Why do young adults play online games such as First Person Shooters? What are their motives?
- Communication before, during, and after online gaming is of the utmost importance for these gamers. They like the “togetherness” in these centers. Paying for going to an online game center was far better than the solitude of gaming from their home
- Gaming is seen as a way of developing relationships: old and new ones. Moreover, new contacts were people who would not normally socially interact. The reputation build during gaming rely on cooperation, generosity, reputation and ability to cooperate. Gamers can express themselves in ways they may not feel comfortable doing in real life.
- Gaming was considered more fun and exiting than other activities, beyond reading a good book and watching a good movie at the same time. An all encompassing experience
- The social aspects of gaming are important for motivating online game play. Teamwork and cooperation are crucial for all online gamers
- Escapism, getting away from the daily hazzle was a motivation for some of the gamers.It provides gamers a holistic experience of ‘‘being more real than the real world.’’
online gaming among these gamers was motivated by sociality, cooperation, communication, control, escapism, flow, experience, and as a hallucination of the real.
How was this study done?
It was done in Stockholm the capital city of Sweden in two online gaming centers. The games were Counter-Strike and World of Warcraft.
Observations were conducted on 15 occasions from September 2006 to February 2007. Twenty three online gamers (19 males, 4 females) ranging in age from 12 to 26 years old were observed and interviewed. Unstructured interviews and observations were conducted face to face and varied from 30 minute to almost 3 hours. Two thirds of the interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed verbatim.
Why is this important?
The implication of the study is that it extends previous research concerning the motivational aspects of online gaming.
Frostling-Henningsson, M. (2009). First-Person Shooter Games as a Way of Connecting to People: “Brothers in Blood” CyberPsychology & Behavior DOI: 10.1089/cpb.2008.0345
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