My Research Proposal February 19, 2008

Research Proposal

Video Games as a Form of Interpersonal and Mass Communication

Introduction

Every PC computer offers online checkers or online chess within the start menu. Through playing online one could feel satisfaction in knowing that they beat someone else not just a computer. On the other hand, when losing it was no longer that the computer cheated or had an unfair disadvantage, but rather someone else sitting in his or her home or office is the victor. This may have been one of the first forms of online play along with many yahoo games such as Backgammon and Pool.

In the early stages of online play, such as those listed above, the primary driving force was competition. One could choose from a variety of generic messages to send to the opponent, but communication played a minor role in the purpose of playing online. Very quickly PC games such as Diablo II began integrating interpersonal communication to online play. One could now type messages to others playing online to strategize and work collaboratively to gain ranks and beat levels. Rapidly, this began to take over the world of gaming and not only PC games, but also consoles such as Playstation and Xbox began offering games online.

        Games such as World of Warcraft, Halo and Warhawk now play off of the emotions of its subscribers to gain both fanboyism and dedication. In fact, large gaming companies such as Xbox, Playstation and Nintendo literally make communities for their users to be a part of. Users no longer say they are playing online, but rather they are going to play Xbox Live (XBLA) or go on the Playstation Network (PSN). On a recent Playstation forum it was calculated and stated that at that specific time there were 1,580,000 people online and playing Halo III.

        Because millions of Americans, as well as gamers around the world, now utilize online gaming as a form of entertainment as well as interpersonal communication, it is an interesting topic to ponder as a communicative issue. Therefore I propose this, as the amount of time an individual plays online increases, the ability to effectively or comfortably communicate in a live setting decreases.

Literature Review

A study performed by Jorge Pena and Jeffrey T. Hancock of Cornell University looked into the idea that individuals communicate in online gaming for both socioemotional and task communication. This specific study was designed to analyze the more prevalent reasons that gamers of a specific online game communicated. The two found that out of 5,826 text messages a significant amount of them were socioemotional oriented. They continued to look into how more experienced players communicated in comparison to those of less experience. They found that both the more experienced and less experienced communicated socioemotionally most frequently, however the more experienced were much more positive than those of less experience.

The study above spent time looking specifically into text messages in an online gaming community. However, in a 2007 study, three researchers looked into an online gaming community and the effects of adding voice communication to the game community. Through the addition of voice communication they found that participants both enjoyed the game more as well as trusted the other gamers they were chosen to play with more. The study paid special attention to social information processing theory which looks into both computer-mediated communication (CMC) as well as how relationships grow through the presence of information about the person being communicated to. (Caplan, Williams, Xiong, 2007) While both text messaging as well as voice communication are prevalent in online gaming, voice communication has begun to dominate the online world of gaming for the reasons found in this research.

Another industry similar to the online communities of games such as Halo and World of Warcraft are the internet gambling and gaming societies. This industry is so widespread that a study by the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) report it as bringing in over three times more money than online pornography. As it is an industry of profitability UNLV has increased the study of this type of gaming and how to provide these internet casinos to countries outside of the U.S. This study look into details of culture and how to target cultures outside of the U.S. to further involve them in this online gaming frenzy. The article is interesting as it really challenges one to think about why gaming in the U.S. plays such a significant role, while other countries may find no interest in it at all. The article also challenges the reader to look into intercultural communication as a means of encouraging other cultures to get involved in the online world of gaming. (Kale, 2006)

While all three of the studies above researched different aspects of gaming and communication, all three acknowledged one similar aspect. They posed the idea that gaming is one of the most prevalent forms of communication in the U.S. but is not necessarily studied as much as it could or should be.

Explanation of Theory and Research Method

        For many gamers online play allows an individual to be a part of a community and interact easily with others of a similar interest. While many argue that the online communities allow for more interpersonal communication it is important to distinguish the quality of the communication and the effects the medium has on the gamer or communicator.

For those gamers that play online minimally or even moderately, it can be predicted that online play may positively contribute to their ability to communicate interpersonally as well as achieve goals in a group setting. The online gaming may even increase one’s ability to communicate in a live setting as it allows for discussion between gamers. However, as the amount of time increases that a gamer plays online it may be predicted that the individual begins to lose his or her ability to comfortably communicate in a live setting, and the preferred source of communication becomes online gaming or other forms of online communication.

In order to test the specific hypothesis, the quantitative approach of survey research as well as the qualitative approach of ethnography are the two ways in which one could approach the study. Survey analysis could easily look into the views and opinions of gamers and why they game. Questions could be asked such as: How many hours a week do you play games online? Do you prefer to communicate through online media or face to face? Why do you play online? What are your favorite games to play online? Because gamers are most often proud of the games they play it is likely that most of the questions above would be answered truthfully. The only question that may have a tendency to be answered incorrectly is hours spent playing video games online. Naturally, gaming for excessive hours has a negative stigma, and gamers may be ashamed of the reality of how much they truthfully play.

The surveys could offer a significant amount of strong data if questions are posed correctly, but one can not truly understand the life of a gamer or the online world of gaming without experiencing it first hand. Through first-hand experience one can both understand the world of gaming more readily, but also utilize online gaming as a means of studying behavior. The researcher can make friends online and gain more personal survey analysis by discretely interviewing their virtual friends. It can even go further and the researcher can decide to meet his or her virtual friends live. Through understanding how they communicate online and further gaining knowledge of how they interact live new questions may be posed allowing for heurism in the theory.

Preliminary Results

        Prior to performing the study and getting results there are many reasons in which the predictions are planned as stated above. For gamers that minimally or moderately play videogames, gaming becomes a topic of discussion and a way to find common ground with other gamers. Similar to fans of sports teams naturally having the ability to talk about stats of the team they have in common. Also, because most of these gamers do not play as often, they may be less likely to play online to play with friends met online, but to strategically work with real people to accomplish a task. Therefore, this type of communication as well as gaming could potentially enhance one’s ability to work in a group setting.

        However, as gamers begin to spend more of their time online they may find themselves creating buddy lists, or playing because their online friends are and not necessarily because they feel like playing the actual game. This is when it is possible that one’s ability to affectively communicate in a live setting may be hindered. People may begin to prefer communicating online rather than face to face.

        The world of gaming has boomed in the past two decades. People can be found sleeping outside of the local target to get the newest console before others, and the consoles can be seen on ebay and selling for $500 to $1,000. This study could really look into this industry and offer great information to the field of Communication Studies.