all done for today

Here is what I accomplished over the course of the night.


Gamers vs. the world
The title isn’t appropriately named because it isn’t like there will be a war between such factions. However, I do want to highlight the differences in this subculture alone. But before I dive into the differences in personality I would like to highlight the most notable difference between the “gamer” and the rest of the world. The reason they are coined gamers is because they play video games. Within this subculture there are two subcategories and one of which I will be concentrating on, they are the casual gamer, and the hardcore gamer. If we are to note any differences between gamers and other people we should concentrate on the hardcore gamers, where their playtime has been a major part of their life. The reason we concentrate on hardcore gamers and classify them as a different subculture is because the majority of people are now active in playing video games for entertainment. In 2007 a report from the NPD Group stated that 72 percent of the U.S. population played video games. (Antonucci) That being said it is hard to make a distinction when the majority of people are gaming. So we must concentrate on the individuals who devoted the time to earn the title hardcore or “core” gamers.
There isn’t a clear cut definition for the hardcore gamer; however, there are some generally accepted practices of core gamers. For one, hardcore gamers usually dedicate their leisure time to the practice and perfection of video game playing. Also, most hardcore gamers have some sense of competition that plays a role in the dedication that they have to their particular game. They will participate in tournaments, leagues, clans, guilds, or any type of gamer community. Note that these practices are not a 100% accurate definition of the core gamers because they vary in scope as much as the number of video games out there.
The differences in lifestyle choices that dictate the separation of core gamers from societal norms is a simple one, but within that divide a unique sub-culture is created. As mentioned in the introduction, the early years of video games, core gamers were the majority of the gaming population.
“Online-gamers are often exposed to generalizations and stereotypes in public media as well as in the scientific community; furthermore deviant behaviors and emotional problems are attributed to them. According to the recent findings it could be revealed that most gamers – 84% (n = 395) of all participants in the current study – show neither problematic gaming behavior nor depressive tendencies, even though the percentage differed regarding the type of game”
These stereotypes have resonated within American culture and have been subject to jests by popular media and gamers themselves. A unique trait of the gamer community is the acceptance of such jokes as a point of pride. When participating in a competitive online community, users will frequently be judged on their performance and a common insult is to call someone a noobie, a new person at the game with no skill. This suggests that when playing for sport, one must attempt to play like a hardcore gamer or else risk being chastise by the hardcore gamer collective.
Nowadays, core gamers vary in ways such as what games they play, what consoles they own, trollers (see the index), true gamers, etc… But even though there are major differences even within the core gamer community most share similarities that put them apart from the standard culture collective.
In order to understand the differences between gamers and the rest of the world one must first identify what motivates gamers to the continual practice of video games. One suggestion that speaks to the character of gamers is their natural affinity to boredom. “For example, impulsivity might predict computer game play due to its correlation with boredom. (3)” Such implications of impulsivity only link to the launch of play but not the continuation of it. The ‘addictive’ qualities of games, which will be discussed later, may retain the attention of impulsive people causing them to become a hardcore gamer. The cause of which may be the result of the impulsive personality turning to video games when boredom occurs during, but not limited to, leisure time.
It should be noted at this time that there is no definitive answer to the question “Why do gamers play so much?” because each individual’s needs dictate what draws them to dedicated game play. However, it has been said that we can break down each individual’s motivations into a few psychological needs. “Self-determination theory (Ryan and Deci, 2000) suggests that every individual has three innate psychological requirements that have to be met to sustain prolonged participation in an activity which are autonomy, competence and fulfillment.” Within this theory lie the requirements for hardcore games to exist. Gaming, for the core gamer, generally meets such prerequisites regardless of individual differences. From these building blocks, one can explicate motivations that are crux to the hardcore gamer.
One theory that is applicable when concerning hardcore gamers’ motivations is intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is the act of participating because the activity yields excitement and an enjoyable experience. “…motivation is created by four individual factors: challenge, fantasy, curiosity and control and three interpersonal factors: cooperation, competition, and recognition. Interestingly, these factors also describe what makes a good game…"(1) If we accept these as fundamental components of avid video game play, then hardcore gamers must derive at least a few of these components, probably more, from games.
The two interpersonal factors competition and recognition are what drive the competitive hardcore gamer. As mentioned above, these competitive players will participate in leagues, matchmaking, and other sorts of communities to achieve a sense of position, ranked on skill level and competence of their respective games. Males in particular play games like FPS (First Person Shooters) and RTS (Real-Time Strategies) for the competitive aspects embedded in the theatre of the game.
A study conducted by Thomas et al. showed that the males in the study ranked FPS’s as their most played type of game while the females ranked them the least. This may derive from the males’ primitive need for dominance suggested by the male-warrior hypothesis. This hypothesis suggests that, “an ancestral history of frequent and violent intergroup conflict has shaped the social psychology and behavior of men in particular. (vugt et al.)” Combined with evolution theories that state the correlation between the territorial protection of male chimpanzees, our closest genetic relative, (Boehm, 1999; Wrangham & Peterson, 1996) it makes for a compelling argument as to the reason virtual competition is one of the leading causes of fervent game play.
Another fixation that core gamers take pleasure in is the development and connection they have with the individual avatar. “The relationship between the player and the avatar is described by the players’ affection to the character, which leads to negative feelings if the avatar is under attack or dies (Wolvendale, 2006).” This quote, speaks to intimacy gamers develop with virtual characters, because of the increase of customizability of the avatar, individualization has a more prominent effect on the “immersion factor” within games (7). Due to realization of the relationship between customization and immersion, companies pay keen attention to how this affects gamer loyalty.
Immersion as defined by Witmer and Singer is, “a psychological state characterized by perceiving oneself to be enveloped by, included in, and interacting with an environment that provides a continuous stream of stimuli and experiences.” This immersion factor is developed by the use of avatars and customization and has been shown to increase gamer loyalty (7). Immersion plays a major role in game types as RPG’s (role-playing games) and MMORPG’s (massive multiplayer online role playing games) where story and character development take precedence over competitive play and over all skill assessment. Some of the key components of immersion have been best stated by McMahan saying gamer personality through the mediums command input, commentary, and fraternity affect the overall immersion in virtual world.
The social nature of the gamer community adds to the unique qualities of this sub-culture. As with any group, sub-culture, or faction, there are interactions within the given community that distinguish it from others. The hardcore gamer community is a society that hinges on a virtual environment. That being said, what draws gamers to participate in an intangible environment speaks to the personality of gamers. Jesse Fagan commented on the unique nature of MMORPG’s by saying,
Still, distinct from social networking sites, massively multiplayer game-worlds like WoW set the stage for collaborative and simultaneously shared play interactions that seem as real as they are fun, unfolding as they do in a meticulously rendered fantasy world and via avatar-characters who, in many instances, come to feel like second selves.
The development of the avatar in this community provides a sense of belonging to the online gamer and is not specifically restricted to the hardcore gamer. This autonomy that is generated in a virtual sense allows for a disassociation from reality. “It is this anonymity that gives those with low self-confidence, the chance to create a virtual life for themselves on the Internet (Ng and Wiemer-Hastings, 2005).”
The properties of this microcosm have seemed to attract the attention of persecution from scholars and varying kinds of outsiders due to the amount of time dedicated by some to the online social communities. Their arguments do have validity when dealing with ‘addictive personalities’ or persons who have pre-existing deficits in real-life relationships (Fagan, et al). However, the case study done by Kryspin-Exner et al. stated that 84% of their participants had, “…no problematic gaming behavior nor depressive tendencies.”
Interactions within the community, depending on where participation is conducted (whether it be online forums, within the game, or over a VoIP service), gamers truly have freedom of speech threw their intangible characters. These ‘conversations’ can range from philosophy to flaming which, as defined by urbandictionary.com, means “To engage in an online argument usually involving unfounded personal attacks by one or more parties.” These engagements are possible because irrespective of how one acts online, one’s personal, real life can be unaffected.
Because of the unstable nature of how communication can be, gamers develop relationships based on similar goals in-game and players social aptitude. Nycterelis, a WoW player said this,
The social aspect is extremely alluring because, arrogance aside, everyone is more or less viewed as equal until their actions define them as otherwise. It’s a system genuinely based on merit. Your skills, whether it’s pvp, pve, or even mere social skills, dictate your image in the public eye. You can’t really get that anywhere else.
As a former player of WoW myself, building a social life online was completely up to the user. Incentive is given to those who seek companions to complete tasks that are impossible to do alone such as better equipment and new content. But as for the most popular type of online game to date, MMORPG’s, the social element of them resonates as a fundamental part of the game-play experience, hence why massive multiplayer is the defining part of the acronym.

work over the break

Due to unforseen circumstances I unfortunatly didn't get the work I wanted to get done on my paper this break. However, have no fear I did get some work done, the post you see will be continued for my sources about 1 per day, since I rarely update this I'll probably update it once a week or so but this is what I got done.


1) Hainey, Thomas, Thomas Connolly, and Liz Boyle. "A Survey of Students' Motivations for Playing Computer Games: a Comparative Analysis of Three Studies in Higher Education." Proceedings of the European Conference on Games Based Learning (2009): 154-163. Education Research Complete. EBSCO. Web. 9 Mar. 2011.
Classification: Motivation theory, Psychology
Research potential: Self-determination theory; Self-efficacy theory; Attribution goal theory; Flow theory
Useful Quotes: “U.S. computer and video game software sales grew six percent in 2007 to $9.5 billion – more than tripling industry software sales since 1996.” - The Entertainment Software Association (2009)
" They suggest that intrinsic motivation is created by four individual factors: challenge, fantasy, curiosity and control and three interpersonal factors: cooperation, competition, and recognition. Interestingly these factors also describe what makes a good game, irrespective of its educational qualities."
"Three of the four highest rated reasons for playing games in all three studies were pleasure, relaxation and leisure, confirming that games are being played primarily for relaxation and enjoyment."
" In all three studies male students ranked shootemups as the game they play most frequently and females ranked them as one of the games they play least."
Useful Statistics: Tables within
Summary: In this case study, they use three studies to compare the motivations gamers have for play video games, what type of video games they preferred, and the skill they believe can be obtained by playing video games. Also they discuss the reasons for perserverence when the games difficulty scales and it showes the gender difference in the aformentioned questions.

2)Ding, Min. "A Theory of Intraperson Games." Journal of Marketing 71.2 (2007): 1-11. Business Source Complete. EBSCO. Web. 10 Mar. 2011.
Not Useful

3)Chumbley, Justin, and Mark Griffiths. "Affect and the Computer Game Player: The Effect of Gender, Personality, and Game Reinforcement Structure on Affective Responses to Computer Game-Play." CyberPsychology & Behavior 9.3 (2006): 308-316. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 10 Mar. 2011.
Classification: Personality; Case Study;
Research Potential: None
Useful Quotes: "For example, impulsivity might predict computer game play due to its correlation with boredom." - Watt, J., and Vodanovich, J. (1992). A profile of the impulsive personality. Psychological Reports 70:688–69
"Impulsives and extraverts, for example, would be expected to be more receptive to positive rather than negative reinforcements. Similarly, differences in skill may underlie differences in player persistence. Because game reinforcement is often contingent of game players skill, it might be expected that skill moderates the influence of game characteristics on affect and behavior."
"Within the low reinforcement condition there was a significant positive correlation willingness to play and Excitement. Conversely there was a significant negative correlation between Boredom and willingness to play. Neither Frustration nor Calmness was correlated with willingness to play. The same pattern of significant correlations is observed in the data from the high reinforcement condition."
Statistics: To be found
Summary: This study was to evaluate the ratio's of "negative reinforcement" and the willingness to continue play after difficulty is increased. Note that negative reinforcement in this study means the persistance of play after game goals can not be obtained. The effect of such negative reinforcement deterred players. "Within the low reinforcement condition there was a significant positive correlation willingness to play and Excitement. Conversely there was a significant negative correlation between Boredom and willingness to play. Neither Frustration nor Calmness was correlated with willingness to play. The same pattern of significant correlations is observed in the data from the high reinforcement condition."
4)
Classification:
Research Potential:
Useful Quotes:
Statistics:

5)
Classification:
Research Potential:
Useful Quotes:
Statistics:

6)
Classification:
Research Potential:
Useful Quotes:
Statistics:

Previous Work

This is a paper I wrote for Interdiciplinary Praxis two years ago. My teacher told me to write towards my Senior Seminar topic so this has relevance and should be a good starting point for my paper. I will mine this for information that is useful to my final paper.



Video Games Effects on Children
Video games started their media conquest in the late 1940's and early 50's with games such as Missile Defense and OXO( a version of tic-tac-toe) on a cathode ray tube display(US patient 2455992). Over the years video games grew massively in popularity with the invention of consoles like Atari and VES (Video Entertainment System) it seemed that video games were to be the next media giant to sweep the world. The 80's brought different genre's for video games. Video game companies flourished and started pumping out games like Street Fighter developed by Capcom and Mario Bros. developed by Nintendo. Now, sales of consoles and video games are in the millions per year with companies competing with each other for popularity.
Despite how popular video games are there are a few contingencies that come with them. The NPD reported that Households with kid's 12 and under make up 45% of the total video game industry sales. They also suggested targeting these youths saying, "Overall, the NPD Group suggests that game publishers and developers would be wise to more aggressively target these specific kid and tween(ages 10-14) groups, as there is still significant room for growth. And this could be a huge help during such a recession where the overall industry is trending downward sales-wise("Video Game Blogger")." That being said, it's obvious the problems that arise when targeting kids as your marketplace. The problem is video games might have an adverse effect on children and teens; programming them making them more aggressive or prone to violence. However not all research suggest this. Research conducted by Anne D. Walling M.D stated, "It can develop many skills, for example, positive effects on divided attention performance, developmental issues and spatial and coordination skills(Walling 1)”.
Thesis
In short, the purpose of this study is to see whether video games, as a whole, have an adverse or positive effect on children. We will explore each individual aspect when they relate to children and how the video games effect them.
Child Psychology
People are subject to their environment. Things that people experience influence them in many different ways. In example, soldiers sometimes suffer PSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) when returning from war. However, most would agree that children are the most susceptible to influence psychologically than other age ranges. But how do video games affect children psychologically?
A study that took place in 2004 reported increases of aggression in children when they played violent video games saying, " Playing violent games increases aggressive behaviors, increases aggressive cognitions, increases aggressive emotions, increases physiological arousal, and decreases prosocial behaviors." (Douglas) The increase in these emotions are not only found in children, but are also reported in adults. The results of the case study reported the longer the children played the video games that had violence in them, the more they showed hostile qualities. Increasing at an average of 50%. This study shows how prolonged exposure to violent video games can have a negative effect on peoples aggression.
Another study done at Toledo, OH showed a desensitization in children. The study stated, "The present findings suggest that, over the long term, exposure to violent video games may be associated with lower empathy in some children, a possible indication of desensitization." (Funk) The desensitization was to things that would normally disturb a human being, but the children, being exposed to more at an earlier age thanks to video games, became less empathetic. Within their discussion cessions they recommend parents to carefully monitor their children's free time at least into early adolescence.
Although the majority of studies dealt with the negative effects on "prosocial" behavior, the next study was with children and them playing the Nintendo DS game Nintendogs. The study was to see if there was an increase in empathy in children, who have never had a pet or played Nintendogs, while they played with their virtual pet. All of the children used in this study had some increase in empathy. The children, who had never owned a pet or played this game prior to the study, showed increases in empathy showing a prosocial effect of video games.
Biology
This section will cover the effects of video games biologically on children. Sandra Hofferth monitored the years between 1997 and 2003 where video game play sky-rocketed and other non-media activities went down. Obviously, the more time you spend playing video game or watching video games will take away from your time being able to do the other various activities. The study did conclude that media, such as video games, were having a negative effect on other activities described above because time spent in one area takes away from another.
However, once again someone researched the pro-health effects of video games while studying children and the games. This is actually a case study concerning the video games DDR(Dance Dance Revolutio)n and Wii Boxing. This study was formulated to see if kids would prefer these games to other physical activity to become more active. The study concludes in saying that these games are a healthy, fun, interactive way to exercise by monitoring several (23 kids, 14 boys 9 girls) while gaming (Short, Kevin R.). The study was also successful in saying that for kids who are particularly fond of video games to increase their energy expenditure two or three times that of a child just watching TV.
On a semi-related note, Optometric Education states that video game play can increase cognitive skill and ability. Video game play, as stated in this journal, "In a study at the University of Rochester, it was noted that video games containing high levels of action may substantially increase spatial resolution abilities. This resulted in improved visual acuity and other visual skills."(Goodfellow) Visual skills such as hand eye coordination and an increase in visual sensitivity to movement.
Education
According to some of the research I've done, video games can be a potential source for educating our youth. This study was conducted to test video game play and educational instruction. The result of this study was concluded that video game play to teach was actually better than computer-aided assistance. This indicates that the students using video games to teach themselves remembered the information and/or learned more than the computer aided students. "This finding indicated that computer-based video game playing not only can improve participants’ fact differentiation/recall processes, but also promotes problem-solving skills by recognizing multiple solutions for problems. Additionally, more precise effects were detected by breaking the post-test scores into three sub-categories. When the researchers developed the items in Part 1, the objectives were to make the participants recall key facts, definitions, and concepts. As the results of Part 1 indicate, the participants in the experimental group have a better understanding of factual materials and concepts. Consequently, for finishing their mission, the participants in the experimental group know they have to memorize the key facts or concepts even if they were just playing a game." (Tsung-Yen, Chuang)

Conclusion
Overall, it seems there are some healthy, interactive things you can do with video games. They can be constructive, develop cognitive skill, and reinforce pro-social behavior. However, there are two sides to this coin. Video games and children can be a road to disaster. Mostly it depends on the household a child grows up in and how video games are used inside that household. When parents are attentive and watch their child's behavior when responding to video games, they can sensor what seems detrimental to their children. Video games are not the enemy of this study, but this study does show the effects of this media giant. So, be weary of what you put in front of children, other than that, it's no more harmful than TV.


 
Bibliography
US patient 2455992
"Video Game Blogger." Video Game Blogger. 12 09 2009. Video Game Blogger, Web. 24 Oct 2009. .
Walling, Anna. "Do Video Games Lead to Violent Behavior in Children." Do Video Games Lead to Violent Behavor in Children 65.7 (2007): 1. Web. 24 Oct 2009. .
Gentile, Douglas A., Paul J. Lynch, Jennifer Ruh Linder, and David A. Walsh. "The effects of violent video game habits on adolescent hostility, aggressive behaviors, and school performance.." Journal of Adolescence 27.1 (2004): 5-23. Web. 1 Nov 2009.
Short, Kevin R., Diana L. Graf, Casey N. Hester, and Lauren V. Pratt. "Playing Active Video Games Increases Energy Expenditure in Children." Pediatrics 124.2 (2009): 534-40. Web. 1 Nov 2009.
Funk, Jeanne B., Buchman, Debra D. Jenks, Jennifer, and Bechtoldt, Heidi." Playing violent video games, desensitization, and moral evaluation in children." Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology24.4 (2004):, p413, 24p Web. 1 Nov2009
Yueh-Feng, Tsai Lily, and David M. Kaufman. "The Socioemotional Effects of a Computer- Simulated Animal on Children's Empathy and Humane Attitudes.." Journal of Educational Computing Research 41.1 (2009): 103-22. Web. 1 Nov 2009.
Hofferth, Sandra." Media Use vs. Work and Play in Middle Childhood." Social Indicators Research 93.1 (2009): 127-29. Web. 1 Nov 2009
Tsung-Yen, Chuang, and Chen Wei-Fan. "Effect of Computer-Based Video Games on Children: An Experimental Study.." Journal of Educational Technology & Society 12.2 (2009): 1- 10. Web. 1 Nov 2009.
Goodfellow, Geoffrey, and Dominick Maino. "Just Fun and Games?." Optometric Education 32.3 (2007): 69. Web. 1 Nov 2009.