Full length articleExploring the differential effects of social and individualistic gameplay motivations on bridging social capital for users of a massively multiplayer online game☆
Introduction
Throughout the past several decades, the growing prominence of the Internet in everyday life has profoundly shaped the ways in which we communicate and assemble, consequently altering the means by which individuals draw upon available networks for social and emotional support. In addition to major online social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, an ever-growing expanse of niche virtual communities provides users with a wealth of opportunities for the formation and maintenance of both casual and intimate interpersonal ties, including online dating sites, image- and video-sharing platforms, and online gaming communities (Hale, 2017, Kobayashi, 2010, Maghrabi et al., 2014). Similar to popular social networking sites in terms of increasing popularity, communicative utility, and the extensive, heterogeneous user-bases of which they are composed, massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) have come under examination by researchers seeking to better understand the implications of online involvement (Billieux et al., 2013, Hooi and Cho, 2014, Williams et al., 2006). Unlike heavily-studied online platforms such as Facebook, however, MMOs are goal-oriented mediums that facilitate various types of social interaction in addition to serving as a source of entertainment, with exchanges between users taking the form of cooperation, competition, or being all together incidental for the solo player (Billieux et al., 2013, Cole and Griffiths, 2007). While motivations for gameplay may range from individualistic to social in nature, it is online arenas such as MMOs wherein the potential for interpersonal benefits is most evident and, at the same time, may be an ancillary outcome of in-game involvement for certain users. Yet, it remains unclear whether players of varying motivations are more or less likely to benefit from the interpersonal opportunities available on these platforms. In other words, it is unclear whether the goal-oriented structure of MMOs, which often encourages collective gameplay and permits various types of social interaction (Hussain & Griffiths, 2009), leads to inclusive interpersonal benefits for players who are not socially-inclined toward involvement in these online communities. For this reason, the current study employs structural equation modeling to examine whether varying gameplay motivations, both social and individualistic, are positively associated with feelings of inclusivity (i.e., bridging social capital) among players of the popular MMO World of Warcraft.
Section snippets
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game that has consistently maintained its status as one of the highest-grossing, most subscribed to MMOs for over a decade (Tassi, 2015, Worldwide Digital, 2016), offers players all the amenities of an entertaining gaming platform. World of Warcraft (WoW) features 246 U.S. servers with hundreds more across the globe, each hosting anywhere from hundreds to tens of thousands of characters (Gamepedia, 2017). Each server (or realm) is
Sample
Data for the current study were collected via a self-administered online survey. The sample was drawn from the official U.S. World of Warcraft (WoW) forums on Blizzard's Battle.net and several additional WoW-related online forums. Because there is no available sampling frame from which a truly random sample of WoW players can be obtained, a combination of cluster and nonprobability sampling techniques were employed.
First, invitations to participate and links to the online survey were posted on
Results
Construction of the structural model followed a model-trimming approach guided by both theoretical and empirical standards (Kline, 2015), such that a saturated model (i.e., a model with zero degrees of freedom) was re-specified according to theoretically-informed changes suggested by the modification indices and standardized residual covariances until a good-fitting model with no nonsignificant paths was estimated. The final structural equation model was found to have a good overall fit (χ2
Discussion and conclusion
The purpose of this study was to examine whether both social and individualistic motivations for gameplay significantly influence bridging social capital for players of the popular MMO World of Warcraft (WoW). The results of the structural equation model indicated that neither of the individualistic gameplay motivations (advancement and competition) significantly affect bridging social capital, while both social motivations (socialize and relationship) were found to positively and significantly
Limitations and directions for future research
The current study is not without its limitations. First, the considerably small and community-specific sample should serve as a caution against broad generalizations made from the findings of this research, particularly across online gaming communities. Although the findings regarding player motivations may be expected to hold for subsequent samples of WoW users, the differential structure and user-bases of other MMOs may entail different associations among motivations for gameplay and social
Notes
- 1.
Only those indicating that they had played WoW in the past two months were asked to complete the questionnaire in full.
- 2.
Maximum likelihood estimation was employed for all CFAs and structural regression models. Convergence criteria for all estimated models were: crit 1 = 1−5, crit 2 = 0.001, iterations limit = 50, seed = 1.
- 3.
Confirmatory factor analysis was substituted for principal components analysis to model measurement error in indicators of the composite exogenous and mediating variables. For
Acknowledgements
The author thanks the two reviewers whose suggestions provided greater insight into the “rich get richer” hypothesis and helped to strengthen the conclusions drawn from this study.
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This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.