comparisons!
Thanks very much, and if you have questions please don't hesitate to reply, pm me or email me.
Regards, Daniel Loton.
P.S - Was unsure what forum section would be most aplicable - The Pub (about MMORPGs) or Off Topic. I felt it was related to MMORPGs so posted here, but if the moderators disagree please feel free to move into the off topic section.
Comments
Addiction
Hey Daniel, im not sure if this reply is correct. I'm a bit confused of your posts. lol. for me,game addiction really depends on the person. I am a gamer but i dont think im an addict or i will get addicted to it.. I only play when i have nothing to do. So its up to the player whether he will control or let himself be addict to online games. I guess, its just like doing anything. my advise... Play moderately. lol. By the way, if you don't mind, can i get in touch with you at my personal emai account : morena_forU@yahoo.com. Im would like to ask about Psychology things. I've been interested to study psychology and there are some topics i want to clarify but i dont want to discuss it here so please do contact me at the email above. Thank you in advance!
Phil.
http://www.danbrown.com/
https://gamersloot.net/catalog/index.php
My suggestion? Compare fanaticism over sports like football and fanaticism over video games.
=====Dedeko
Question 10 is a bit confusing. Do you mean real life friends or online friends ?
Whatever
A small problem.
How in this world does Magic: The Gathering (TCG) play in to video games? Yes there is a culture around it (I'll be the first to admit I have more than my fair share of MTG cards), but I just kind of found it to be an out of the blue question.
I also have Asperger's Syndrome. You have a few social interaction questions which 1) I clearly don't understand 2) I couldn't even understand if I wanted to because of the level of communication it implies. I can only read about 100 facial signals while everyone else can read 10,000. Not to mention body language in that.
I hate to say it, but this questionaire brings back memories of all the testing it took doctors to figure out I had AS at a very young age. If some of these behaviors are supposed to model addicition, then I must be addicted to everything because I'm answering questions in the extremes and these are the same exact questions I recieved during testing (It is very hard to forget being practically put in a test tube for years at the age of 5)
My results are going to be very very skewed indeed when you look at them.
(1997) UO --> EQ -> Runescape -> DAoC -> WoW -> EVE + WAR (2008)
Personally, I am inclined to agree with Dr. Richard Bartle on the subject of MMORPGs and self esteem development. He postulates that MMORPG playing is actually a large factor in improving self esteem in longterm players, and that playing MMORPGs can actually be a help in one's quest for self-realization and self-actualization.
Basically, because an MMORPG gives players carte blanche to create new personas, they can better explore who they really are. Because it gives players room to fail in social situations without devastating personal results, introverts are more likely to try, and therefore more likely to learn how to improve their ability to connect socially.
Owyn
Commander, Defenders of Order
http://www.defendersoforder.com
Sorry about the delay in replying, i've been very busy working/studying and advertising the study on various internet outlets (mostly gaming forums).
Firstly, I play games myself. I've played games heaps throughout my life (i'm 24), i see them primarily as an art form. I look back on the days of what i call the gaming revolution (with the home game console and pc 'space race', (nintendo vs sega) and all the classic games of that era i love. I do still play games today and I still respect them as an amazing medium. Specific to the study, it immediately has negative connotations (to my mind) of gamers being isolated hermits unable to communicate with others, and this is indeed a prevalent stereotype (although i have no reserach to back that statement up, juts personal experience). Although as research on gaming increases, and rigorous, well designed studies are conducted, these stereotypes are becoming weaker and weaker. Please review the research on this site for a good summary of past research and the criticism of previous impressions of gamers (right down to how the demographics of gamers were way off)-
http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/
Secondly, to TreborLocke, i'm very sorry to have brought back any previous trauma or negativity from past psychological testing. I'm not trying to target aspergers syndrome, or any derivative of autism or communication sydnrome or disorder in my study. The scale i used is called the 'social skills inventory', it breaks down communication styles or skills into 6 categories - verbal expressivity, verbal sensitivity and verbal control, non-verbal expressivity, non-verbal sensitivity and non-verbal control. It is a self-report assessment of basic communication skills. The reason i'm using this scale is because i wanted to investigate if gaming relates to any of these different social skill categories. 1. is to investigate whether gaming is related as is often suggested (i don't expect to find significance for a few reasons i'll expand on below). and 2.) more importantly, to see how gamers are actually unique in the way they socialize/communicate. If i wanted to just expore that myth, i would have just used a social anxiety scale, or psychosocial adjustement scale or something along those lines. But with these different communication styles, we can see if gamers to tend to be more expressive, or sensitive, verbally or non-verbally, which can then be related to all the convergent (what is similar) validity on other scales.
Treborlocke, you communicate excellently in an online/written context now, although i suppose some of the non-verbal decoding questions may have seemed confusing or arbitrary to you, - how did you find the questoins relating to verbal conversation?.
Once again, i'm sorry to have caused any distress or brought back painful memories. Also, if any scores are extremely skewed in the social skills sub-scales then they will probably be seperated and treated as a seperate population to the majority (called a statistical outlier).
I had issues with this thesis topic from the start, regarding it being used incorrectly or seeming very negative; however i don't expect to find a r/ship between overall social skills and gaming anyway, as gaming is a heavily social activity, either online or at LAN's, or multiplayer games...But hopefully I can find out whether there is a r/ship between gaming and different social skills, which can then suggest how gamers may differ from non-gamers or also between game genres (maybe MMORPG is more expressive due to the nature of the game), which at least allows an interesting look on the people who tend to play games (so far 360 people have completed the survey, 95% male!).
Sorry about the long post but i don't want to rush or skimp on responses.
Regards, Dan.