Game Transfer Phenomena in video game playing: a qualitative interview study

Video game playing is a popular activity and its enjoyment among frequent players has been associated with absorption and immersion experiences. This paper examines how immersion in the video game environment can influence the player during the game and afterwards (including fantasies, thoughts, and actions). This is what we describe as Game Transfer Phenomena (GTP). GTP occurs when video game elements are associated with real life elements triggering subsequent thoughts, sensations and/or player actions. To investigate this further, a total of 42 frequent video game players aged between 15 and 21 years old were interviewed. Thematic analysis showed that many players experienced GTP, where players appeared to integrate elements of video game playing into their real lives. These GTP were then classified as either intentional or automatic experiences. Results also showed that players used video games for interacting with others as a form of amusement, modeling or mimicking video game content, and daydreaming about video games. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate how video games sometimes triggered intrusive thoughts, sensations, impulses, reflexes, optical illusions, and dissociations

World of Warcraft: A Family Therapist\u27s Journey into Scapegoated Culture

Relational (online) video games are lucrative business. The extremely popular Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, World of Warcraft, boasts over eight million paying users. Video games are also a lightning rod for criticism and contempt by news media, parents and policy makers as the number of mass shootings increases in the United States. There is some research suggesting violent video games increase violent cognition and behavior. There is other research arguing no relationship exist between violent gaming and aggression. The same dichotomy of views exists within the discussion of how relational video games impact intimate partnerships. The purpose of this study is to continue conversation into the possibility of using games like World of Warcraft as interventions in individual, couple and family therapy. This autoethnorgraphic work examines researcher experience in World of Warcraft and its impact on violent thought, behavior and intimate relationships. In addition to researcher self-exploration, extensive interviews were conducted to provide additional context. Throughout the course of this work, three themes of World of Warcraft culture emerged: Work, Nostalgia and Connection. The theme of connection was most pervasive to the researcher and the participants. Video games like World of Warcraft may present supplemental opportunities for clients to practice healthy connection. Concerned parents should monitor their children’s online gaming relationships as they would any other. Future research in this area may benefit from an experimental design where video games like World of Warcraft are used in the treatment of PTSD and Social Anxiety Disorder

Surveillance and Community: Language Policing and Empowerment in a World of Warcraft Guild

A case study of a World of Warcraft guild explores the relationship between participatory surveillance, public discipline, empowerment, and fun. The guild under investigation in this paper is a self-labeled "safe space" guild for female, LGBT, and other minority members of the gaming population. To promote the safe space environment, the guild's members actively enforce prohibitions against offensive language. A comparison is made between the participatory surveillance model employed by the members of the guild and the top-down policies and discipline enacted by the parent company, Blizzard Entertainment; this comparison demonstrates the effects of co-existing models of surveillance in the game community. Furthermore, the effects of the guild's practice of public discipline of rule breakers are analyzed as a method of shaming that enhances the effects of the guild's rules. Finally, by examining reactions from members of the guild, personal and community empowerment are the outcomes of participation in the system. Recommendations are made to incorporate elements of participatory surveillance into games in conjunction with unilateral surveillance typically employed by game developers

Deus Ex Machinima: A Rhetorical Analysis of User-Generated Machinima

Beginning with corporate demonstrations and continuously evolving into today, machinima has become a major expressive art form for the gamer generation. Machinima is the user-centered production of video presentations using pre-rendered animated content, as generated from video games. The term \u27machinima\u27 is a combination of \u27machine\u27 (from which the video content is derived) and \u27cinema\u27 (the ultimate end product). According to Paul Marino and other members of the machinima community, Hugh Hancock, the creator of Machinima.com, first coined the term in 2000. Video productions of this kind have been used in various capacities for the past several years, including instruction or marketing, as well as rapid prototyping of large-scale cinema projects (Marino). In this thesis, I will briefly outline the current research on machinima. I will then build a methodology for my own rhetorical analysis of machinima as they formulate the promotion of their arguments. This methodology will include examples from major rhetorical theorists, including Lloyd Bitzer, Kenneth Burke, and Gunther Kress and Theo VanLeeuwan, among others. I will then apply my analytical tools to modern user-generated machinima from a variety of sources as a series of case studies. These cases include non-profit and for-profit examples, as well as educational and entertainment examples. Finally, I will explain how this framework may be used as a guideline for rhetorically sound and effective machinima

Treacherous Play

The ethics and experience of “treacherous play”: an exploration of three games that allow deception and betrayal—EVE Online, DayZ, and Survivor. Deception and betrayal in gameplay are generally considered off-limits, designed out of most multiplayer games. There are a few games, however, in which deception and betrayal are allowed, and even encouraged. In Treacherous Play, Marcus Carter explores the ethics and experience of playing such games, offering detailed explorations of three games in which this kind of “dark play” is both lawful and advantageous: EVE Online, DayZ, and the television series Survivor. Examining aspects of games that are often hidden, ignored, or designed away, Carter shows the appeal of playing treacherously. Carter looks at EVE Online's notorious scammers and spies, drawing on his own extensive studies of them, and describes how treacherous play makes EVE successful. Making a distinction between treacherous play and griefing or trolling, he examines the experiences of DayZ players to show how negative experiences can be positive in games, and a core part of their appeal. And he explains how in Survivor's tribal council votes, a player's acts of betrayal can exact a cost. Then, considering these games in terms of their design, he discusses how to design for treacherous play. Carter's account challenges the common assumptions that treacherous play is unethical, antisocial, and engaged in by bad people. He doesn't claim that more games should feature treachery, but that examining this kind of play sheds new light on what play can be

Game Time: Not Too Much, Nor Too Little

The amount of time young adults spend on online gaming has drawn attention from governments and academics. While these concerns posit a spatial separation between the game world and reality, they fail to understand the gaming activity in relation to individuals’ overall life. An alternative framing of gaming as leisure activities can yield greater insight. This research examines the temporal experience and the meaning of playing online games within a community of Chinese full-time college students. Observing their gaming routine, I try to answer: how do college students interpret the time they devote to gaming? In addition, how does the calculation of time for gaming differ from time in the game? Based on the research, I find that although the participants devote a significant amount of time on gaming, they are capable of prioritizing school obligations, making efforts to achieve a balance between work and leisure. Essentially, they regard gaming as a serious leisure and desire better performance through practicing. The findings suggest that the moral panic against online gaming, particularly in the Chinese society, is shaped by the interaction between the central regulation on internet use, the fear-delivering media representation, and the transformative work-leisure relation

Massively Multiplayer Online Gamers: Motivations and Risks

Massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) are a popular type of online video game. While these games and their players have been studied previously, there is gap in the literature that examines the relationship between one’s motivation to play MMOGs and loneliness, depression, and problematic use. For this study, 440 players of World of Warcraft (WoW), a popular MMOG, completed a demographics questionnaire and four measures, including Williams, Yee, & Caplan’s (2008) motivation measure, Peter’s & Malesky’s (2008) World of Warcraft-specific Problematic Usage-Engagement Questionnaire, UCLA’s Loneliness scale, and The Depression Anxiety Stress Scales. Results from quantitative analyses suggest that MMO players who are motivated to play for reasons of achievement and immersion are more likely to experience problematic use than those persons who play for social motivations. Loneliness and depression were only positively related with immersion motivated players, and there exists a significant negative relationship between social motivation and depression. These results suggest that gamers who play WoW for immersive reasons are the most at-risk in comparison to their peers. Implications for counseling, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed

Digital symbolic arenas. Reinventing youth identity and emerging forms of play.

This thesis will ethnographically analyze the interrelationships between gender, class, and subcultural styles using different video gaming groups primarily located in Bergen, Norway. I will discuss the structures of the groups and the video-game organizations that they participate in so as to examine how the games fit in with the players’ wider social and cultural life. The digital gaming scene provides a new arena for the articulation and reinvention of youth identity in its various contemporary forms. Alongside the game itself other things are being played out, such as cultural-social experimentations in social relations, forms of communication, and symbolic iconography. I unpack the interplay between users and technology by studying how game design works through its ability to organize aesthetics, narratives, and reward structures within virtual worlds. The genre preferences and gaming habits of different individuals are analyzed so as to examine the varying degrees of devotion to a game and indeed sometimes addiction to it. The increased accessibility of digital games has transformed the sociocultural context surrounding gaming activities making it part of new forms of mass consumption. New marketing strategies and ways of generating revenue are emerging, most prominently often employing chance-based game rewards that sometimes obscure the line between gaming and gambling. Due to increased consumer possession of technological devices, such as personal computers, gaming systems, and smartphones, the gaming market has become highly lucrative, for advertisers, those selling goods and for game developers. The later rely increasingly not on large single initial purchases but a continual stream of seemingly small insignificant purchases that often promise participation in the chance to win something big and in doing so further blurring the lines between gaming and gambling.MasteroppgaveSANT350MASV-SAN