Role of gamers’ communicative ecology on game community involvement and self-identification of gamer
Introduction
When the Korean government elites and the majority of Congress members passed the game regulation laws (Game Shutdown Law,1 2011), they did so from the perspective of gaming as an antecedent to violent behavior and addiction (Kim, 2014). In 2014, Son, a politician from a conservative party in Korea who proposed the Game Addiction Bill2 in 2013, blamed RPGs (role-playing games, e.g., Lineage and World of Warcraft) and the AOS (aeon of strife, e.g., League of Legend and Heroes of the Storm) game genre for causing negative, addictive behaviors due to collective-party-oriented online game characteristics. This line of thinking believes that pressure from peer gamers causes excessive game playing and ultimately leads to game addiction. Moreover, the immersive features of some strategy genre games, such as Civilization and Football Manager, have garnered nicknames such as the game of evil or game of addiction in Korea.
Conservative mainstream media report on supposed game-related social problems, namely, that excessive (online) game playing (addiction) causes social problems (violence or crime) (Park, 2010, Yoon, 2014), and the government policy and academic research seems to follow the similar lines of inquiry regarding online game play. While academia does not fully agree on the causal effects of game playing on violence (Ferguson, 2015, Ferguson and Colwell, 2017, Markey et al., 2015, Quandt et al., 2015), the Korean government has criticized the RAS (RPGs, AOS, and Strategy) genre in particular for violent and addictive behavior, stigmatizing RAS gamers as socially isolated game addicts, and as such, the genre remains under the regulation. Studies diagnose game addiction as a medical illness (e.g., Golub and Lingley, 2008, Kim et al., 2017, Kircaburun et al., 2018, Lee and Kim, 2017) or mental disorder (World Health Organization, The International Classification of Disease, Eleventh Revision, 2018).
There is a dearth of academic research on the social functions of game playing and game communities; research on the educational role of gaming is limited to the area of education or pedagogy (e.g., Steinkuehler & Squire, 2014, pp. 377–396); gaming's positive effects are limited to health benefits, such as those of augmented reality (AR) game playing on socializing and fitness (e.g., Althoff et al., 2016, Kaczmarek et al., 2017, Ma et al., 2014).
Few communication studies have examined the civic effects of game playing. Previous studies have demonstrated that gamers learn from social interactions with others and build communities for social life (Yee, 2009, Yee, 2010, Yee, 2014, Squire, 2010, Squire, 2011, Steinkuehler, 2005, Steinkuehler, 2006, Williams et al., 2006). The unique environment of game playing allows gamers to experience sociopolitical structures, and active participation in game culture encourages confidence in learning and cooperation (Squire, 2010). This participation in games may be considered a new platform for social behavior. However, many of these studies lack the empirical findings in analyzing what aspects of gaming facilitate social behaviors and how the unique environment of game playing leads to building or engaging community. Moreover, new research designs (pathway to community involvement) and the theoretical model for games’ unique communicative ecology/environment and social interactions are needed. Thus, this study intends to reconsider the perception of gamers as socially isolated and violent/addictive and game playing as addictive or violent by providing empirical evidence on the social role of gaming and gamer community participatory behavior.
Therefore, this study a) highlights the role of a game genre's unique characteristics in community engagement and perceived identity; b) presents a discussion on game issues in relation to a collective sense of identity (Walsh, 2004); and c) presents a discussion on game-related media (IT news and in-game media, such as game forums or instant chatting in games) as important information sources for gamers and games as surveillance media. This study applies the gamer's communicative ecology to game community activities and the perceived identity of gamers. Moreover, the concepts of social capital in game community involvement and the perceived identity of gamers were applied. These analyses on gamer activities and gamers' communicative environment suggest new aspects of games regarding the negative notion of game violence or addiction.
Based on the effects of network technology on democratic potentials (Benkler, 2006, Rainie and Wellman, 2012, Wellman et al., 2001), this study assumes that games offer what the networked information economy provides, including more freedom, connection, and reasoned discourse, as well as an alternative platform for the public sphere (networked public), while gamers engage in the online community. Gamer online communities provide gamers opportunities for expression and for sharing information (as a source of information) in a space where diverse opinions are valued, which may lead them to engage in public discourse (as a place of deliberation).
Section snippets
Gamers’ communicative ecology model
Originally, the communicative ecology model (Foth & Hearn, 2007), as applied to gamers, was designed to explain the mechanism of the participatory behavior of gamers and, especially, the role of media and communication as mediators in participation. As communicative ecologists have suggested, this study adopted three layers (technological, social, and discursive) in which communication processes occur: a technological layer involves media that enable communication; a social layer consists of
Game community involvement
The changing media environment leads to the new social phenomenon that affects the way people communicate and participate in social life. In game studies, scholars found that social life (guild or game organization) fostered social capital (expanding social relationships, e.g., Steinkuehler & Williams, 2006) and immersive game playing (Dalisay, Kushin, Yamamoto, Liu, & Skalski, 2015) and that social capital in gaming encouraged civic engagement (Kahne et al., 2009, Molyneux et al., 2015). While
Gamer identity
In 2015, Gaming and Gamer in Pew Research asked whether respondents identified themselves as gamers. Theoretically, the notion of group or self-identification is closely related to “the social identity theory of the group” (Turner et al., 1987, p. 42) and boundaries (Taylor & Whittier, 1992). Van Zomeren, Postmes, and Spears (2008) argue that in many measures of group identification, the cognitive centrality of group membership (Turner et al., 1987) and affective ties or sense of psychological
Data
To test the current gamers’ ecological model on game community and perceived identification as a gamer, an online survey was administered to Korean adults (who lives in South Korea), during a 1-week period, between October 26 and November 2, 2016. The data used in this study was based on an online panel provided by Embrain. Because the research inquiries in the current study incorporated usage of game playing (74% of the Korean population played games with PC or mobile devices in 2015, based on
Findings
To predict a) game community involvement, this study performed a multiple hierarchical regression by organizing the independent variables into five blocks: demographics, game issue interest, ideology, and game play hours as the first block; game genre as the second block; ideologically differing media exposure as the third block; game news exposure as the fourth block; and game coplaying and discussion about game issues as the fifth block. Moreover, a logistic regression model was performed to
Discussion
Overall, the findings of this study provide empirical support that game genre, media usage, game coplaying and game discussion (gamer's communicative ecology) were significant predictors of game community activities and the perceived identity of the gamer. These results are important since they provide empirical evidence that a game genre's unique characteristics and game-related media usage contribute to community activities and gamer self-identification. In particular, the finding that RAS
Implication
By providing empirical evidence on the significant relationship between game playing activities and community and perceived identity, the current study extends the subject of game studies beyond the notion of violence/addiction vs. education/fitness. As stated previously, game playing has social consequences in community building. Previous studies examined the civic effects of game playing, arguing that gamers learn via socializing with other members and creating social norms for interaction
Funding
This research received no external funding.
Declaration of competing interest
The author declares no conflict of interest.
Chang Won Jung is a Ph.D. in School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin– Madison. His research interests include (a) democratic potential of games and gaming communities as a networked public sphere and mobilization; (b) media discourse and public opinion concerning game issues; and (c) role of gamer's communicative ecology on learning effects and gamer's participatory behaviors in a variety of contexts.
References (53)
- et al.
The Pikachu effect: Social and health gaming motivations lead to greater benefits of Pokémon GO use
Computers in Human Behavior
(2017) - et al.
Stumbling upon news on the Internet: Effects of incidental news exposure and relative entertainment use on political engagement
Computers in Human Behavior
(2013) - et al.
The Dark Tetrad traits and problematic online gaming: The mediating role of online gaming motives and moderating role of game types
Personality and Individual Differences
(2018) - et al.
The social side of gaming: How playing online computer games creates online and offline social support
Computers in Human Behavior
(2012) The effects of collective MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) play on gamers' online and offline social capital
Computers in Human Behavior
(2011)- et al.
Influence of pokémon go on physical activity: Study and implications
Journal of Medical Internet Research
(2016) The wealth of networks: How social production transforms markets and freedom
(2006)- et al.
Relationships as stories: Accounts, storied lives, evocative narratives
- et al.
Alternative ways of assessing model fit
The future of the institutional media
(2001)
Motivations for game play and the social capital and civic potential of video games
New Media & Society
All the news you want to hear: The impact of partisan news exposure on political participation
Public Opinion Quarterly
Do angry birds make for angry children? A meta-analysis of video game influences on children's and adolescents' aggression, mental health, prosocial behavior, and academic performance
Perspectives on Psychological Science
Understanding why scholars hold different views on the influences of video games on public health
Journal of Communication
Networked individualism of urban residents: Discovering the communicative ecology in inner-city apartment buildings
Information, Communication & Society
Digital democracy: Reimagining pathways to political participation
Journal of Information Technology & Politics
“Just like the qing empire” internet addiction, MMOGs, and moral crisis in contemporary China
Games and Culture
Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives
Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal
The civic potential of video games
Techno-sociological analysis on internet game addiction controversy
Journal of Korea Game Society
A path model of school violence perpetration: Introducing online game addiction as a new risk factor
Journal of Interpersonal Violence
From innovation to social norm: Bounded normative influence
Journal of Health Communication
An explication of social norms
Communication Theory
Predictors of online game addiction among Korean adolescents
Addiction Research and Theory
Future trends of virtual, augmented reality, and games for health
Completion time and response order effects in web surveys
Public Opinion Quarterly
Cited by (19)
Developing esport tourism through fandom experience at in-person events
2022, Tourism ManagementCitation Excerpt :Similarly, esports represents a coming together of people who have a shared interest in online gaming (Qian et al., 2019). The attraction of esports is that it can offer the chance to build strong social ties, friendships, and participatory collaboration (Jung, 2020; Martončik, 2015; Trepte et al., 2012). Online live chats during streamed esport tournaments provide opportunity to communicate through copypastas and emotes with other spectators, while the streaming of esport games and events provide more interactive community-based experiences between professionals and fans which can augment perceptions of gameplay (Qian et al., 2019; Sjöblom et al., 2019; Xue et al., 2019).
Balancing learning and enjoyment in serious games: Kerbal Space Program and the communication mediation model
2022, Computers and EducationCitation Excerpt :There, the stimulus was engagement in online political communication, which is a type of political participation (Cho et al., 2009). Similarly, Jung (2020) conceptualized response in terms of behaviors such as writing and reading comments about online political games. But behavioral responses are not limited to the arena of political communication.
Why Should Red and Green Never Be Seen? Exploring Color Blindness Simulations as Tools to Create Chromatically Accessible Games
2023, Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer InteractionIdentity construction and self-identification of the protagonist in the film media discourse: Multi-modal linguo-semiotic approach
2023, Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies
Chang Won Jung is a Ph.D. in School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin– Madison. His research interests include (a) democratic potential of games and gaming communities as a networked public sphere and mobilization; (b) media discourse and public opinion concerning game issues; and (c) role of gamer's communicative ecology on learning effects and gamer's participatory behaviors in a variety of contexts.