Computer Science 282: Social Aspects of Games, Leisure, and Entertainment
Unit 3: The Effects of Games on Social Behaviour
Unidentified Circle Game Participants. Courtesy Mennonite Church USA Archives. https://www.flickr.com/photos/mennonitechurchusa-archives/9404934338/
In this unit we will be looking at the broader effects of computer game playing on individuals—physically, ethically, and psychologically; and on society as a whole.
Learning Outcomes
At the end of this unit you should be able to
- describe the demographics of game players.
- explain the effects of game playing on players and those around them.
- independently research issues in social games and their effects.
- evaluate arguments and research concerning the effects of games on human behaviour.
- reflect on the credibility of research into the effects of game playing.
Key Concepts
Your reflections should show an understanding of these concepts:
shared objects and shared objectives, antisocial gaming, moral engagement and disengagement, social capital and reputation, games and relationships, fitness and health, sportsmanship, social consequences of computer gaming
Some Questions to Think About
- Can games affect how we deal with others outside the game?
- What, if any, are the positive social and personal effects of playing computer games?
- What, if any, are the negative social and personal effects of playing computer games?
- Do all games have the same effects? What are the differences that matter?
- What ethical concerns should games designers consider when designing games? Do they have any responsibility for how people playing their games behave?
Time
This unit is expected to take around 20–25 hours for an average student to get an average mark.
Unit 3 Learning Journal Template
You may copy the following headings into your Unit 3 learning journal to make it easier to organize you work in this unit. This provides the headings for the tasks to be completed to meet the minimum task requirements. You are both welcome and encouraged to create new subheadings and headings as needed.
Remember, the more evidence you supply of meeting the required outcomes, the more likely you will be to achieve success on this course, so don’t be afraid to add notes, comments, thoughts, and reflections that go beyond the basic requirements.
Task 1: Demographics
Task 2: Identifying the Reliability of Reports on the Effects of Video Games
Task 3: Comparison of Research Studies
Task 4: The Effect of Games on Me
Reflections on Unit 3
Background
The gaming industry is huge, larger than Hollywood, and the playing of computer games occupies much of the leisure time of a large segment of the population. Whenever a large number of people spend a large amount of their time doing something, it is to be expected that this will have repercussions that extend beyond the activity itself. Some of these repercussions will relate to individual gamers’ habits, ways of thinking, ways of acting, and ways of interacting with others. Some will relate to the impact on families, friends, and communities. There are also likely to be broader social and economic impacts caused by the mass behaviours of many people engaged in such pursuits. In this unit, we will be looking at how games affect how people interact with one another in the world outside the game.
Ever since the first explosion of video games in arcades and living rooms, researchers and the popular press have been fascinated with the psychological and social effects of games on gamers’ behaviour outside the game. Particular attention has been paid to issues such as violence, gender inequalities, attention spans, physical deterioration, and addictions, but there have also been numerous studies (typically less well reported in the popular press) that show positive benefits of games, including greater social, problem-solving, coordination, and intellectual skills. Part of the reason for disparate views is, as we have seen, that there is great diversity in games and they are by no means equal in their effects.
Task 1: Demographics (5–6 hr)
Before delving too deeply into the social effects of computer games, it is useful to have some idea about who plays them, in what contexts, with whom, and with what constraints. In this exercise, we ask you to explore what is known about the demographics of computer gamers and to think about this in relation to your own context. By demographics we mean the patterns and regularities found in the characteristics of the people that play games.
A great deal of discussion occurs online and in the popular press about who plays computer games and why. Gaming is often portrayed as a young male pursuit although this, like many such generalizations, is simply untrue. However, particular games, and to an extent genres of games, do appeal to different demographics.
This task requires you to research the truth about the demographics of computer games and to think about how you fit or do not fit within these classifications.
Read at least two of the following reports and/or find other reliable sources that provide information about the demographics of video games:
Entertainment Software Association. (2020). Essential facts about the video game industry (Report on sales, demographics, and usage data). Retrieved from https://www.theesa.com/resource/2020-essential-facts/.
Beware of bias! To see how bias can creep in as well as to get a sense of the trends, it may be interesting to compare this with the previous year’s studies at https://www.theesa.com/resource/2020-essential-facts/ or https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-report-2021-essential-facts-about-the-video-game-industry-301331885.html. The ESA provides a wide range of reports that are relevant and interesting to those taking this course.
Grohol, J. M. (2013). Gamer stereotypes just aren’t true. Psych Central. Retrieved from https://psychcentral.com/blog/gamer-stereotypes-just-arent-true#1
This is an overview of a larger study referred to in the article.
Lenhart, A., Kahne, J., Middaugh, E., Macgill, A., Evans, C., & Vitak, J. (2008). Teens, video games and civics (Online report). Retrieved from Pew Internet & American Life Project website: https://www.pewresearch.org/
Matile, S., & Drake, R. (2007). College students’ video game participation and perceptions: Gender differences and implications. Sex Roles, 56(7/8), 537–542. Retrieved from https://0-doi-org.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/10.1007/s11199-007-9193-5
Yee, N. (2006). The demographics, motivations, and derived experiences of users of massively multi-user online graphical environments [Abstract]. Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments, 15(3), 309–329. doi: 10.1162/pres.15.3.309
The full paper is available at https://immagic.com/eLibrary/
Remember that this is an area where big differences occur between different regions of the world and that it is in a state of flux. Things like the growth of games such as Farmville in social media and the spread of mobile games is having a big impact, so it is unwise to rely on a single study, especially one more than a year or two old. We encourage you to seek more up-to-date reports, papers, and studies, especially those relating to different cultures and regions, and to add those to the group bookmarks. A bookmark folder is available for this purpose—save relevant bookmarks to the “Demographics” folder on the Landing.
Now, think about where you fit within the demographic categories used in these reports (or others that you find). Some categories will be fairly unequivocal, such as gender and age. Others will be fairly easy to apply although may have fuzzier edges, such as race, economic status, class and so on.
In your learning journal for this unit, under the heading “Task 1: Demographics,” describe how the studies that you have read relate to you and/or people that you know. Do you or they fit any of the demographic profiles of the study? How do you or they differ, if at all? Feel free to include any other reflections that you wish: you may, for example, have thoughts about the reliability of such surveys, the cultural specificity, or the methodologies used in these studies. Typically, if printed, we would expect this to be around a page of text.
At Broad Channel - a card game [between ca. 1910 and ca. 1915]. Courtesy The Library of Congress.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/8414580396/
Task 2: Critical Comparison of Research Studies (6–8 hr)
Does computer gaming have negative or positive effects on behaviour?
For some decades, the popular press has, on the whole, provided a rather jaundiced view of the negative effects of computer games on the behaviour of gamers outside the game. It is often very hard to distinguish the sensationalist hype from scientific research on the topic. As often happens when new technologies are discussed, especially those in which there are generational differences in use, this can be an area in which strong bias and uncritical opinions can over- or under-represent some kinds of research. It makes a much better headline that a boy killed his elderly relative after playing a video game, suggesting simple cause and effect, rather than that a combination of culture, availability of guns, poor education, and psychological or social factors may have led to an avoidable tragedy.
Your objective in this task will be to gain expertise in critically assessing the validity of such reports, as well as to explore the research that has been performed in this area in order to gain a balanced perspective on the evidence of both positive and negative effects of computer games.
Try to determine the reliability of the stories portrayed in five of the following articles, choosing at least two from each section (1 and 2). These have been chosen to represent a range of reliability and a range of positive and negative perspectives. Those in Section 1 are broadly more negative than those in Section 2 although you will sometimes find a mix of positive and negative in either section.
You are strongly encouraged to find other articles like this, and you are welcome to use them instead—you will find some in the course bookmarks in the folder “Articles on the effects of video games.” If you do this, try to make sure that you find articles that provide you with a balance of positive and negative views. A single article may contain both, of course. If you find ones that are interesting, please add them as bookmarks in this folder. Your descriptions of these bookmarks (not just the bookmarks themselves) may be used as evidence of meeting learning outcomes, especially if you provide a positive or negative critique of the page(s) they point to.
As you read, think about and make notes on what makes you decide whether a story is biased or unreliable, as well as what makes you think it may be more reliable. Some of the clues may be more obvious than others! As you do so, try to think of other ways the stories may have been portrayed, other factors that may have played a role, other perspectives on them.
Section 1
Bartlett, C. P., Harris, R. J., & Bruey, C. (2006). The effect of the amount of blood in a violent video game on aggression, hostility, and arousal. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44(3), 539–546. doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2007.10.003
Boffey, P. M. (2019, November 1). Do violent video games lead to violence? Dana Foundation. https://dana.org/article/do-violent-video-games-lead-to-violence/
Gibson, E. (2005, June 22). Boy dies after hours of gaming. Eurogamer.net. Retrieved from https://www.eurogamer.net/news220605russiantragedy
Louisiana boy, 8, shoots 90-year-old relative after playing video game, police say. (2013, August 24). Fox News. Retrieved from https://www.foxnews.com/us/louisiana-boy-8-shoots-90-year-old-relative-after-playing-video-game-police-say
Man dies from playing Xbox all day. (2011, August 1). BuzzFeed. Retrieved from https://www.buzzfeed.com/emilyr2/man-dies-from-playing-xbox-all-day-qy6
Rudd, A. (2012, July 18). Diablo death: Teenager dies after playing video game for 40 hours without eating or sleeping. Mirror News. Retrieved from https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/diablo-iii-death-teenager-dies-1147472
Swanson, E., & Wilkie, C. (2013, April 12). Video games and gun violence linked by majority in new poll. Huffington Post. Retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/video-games-gun-violence_n_3071632
Tran, M. (2010, March 5). Girl starved to death while parents raised virtual child in online game. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/mar/05/korean-girl-starved-online-game
Video games boost visual attention but reduce impulse control. (2013, August 3). Medical Press. Retrieved from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-08-video-games-boost-visual-attention.html
Zafar, A. (2010, September 14). Video game addiction: Does it exist? CBC News. Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/video-game-addiction-does-it-exist-1.879584
Section 2
Barder, O. (2019, February 15). New study shows that there is no link between violent video games and aggression in teenagers. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2019/02/15/new-study-shows-that-there-is-no-link-between-violent-video-games-and-aggression-in-teenagers/?sh=aee18bc328e0
Freeman, D. (2013, August 28). Violent video games may curb bullying in vulnerable children, study suggests. Huffington Post. Retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/violent-video-games-bullying-children-study_n_3823490
Grand Theft Auto ‘therapeutic’ for kids, say psychologists. (2013, August 27). The Telegraph. Retrieved from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10268820/Grand-Theft-Auto-therapeutic-for-kids-say-psychologists.html
Reilly, R. (2013, August 27). Violent video games such as Grand Theft Auto DON’T harm children – and could actually be therapeutic. Daily Mail. Retrieved from https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2403032/Violent-video-games-like-Grand-Theft-Auto-DONT-harm-children--therapeutic.html
Strategy-based video games, like Starcraft, improve brain’s ‘cognitive flexibility’ (2013, August 24). Huffington Post. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/video-games-brain-starcraft-cognitive-flexibility_n_3790610?utm_hp_ref=healthy-living
Reed, G. (2013, September 6). Study shows some video games may actually be good for your brain. BGR. Retrieved from https://bgr.com/general/video-game-brain-functionality-study/
Video games don’t make even vulnerable teens more violent. (2013, August 28). Science 2.0. Retrieved from https://www.science20.com/
Vince. (2018, May 9). Yes, video games are good…for your mind and body [Blog]. iD Tech. https://www.idtech.com/blog/video-games-are-good-for-you
Write your thoughts in your learning journal for Unit 3, using the title “Task 2: Identifying the Reliability of Reports on the Effects of Video Games.” We expect around a page or two of text, if it were printed, for this task.
Task 3: Comparing Academic Articles (10–12 hr)
One of the great things about studying the effects of video games is that there has been a great deal of research performed in this area and, to make it more fun, much of the research appears to be contradictory, at least at first glance. In some cases this may be due to flaws in the research methods used, on each side. The studies may use flawed statistics, may fail to consider relevant factors, may use a particularly biased demographic, and so on.
In others, the differences may be more subtle, perhaps due to the fact that studies looked at different effects, different games, different social contexts, different demographics, different cultures, and so on. One thing we can be sure of is that there are few, if any, effects of playing video games that are not affected by other factors that apply in the same way to all people or that may be used to demonize or extol the virtues of a particular class of games, let alone all possible games.
In this exercise, we require you to seek academic rather than popular press articles because we are seeking relatively reliable and unbiased information that is informed by rigorous research, ideally using a scientific method. It is normally fairly easy to distinguish between academic and other articles. Academic articles
- will have references to other work.
- will describe their methodology.
- will demonstrate the validity of their results.
- will normally be published in journals or conference proceedings.
- will normally have an abstract and a conclusion, clearly labelled as such.
- will typically present experimental results and findings.
Most academic articles will have been through a peer review process of some kind although there are big differences between processes from one journal to the next, in conferences, in book chapters, and in thesis work. Some, such as contracted reports, may not have been peer reviewed at all. Not all are equally reliable—just because a work has been published and peer reviewed does not mean that it is infallible.
We ask that you think carefully about what each study purports to show, whether the questions it seeks to answer are good ones, and whether the methods used accurately answer those questions.
Do read other pages written by others for this unit, if available. As always, feel free to draw inspiration, positive or negative, from what others have done, but do not copy anyone else’s work without citing it. Try to avoid using examples that others have used in their work— there is greater value in diversity here—and please do not use the examples from newspapers, blogs, and magazines, including those provided above, but do feel free to follow links from those articles to others that may be more scholarly and reliable.
Using Google Scholar or similar tools, find one recent academic paper that reports on the positive effects of video gaming and one recent academic paper that reports on the negative effects, in roughly the same area of study. As much as possible, the papers should refer to the same or similar aspects of people or communities that are affected—for instance, violent behaviour, learning, social behaviour, problem solving, concentration, memory, community engagement, and so on.
Though the areas of study should be very similar, the match does not have to be exact; for instance, you might look at one study that shows improved concentration and another that looks at weakened memory skills—these topics are closely enough related to make a reasonable comparison.
What we are looking for are broadly contradictory or incongruent findings. The more contradictory the findings, the better, but it is not always easy to find direct contradictions. While complete contradictions are relatively rare, it is very common for different papers to report different findings, different figures, different aspects of the same problem, etc.
Weigh up the evidence provided by each paper. Look for potential weaknesses in each study— note that good papers will usually self-report their own weaknesses and often they will be critical of other studies, so some of the work will already have been done for you.
What is a “recent academic paper”?
For the purposes of this exercise, a recent paper is one that has been peer reviewed for a journal, conference, or book and that has appeared within the last 10 years. Google Scholar does sometimes return non-academic papers, so it is worth looking out for signs that the papers you have found are appropriate. If it is not clearly from a journal, edited book, or conference proceedings, look for other clues: almost all academic papers supply references at the end of the paper. Almost all except the most recent or least interesting will have been cited by others. The majority of those papers relevant to this task will have abstracts, introductions, literature reviews, reports of empirical findings, and conclusions.
If a paper is not peer reviewed but nonetheless receives a number of citations in Google Scholar, we will consider it eligible. We will also accept PhD dissertations/
In your Unit 3 learning journal, write a brief report equating to around two letter/A4-sized pages, with the title “Task 3: Comparing Academic Articles” that
- briefly describes the studies.
- summarizes the contrary findings.
- critiques both studies, identifying strengths and weaknesses in the research reported.
- explains as much as possible the reasons for the differences.
- argues in favour of one or the other conclusion.
You are welcome to include further references if needed, and we encourage you to read and cite other papers and perspectives on the problem. Again, if you read (and properly cite) critiques performed by others you not only make your life easier but you can develop a more nuanced and critical perspective that takes different views into account.
Below are some hints on performing this task successfully:
Finding Papers to Compare
Google Scholar is easy to use, relatively comprehensive, and well suited to this task. We therefore recommend that you use it for this task although there are many other freely available systems that perform similar functions. You are welcome to use one of these if you wish: Citeseer, or Academia.edu, as well as professional research databases and toolsets available through the AU Library.
The first step is the easiest—identify a suitable search term. You might, for example, search for ‘games narcissism’ if that is your interest (we don’t recommend that you use that particular area or search term—this is just an example). If your search does not reveal anything relevant, then change your terms. If it reveals too much, then try adding extra terms and/or varying the terms a little. In this example, you might, for instance, try ‘effects video game narcissists’. Note that, when investigating computer games, the term ‘video game’ is often used instead, so you may want to try both variants.
Once you have found something relevant, the next step—finding a second paper for the comparison—is also easy. Most academic papers refer to others, so, if you pick a particularly recent paper and read its literature review, you are very likely to find references to similar work. If the paper is of reasonable quality, there is a very good chance that it will describe how the study being reported improves upon, confirms, or negates the findings of other studies.
If that fails (say, for example, it refers to papers greater than 10 years old), another technique is to look for other papers that reference the same papers. Google Scholar provides links to papers referencing those shown in the search results, You can proceed as follows:
- Identify a paper to which the paper you have chosen is reacting (extending, refuting, challenging, refining results from the earlier paper).
- Enter the title and/or other identifying information such as author name(s) as a search term in Google Scholar.
- Follow the Cited link to papers referring to that paper. Read the ones that seem most relevant based on the title—give preference to those that have been frequently cited.
- Repeat as necessary until you have found two papers that can be used in a comparison.
If you find any along the way that you do not use in your comparison but that refer to the same problem or relate to the same papers, make a note of them and, perhaps, make notes about them. You may well be able to use their findings or arguments to improve your own critique.
Dealing with Contradiction
For every paper you find showing that violent video games cause violent behaviour outside the game, you will find one that shows they do not. For every study showing weaker memorization skills, you will find one that shows memory to be improved. The differences may result from many different factors, such as different research methodologies, different subjects of study, different contexts, different games, and so on.
Very rarely, you may find two similarly conducted studies looking at very similar phenomena in very similar contexts that show contrary results—most of the time, the differences are due to different ways of studying different people doing different things. This is good—a major purpose of this task is to encourage you to think about different ways of understanding the same problem, the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to research, and to develop critical skills that allow you to look objectively at evidence in order to judge the reliability of reports. There is no single right way to research any phenomenon: different perspectives and methods yield different results that may be equally valid and interesting in different contexts. But there are lots of ways to be wrong!
Task 4: The Effect of Games on Me (about 2 hr)
While we always encourage you to reflect on your game-playing experience, in this unit we are explicitly asking you to write about the process.
First, find a game or game-like activity (e.g., a visit to Second Life or a session interacting with others on a social networking site) that you would like to engage with. This could be anything game-like at all, including playing with kids or playing cards with friends but, as always, it is better that you choose something that relies on digital technologies, as that is the emphasis of the course.
As you play, think about what you are doing and how, if at all, you are affected by it. Is your behaviour different after playing the game? Do you interact differently with those around you? Is it positive, negative, neither, or both? Has your mood changed? How long does the feeling persist? Would there be any difference if you played the game infrequently or filled much of your time playing it? We would like you to think carefully about the effect that playing the game has had on you that persists after the game. Reflect on it in the context of what you have been reading and doing so far in this unit. Make a note (mental or otherwise) of things that you notice that were not covered in the earlier work you did for this unit. Discuss your findings and observations in your learning journal for Unit 3 under the heading “Task 4: the effect of games on me.” This may be as little as a paragraph or as much as a page of printed text.
Reflections on Unit 3 (2–3 hr)
As for every unit on this course, write your reflections on this unit as a learning journal entry in your learning journal for Unit 3, with the heading “Reflections.”
Optional Formative Feedback (1–2 hr)
If you would like to receive feedback on your work for this unit, first collate it into a portfolio (as a single wiki page) that maps what you have done to any relevant learning outcomes, using the template provided at the beginning of Unit 3. Submit a link to your portfolio page for the unit to your tutor via the Unit 3 Formative Assessment link on the Moodle home page.
Your tutor will provide brief feedback and may make suggestions for improvement if needed. Note that this carries no marks towards your final grade, and the tutor will not provide you with a grade for this at all. It is purely intended to help you to know how you are doing as part of the learning process. Although this involves extra effort on your part, we think that the process of collating the portfolio is valuable as a learning activity, and this provides useful practice for a task you will have to perform at the end of the course anyway.