Abstract
Social identity theory (SIT) has been widely applied to many contexts as a way of understanding group identity and the associated impacts. However, less research has explored the relevance of SIT to digital gaming. This paper outlines recent studies which have sought to establish a number of psychosocial outcomes associated with gaming identity across a number of gaming domains. Large-scale cross-sectional survey research in this area with varying gamer groups has generally found that positive identity to gaming groups is associated with positive aspects of well-being, such as lower loneliness and enhanced self-esteem and general well-being. Taken together, gamer identity appears to be a positive factor, which can go some way to support players on a psychological level.
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1 Introduction
Digital gaming can be a highly social pursuit, in which players can meet, interact and play with other players (Domahidi et al. 2014; Kowert et al. 2014; Yee 2006). In addition to this, gaming may foster social experiences which are peripheral to gaming itself yet also seem to be very important to players. These social experiences may occur via gaming forums, gaming conventions, and online community pages. As such, these “indirect” social experiences are not necessarily related to gameplay itself but are established through the fact that gaming may be a common activity for a given group of people. In this case, there is something psychological which draws an affiliation between these individuals whereby they experience a collective sense of belonging. This phenomenon can be explained through a well-known framework within the psychological literature, known as Social Identity Theory (SIT).
SIT posits that one’s sense of self is determined by an affiliation to a given social group (Tajfel 1978, 1979; Tajfel and Turner 1979), whereby one’s “personal self” is merged with the “collective self”, by which the strength of affiliation to a social group (i.e. the social identity) has a key influence on one’s own personal self-regard (Abrams and Hogg 1988; Ellemers et al. 2003). Three inter-related processes underpin social identity theory (Tajfel 1978):
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Social categorisation in which individuals see themselves and others as categories rather than as individuals
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Social identification in which individuals’ identity is formulated by their experiences within a social group or situation
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Social comparison in which individuals assess the worth of groups through comparing their relative features
In respect of social comparison, a distinction between “in-groups” and “out-groups” is made, in which solidarity within in-groups is said to promote a sense of self-esteem through such affiliation (Abrams and Hogg 1988).
The core literature on SIT has largely established that social identity fosters a number of positive psychological outcomes. Specifically, previous research across a wide range of contexts, has found that one’s strength of social identity is related positively to aspects of psychological well-being, such as enhanced self-esteem (Crocker et al. 1994; Haslam et al. 2009). For example, a positive social identity has been found to foster feelings of belongingness and self-worth (Branscombe and Wann 1991). Until recently, it had not been well established, the extent to which social identity to gaming domains may be relevant to also understand positive psychosocial functioning. However, recent studies have revealed that these outcomes may indeed be relevant (Kaye 2014; Kaye et al. 2017a; Kaye et al. 2017b; Kowert 2015). For example, gamer identity has been found to promote higher levels of social and psychological investment within gaming communities which can foster a sense of belongingness and self-esteem (Kowert 2015). Of course, this area of research should consider the fact that gamer identity may be multi-faceted (Grooten and Kowert 2015), and as such, should be referenced in respect of specific gaming domains or communities rather than to gaming per se. As such, the following sections highlight how identity to specific gaming domains has been explored to understand its role for a range of key psychosocial outcomes.
2 Social Identity in Gaming Domains
Football Manager (Sports Interactive) is a football management simulation game in which players have control of a football club to make decisions and consider tactics. This franchise also provides social experiences in which players compete in online leagues, or can engage in network play with other players. This game format is somewhat distinct from other sports games as it does not proffer many opportunities for direct competitive gameplay such as those derived from games such as FIFA (EA Sports), but instead may foster more “indirect” social experiences which occur outside of gameplay (e.g., social cohesion, conversations relating to the game). As such, the SIT framework is well suited to help underpin the way in which players of this game may establish a collective sense of “togetherness” through their affiliations to this game franchise.
Research by Kaye (2014) pioneered the work to establish the relevance of SIT to specific gaming domains, in which Football Manager was utilised as a starting point. Indeed, through a series of semi-structured interviews with Football Manager players (three male and one female, all between the ages of 19 and 26), it became apparent that the process of social comparison was a particularly key facet of social identity which was relevant. That is, participants made a clear distinction between those who were also Football Manager players (in-group) and those who were not (out-group). For example, they described that non-players did not appear to appreciate or acknowledge the importance of the game. By contrast, the knowledge that there were others who shared the in-group mentality and had a collective understanding of the meanings derived through Football Manager experiences, allowed participants to recognise their in-group affiliation. To follow this up, further research has established that strength of identity to Football Manager is positively related to overall perceptions of one’s psychological well-being (Kaye et al. 2017a) suggesting that the collective identity surrounding this domain presents a positive factor to support psychosocial functioning.
However, what it important to further establish is the extent to which identity to specific gaming domains may vary as a product of the context of gaming associates. That is, whether other players who are recognised as sharing a collective identity are those who are “real world” friends or “online-only” friends. To empirically test this assertion, research aimed to establish whether there were differential outcomes for well-being between sub-groups of players of the game FIFA who varied between either playing with their “real world” friends via co-located multi-screen play, or those who played online with random other players (Kaye et al. 2017a). This found that when identity to FIFA was framed in reference to “real world” FIFA friends, this was positively related to deeper and more supportive relationships with these players compared to those who identified more with online-only players. However, irrespective of the context of identity, FIFA identity in general was positively related to players’ self-esteem (Kaye et al. 2017a). This echoes the findings of other research exploring types of gamer identity on psychosocial well-being (Kaye et al. 2017b). Namely, for Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO) games, the strength of this identity for these players has been found to be positively related to their self-esteem, as well as favourably to the perceptions of their social competence and loneliness (Kaye et al. 2017b). Further to this, it appears that various levels of involvement in MMOs (e.g., contributing to MMO forums, interacting with other players outside gameplay) and the various social resources these experiences afford, are also related positively to players’ sense of collective identity in this domain (ibid). Taken together, it suggests that gamer identity is not just something related to gaming engagement itself, but instead may manifest through these experiences but have more wide-spread and enduring impacts on one’s psychosocial well-being even outside the game environment.
This suggests that aspects of gamer identity, in the main part, is experienced as a positive aspect of self-regard, which is reassuring given the usual negative stereotypes which are attributed to gamers as being socially inept, low in social status and isolated (Kowert et al. 2012; Kowert and Oldmeadow 2012). As such, it appears that even if these stereotypes still prevail in the 21st Century, they do not appear to be self-fulfilling or impact on self-regard for players themselves. The same also seems to apply for players who are female, in which under stereotype threat, they do not appear to be impacted detrimentally on either their self-perceptions or performance outcomes relating to gaming (Kaye and Pennington 2016; Kaye et al. 2018; Pennington et al. 2018). As such, it appears that aspects of gamer identity may be a protective factor and therefore may function as a mechanism to maintain positive self-regard.
3 Thinking Forwards
In reference to the aforementioned literature, some ongoing questions remain unanswered which would benefit from further empirical exploration. That is, the first refers to the causation of how gamer identity functions for well-being. That is, the majority of work in this area (including work previously cited), is based on cross-sectional survey methodology, in which it is not clear whether the psychosocial variables reported are actually influenced by gamer identity, or whether there is simply an association which is not causal. Addressing this issue would lend further weight to any endeavours designed to promote gamer identity.
A second issue which would benefit from further exploration is that of how gamer identity may develop in the first place. Considering the three inter-related processes of social categorisation, social identification and social comparison, pragmatically it would be useful to know how these actually are fostered in respect of gaming experiences. Some research has established that the most prominent feature of gamer identity construction is through people’s perception of how their gaming behaviours correspond to those stereotypically understood to constitute gaming (De Grove et al. 2015). Further, friendship networks serve as additional contexts to promote gamer identity (ibid). Clearly there is fluidity of identity across contexts and so it does not seem sufficient to suggest that gamer identity manifests itself solely through gameplay. This leads on to a further query about the conditions under which gamer identity is more salient over others. That is, are there “optimal” conditions whereby gamer identity is more pronounced and therefore more impactful than others? This would be an intriguing question to follow up, specifically to recognise how domain-specific identity may be.
Finally, another intriguing area of research to follow up is to explore how gamer identity may interact with other aspects of one’s identity, particularly that of gender (Shaw 2012). That is, despite gaming being an activity enjoyed by both men and women (ESA 2015), there is still the assumption of masculinity to the gaming domain (Salter and Blodgett 2012), in which “female gamer” is often needed as an additional descriptor to characterise those who happen both to be female and play games. Based on this, one may propose that gamer and gender may overlap more closely and coherently for those who identify as male rather than female. From an identity fusion perspective, this may be more easily fostered for male gamers rather than female ones. As such, an interesting question is the extent to which women who identify as gamers may be dealing with a potential conflict of competing identities (gamer vs female) rather than men who may be more likely to experience an equilibrium between facets of their identity (gamer = male). See Fig. 1 for illustration of the proposed difference. Research has started to establish the processes through which female players may express their gamer identity (Vermeulen et al. 2017). That is, it suggests that cognitive evaluation of gender categorisation, and feeling closely connected to other women do not relate to gamer identity, yet collective appraisal of womanhood does (Vermeulen et al. 2017). This is interesting and serves a basis for further exploration, particularly in how this may operate for gamer identity in respect of different gaming domains. Exploring the interaction of gender and gamer identity, and comparing this for males and females, is therefore a pertinent issue for further research to more fully establish its psychological and social impacts for different players.
4 Conclusion
This paper has outlined the literature indicating that role of gamer identity on a range of positive psychosocial outcomes, including self-esteem, loneliness and general well-being. Taken together, there appears to be a developing literature base to suggest collective identity to gaming domains serves a positive and in many ways, a protective factor for players in maintaining self-regard. However, there is much still to explore, and this paper has identified a number of key directions which would be of interest to both academic and practitioner audiences. Certainly, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that a psychological enquiry into player affiliation is important to better understand player experiences and outcomes, and thus it is hoped that this helps informs game development and communities.
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Kaye, L.K. (2019). The Role of Gamer Identity on Digital Gaming Outcomes. In: Marcus, A., Wang, W. (eds) Design, User Experience, and Usability. Design Philosophy and Theory. HCII 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11583. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23570-3_34
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