PSY359 - Chapter 7: The Psychology of Online Gaming

video game

•  encompasses any kind of computer-based game, whether or not Internet access is required

• The most important feature is:

  • interactivity, which separates the video game from more passive media such as television, books, and web surfing

• Beyond that, however, video games vary considerably, particularly from a psychological perspective

game

a social interaction, exchange or transaction with set pre established rules of engagement (these rules are usually mutually agreed upon)

• Some sort of metaphysical rulebook that can guide how ur characters etc move, or what u can do

genre

• Classification of something according to some established set of rules or signifiers 

• They all have some common themes

• Ex. if you say smtg is a horror movie, it is given there will be blood, violence, mature topics, loud sounds etc

• Examples of video game genres

two goals/motives of companies and game designers that create and promote video games

• (1) to make their games as “sticky” as possible so that players keep coming back

• (2) to attract more players

4 fundamental principles to make games sticky and attract more players

• 1. Complexity

• 2. Social interaction

• 3. Competition

• 4. Age appropriate content

Complexity

• the cognitive effort required to achieve success in a game / needed for gameplay

• Some players will lean toward the casual games to keep that effort low, playing for a few minutes between classes or while watching TV

  • The learning curve is short, although it might take greater effort to actually succeed

• Some players prefer more complex games, which can be prohibitive for newcomers, but that can also offer dedicated players a gaming experience rich in narrative and one that can persist over several years

Social Interactivity

examples

• the degree of social exchange involved in gameplay

• Some games are single player, while other multiplayer games support interactions through text chat, avatar body gestures, voice, or other means

• On massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPs), for example, players must interact and coordinate in order to be successful

  • • World of Warcraft

• Multiplayer games also support asynchronous social interaction through social media messaging services

  • • Farmville

Competition

The skill needed to be successful in achieving game outcomes 

• Differing levels of skill result in performance outcomes relative to one another

1. Ex. in a racing game, competition is built into the gameplay

   1. Ppl who are more skilled in that endeavour will usually rank higher than those who are lower in skill!

2. Ex. competition in Candy Crush 

   1. You can see the leaderboard

   2. You can also see ur friends game level

   3. Can be a motivating factor for ppl who were long term committed users 

3. Ex. simulation games

   1. You can need skills to finish tasks or unlock things- higher skill just makes this easier!

   2. Way to introduce paid content down the line 

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• Some single-player games in which the goal is mainly to achieve the next level are low in competition

• Games emphasizing competition may task players in a different manner from single-player games in a variety of ways:

  • • To move up a notch on the “leader board”

  • • In games that support teams, players might be tackling game world challenges rather than other teams, so competition among players is reduced

  • • Games that support player versus player (PvP) competition or combat are highest on the competitive dimension

Age Appropriate Content

what do we use in the US to dictate this?

• Our use of media is active, not passive! → uses and gratifications theory

  • We consciously choose what media to consume and why

  • more choice = more motivation based media use

• The amount of adult-oriented action, imagery, and v*olence is another important psychological dimension

• In the United States, game publishers use the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) as the guideline for assigning a rating to games

  • Rating systems in Europe differ somewhat, though they all attempt to protect minors from games that contain intense violence, blood and gore, and sexual content

Entertainment Software Review Board (ESRB) rating system used in the United States

(chart)

men vs women considering themselves as gamers stats

• Half of american adults play video games, but only 10% consider themselves as “gamers”

• Men and women both play video games, but men are more likely to call themselves “gamers”

• Majority of women (including women who play games themselves) believe most video game players are men 

• Slides include some graphs about this

uses and gratifications perspective

• • Emphasizes the active choices people make when they watch the evening news on TV or stay glued to a sports broadcast

• • The focus is NOT on what media does to people; it is about what people do with media, and why

six motives for game use

• 1. Challenge

• 2. Competition

• 3. Diversion

• 4. Fantasy

• 5. Social interaction

• 6. Arousal

• 1. Challenge

• The cultivation of skill in service of achievement

• Ex. FNAF

  1. Puzzle game that motivates u with challenges, as puzzles increase in difficulty over the course of the game

• Many users enjoy playing video games to push themselves to a higher level of skill or personal accomplishment

• 2. Competition

performance relative to other game players

To prove to other players who has the best skills and can react or think the fastest

• Video game competition served the function of a dominance display among males most often seen in sports

• This gratification derives its power from the reactions of others to the dominance shown by the player, establishing a relative position in the peer group’s hierarchy

• 3. Diversion

• Video games are frequently used to avoid stress or responsibilities

  • Users reported playing video games to fill time, relax, escape from stress, or because there is nothing else to do

• 4. Fantasy

Video games allow players to do things that they normally would not be able to do, such as drive race cars, fly, etc.

• Users spoke frequently about the appeal of being able to do things they can’t do in real life

• 5. Social Interaction

Social interaction is the main reason many individuals got involved in playing video games as a child

• Users mentioned that the arrival of Nintendo brought sleepovers where video game were played, and the need to keep up on the games to be "cool"

• Many now use video games to interact with friends and learn about the personalities of others

• 6. Arousal

The stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) 

Sympathetic nervous system = fight or flight response 

High engagement body contact video games, high engagement video games that cause higher body reactions- heart rate increase, sweating, eyes focus in etc.

An exciting experience! → seeking this out can be motivating

The same reason ppl love to see horror movies! They like the sensory experience of being scared, being physiologically aroused in a way u cant seek out in normal IRL

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Playing video games to stimulate emotions as a result of fast action and high quality graphics

media affects perspective

• Works to produce a physiological response paired with a stimulus

chart describing the connection between gaming and the big five personality traits

•  men and women differ somewhat in the types of games they enjoy and in how much they play:

•  Women like online card games, puzzles, trivia quizzes, board games, and arcade-style games more than men

• • Men indicate preference for action games that feature sports, fighting, shooting, or racing, and also action-adventure and strategy games

• • Men also play games more hours per week compared with women 

• Reported liking of Video Game Genres by Sex Chart:

• One reason there are gender differences in game play

• Games are primarily designed by and for males, so they contain themes and activities that appeal to them or that they are especially skilled at

  • • For example, men typically score higher on competitiveness, and many games make competition a salient component

One such area of behavioral psychology from which developers might draw to achieve the goal of enticing players to play more, click on more ads, bring their friends, or purchase more virtual goods (for real money!)

operant conditioning!

Pavlovian / classical conditioning

• Works to produce a physiological response paired with a stimulus

what is operant conditioning

• Looks to affect the likelihood or decrease likelihood of a specific behavior

• How do we condition ppl to do things we want them to do and disinhibit things we don't want them to do

• We reward or punish behaviours

  • So we provide rewards, get rid of something that is desired, or present something undesired

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Learning to associate behaviors with their consequences

• Behaviors that are reinforced (lead to satisfying consequences) will be strengthened

• Behaviors that are punished (lead to unsatisfying consequences) will be weakened

• The Law of Effect (also called “Thorndike’s Law of Effect):

• Any behavior that results in satisfying consequences tends to be repeated

• Any behavior that results in unsatisfying consequences tends not be repeated

• Punishment vs Reinforcement

Reinforcement 

• Increasing the probability of a response via a reinforcer

• Seek to increase the likelihood of a behaviour occuring

punishment

• Decreasing the probability of a response via a punisher 

• Positive vs Negative operant conditioning

Positive - the presentation or addition of a stimulus 

Negative - the removal of a stimulus 

Think of it like math! Are we adding some stimulus or removing it!

• Appetitive Stimulus vs Aversive Stimulus

Appetitive - stimulus that is desired or pleasing

Aversive - stimulus that is unpleasant/undesired

• How Positive and Negative Reinforcement and Punishment work in operant conditioning

CHART

positive and negative vs reinforcement and punishment chart

examples of how games use positive vs negative and reinforcement vs punishment —> table

Positive means that _______ and negative means that ________

• Positive means that something is presented, and negative means that something is taken away

reinforcement means that the behaviour is _______ and punishment means that _______

• Reinforcement means that the behavior is strengthened, and punishment means that the behavior weakened

In positive reinforcement, ________ and in positive punishment, ________

In positive reinforcement, and appetitive stimulus is presented, and in positive punishment, an aversive (unpleasant) stimulus is presented

In negative reinforcement, __________ and in negative punishment, __________

• In negative reinforcement, an aversive stimulus is removed, and in negative punishment, an appetitive stimulus is removed

• Continuous schedule of reinforcement

• reinforcement each time a desired response or behavior is displayed 

  • Tutorial phase of game play - behaviours are rewarded and no punishments are usually assessed

Fixed-interval schedule of reinforcement

rewards distributed based on a specific time period/interval

• Daily log in rewards OR set times for in game actions

  • Ex. animal crossing- you can only harvest radishes on sundays 

• Habituation

• Partial schedule of reinforcement

• Reinforcing the desired operant response only part of the time

• Partial-reinforcement effect

• The finding that operant responses that are reinforced on partial schedules are more resistant to extinction than those reinforced on a continuous schedule

• Fixed-ratio schedule

•  the presentation of a reinforcer each time a fixed number of responses or actions is achieved 

  • You get something each time you complete an activity in a game! 

  • Drives things like:

    • Duration of gameplay

  • Ex. to level up you have to collect ten tokens of something

  • Ex. in mario kart to unlock characters or races, you need to win a set number of races

  • Ex. you get XP by defeating enemies in order to level up

• Variable-ratio schedule

• the number of responses/actions or behaviours to obtain a reinforcer varies on each trial, but usually averages across a set number of trials

  • Produces the highest levels of engagement and lowest levels of extinction

    • Ex. if you kept mining but never got any diamonds, you'd probably stop trying, but if you got them every now and then, you would continue mining/engaging

  • Ex. finding diamonds in minecraft is not consistent, but you knew after some time mining consistently, you’d probably find some!

  • Ex. slot machines !

Superstitions

spurious attribution of behaviour to produce or give a reinforcer 

• Spurious - relationship between two things that don't actually exist

• Ex. lucky socks for athletes

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An unjustified (ie. not empirical) belief in spurious causality

• For operant conditioning to occur, the reward must follow the behavior, but the behavior doesn't necessarily have to cause the reward

• The reward might accidentally follow some behavior, and the operator may end up erroneously associating the two anyway

  • This often paves the way for superstitions

Media effects

Psychological effect media has on us 

• Can cause desensitization

Selective exposure

the predisposition to choose media that align with our pre-existing beliefs, habits, tendencies, etc.

• Polarization ! more exposure to things = more extreme holding of those views

players have an intrinsic motivation to _______

•  to seek out ways to satisfy their needs (remember uses & grats!)

  • Thus, the principles of operant conditioning alone do not necessarily lead to good game mechanics

how to motivate people who are intrinsically motivated to play:

• may actually lose interest if there are too many extrinsic rewards:

  • The extrinsic reward apparently drowned out any intrinsic motivation to tackle the chess challenges just for the enjoyment and mastery

• Designers add all kinds of features to satisfy such intrinsic motivations; in-game socializing tools, for instance, can be quite elaborate

• Other game mechanics appeal to players’ interest in fantasy, excitement, competition, or diversion

Main two areas of study of video games’ harmful potentials:

• 1. Compulsive overuse, sometimes called “internet addiction disorder”

  • While accounts of total dysfunction are often rare, video games are very engaging and some people who may be prone to overuse may find that their gaming is negatively affecting their lives in ways that resemble substance abuse or pathological gambling

  • We will cover this topic in a different lecture

• 2. The effects of violence in video games

Violent games differ from nonviolent ones in many ways, not just because they contain violence, but because _________

they may also be more arousing and competitive

affect of arousal from playing video games on aggressive thoughts and actions

•  the violence in the video games that affects aggressive thoughts and actions, not competition or arousal

  • people show same level of arousal in violent and non violent games, but those who played violent games handed out more aggressive punishments after playing

repeated exposure to blood, gore, and violence leads to:

desensitization

• playing violent video games desensitizes individuals to real-life violence by dulling physiological stress responses

what does desensitization from playing violent video games do?

directly increases aggressive behavior, and habitual play creates lasting desensitization

four benefits of video games

1. cognitive benefits

2. motivation and persistence

3. emotional benefits and flow

4. social benefits

cognitive benefits of video games

improved Cognitive and perceptual abilities, such as spatial perception, mental rotation, and visual attention

cognitive benefits of action games

•  (Visual Attention)

  • Players outperform non-players in identifying objects across visual fields

  • Possess deeper attentional resource reserves to apply toward visual tasks

  • Have a wider useful field of view, allowing them to spot targets farther from central focus

cognitive benefits of strategy and RPG games

• (Problem Solving)

  • Strategy games improve problem-solving by requiring players to think through problems, weigh options, and plan actions

  • RPGs build tactical problem-solving through analyzing boss traits, optimizing gear, assembling teams, and executing attack plans

motivation and persistence

benefits of video games

• games provide just enough challenge to maintain persistence in the face of failure, matching the challenges to the player's level

• from a study:

  • amount of video game play per week was significantly correlated with subjects’ self-reported persistence and with greater persistence on the difficult anagrams and puzzles

    • Subjects who spend a lot of time playing games will spend more time on the unsolved puzzles, that is, the ones they had the most difficulty with

A way to measure how persistent someone will be in the face of failure

• computer-based anagram-riddle task

  • Presents a series of hard and easy anagrams and riddles on screen, one at a time

  • Feedback is immediate, and the person can choose to skip a missed anagram or try again

  • Computer records how long each subject persists in trying to solve a difficult anagram or puzzle, and if the subject gave up after a wrong try to skip to an easier question

emotional benefits and flow

of video games

• One emotional benefit is FUN

• Players play because they enjoy the game—their motives might differ (as previously discussed), but a more positive mood is a common finding

•  relax, improve mood, and reduce stress

what is flow

•  a mental state in which the person is completely absorbed in an activity and time just flies by

  • A highly positive and motivating mental state, associated with certain changes in the brain

• if a game is too hard, the person does not experience flow!

Activities that have the potential to create flow have what in common:

• They create a delicate balance between the person's ability and the challenge of the task, and they require intense concentration and focus

• They also offer clear goals, timely feedback, and a sense of control over what happens

• While in the state of flow, the person experiences a loss of self-consciousness and a distorted sense of time

social benefits of video games

what do prosocial games vs violent games promote

• a relationship between cooperative game playing and prosocial behavior

•  students exposed to the prosocial games in which players helped one another were more likely to say they behave in more prosocial ways in real life

  • Video game content directly drives immediate real-world behavior, with prosocial games encouraging helpfulness and violent games promoting sabotage