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Be a Gamer: A Psycho-Social Characterization of the Player

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HCI in Games (HCII 2023)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 14047))

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Abstract

Over the past few decades, digital game audiences have increased, gaining relevance and weight in popular culture, and with this, the stereotype of the person who plays digital games as if these persons belong to a separate social world. In popular slang, a Player is sometimes called a “gamer”.

In this paper, the systematization of the data collected in a survey spread in closed Gamer's internet social networks forums is made. The reality of N = 301 respondents is analyzed, showing descriptive statistics of the group.

The results show a lack of representation of marginalized groups, with most gamers being white, male, young, and from the middle class. Their political inclination is toward Left-wing ideologies; on average, they tend to be Atheists.

They like to explore the game world instead of enrolling in violent activities, which matches their agreeableness score (a construct related to prosocial behavior). Regarding their personality, they tend to be introverted but open-minded. The majority spent between 5 to 24 h playing per week.

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Acknowledgments

The study reported in this publication was supported by FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia), I.P. nr. SFRH/BD/143863/2019 and DigiMedia Research Center, under the project UIDB/05460/2020.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. DigiMedia, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal

    Tânia Ribeiro & Ana Isabel Veloso

  2. USC Games, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA

    Peter Brinson

Authors
  1. Tânia Ribeiro
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  2. Ana Isabel Veloso
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  3. Peter Brinson
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tânia Ribeiro .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. DePaul University, Chicago, IL, USA

    Xiaowen Fang

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Ribeiro, T., Veloso, A.I., Brinson, P. (2023). Be a Gamer: A Psycho-Social Characterization of the Player. In: Fang, X. (eds) HCI in Games. HCII 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14047. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35979-8_24

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35979-8_24

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-35979-8

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