ISS 210 Society, the Individual, & Video Games (W1)
piggy_cute
Slides-WhoPlays.pdf
Today’s Questions • Who plays video
games?
• Why do they play? • How do they play? • What changes have
there been across time?
The Who (1964-)
Descriptive Data • 63% of households
have 1 or more “regular gamer”
• Among houses with a gamer, total average is 1.7 gamers/house
• 48% of households have dedicated console
Gamer Age
0
7.5
15
22.5
30
< 18 18-35 36-49 50+
Age Category
% o
f G
am er
s
Gamer Gender
0
15
30
45
60
Male Female
% o
f G
am er
s
Different Approach • “Do you play video games on a
computer, TV, game console, or portable device like a cell phone?”
• Response options: Often, sometimes, hardly ever, never
Pew’s Different Approach
0
9.5
19
28.5
38
Often Sometimes Hardly Ever Never
% o
f R
es po
nd en
ts
Pew’s Different Approach
0
6
12
18
24
Men Women Often Sometimes Often Sometimes
% o
f R
es po
nd en
ts
Another Pew Approach • Some people use the term “gamer”
to describe themselves as a fan of gaming or a frequent game-player. Do you think the term “gamer” describes you well, or not?
• Yes = 20% • No = 77% • Don’t Know = 2%
Another Pew Approach
Moving Towards the Why • Griffiths and Hunt (1995) • First empirical study; UK
adolescents (N = 387)
• 99% had played at some point • Playing frequency: 31% daily, 27%
once a month or less, 19% weekly, 15% 4-5x week
Griffiths and Hunt (1995, 191)
0
20
40
60
80
Pa ren
ts
Fri en
ds
Im pr
es s F
rie nd
s Bo
red
Ch all
en ge Fu
n
Me et
Fri en
ds
Ca nn
ot Sto
p
Starting Continuing
% G
iv in
g R
ea so
n
More Data: Olson (2010)
Gender Differences:
9/17
Available Time: Gender Gap Explanation • Winn and Heeter (2009) • 276 MSU (probably) students • Women have more time constraints than
men
• Less free time is correlated with significantly less gaming
• Bonus (?): No significant relationship between gaming and “being involved in a romantic relationship”
Remember the good old days…
0
2.25
4.5
6.75
9
Middle School High School College
Men Women
A ve
ra ge
H o ur
s Sp
en t
G am
in g
Moving Beyond Gender • Debate about what is going on
“behind the scenes”:
• Self determination theory (SDT) • Social cognition theory (SCT)
Self Determination Theory (SDT) • Przybylski, Rigby, and Ryan (2010) • “Macrotheory of human
motivation that is principally concerned with the potential of social contexts to provide experiences that satisfy universal human needs” (154)
Self Determination Theory (SDT) • Three fundamental human needs:
• Competence • Autonomy • Relatedness
Social Cognition Theory (SCT) • De Grobe, Cauberghe, and
Looy (2016)
• “…people are motivated to perform certain actions by cognitively processing consequences of behavior…action is partly determined by anticipating the consequences of behavior through the capability of forethought.” (102)
Social Cognition Theory (SCT)
Social Cognition Theory (SCT) • Results
• Support for 8 motives • Social = Sociability and Status • Narrative = Believability and
Involvement
• Practical usage: How do motives moderate impact of an individual’s gaming?
Summary • Today: The who and why of video
game playing
• Readings: SDT and SCT (the why!) • Next Time: The legal status of
video games
