when the ball stops, the fun stops too: the impact of social inclusion on video game enjoyment

WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITYDEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION STUDIES

Interaction Lab(#ixlab)

“WHEN THE BALL STOPS, THE FUN STOPS TOO”

Bowman · Kowert · Cohen


ABSTRACTVideo games have long been understood as an entertaining and popular medium, and recent work has suggested that at least part of their appeal rests in their ability to foster feelings of sociability and belonging with others. From this, we expected that following an episode of social ostracism, playing video games with other people would be an enjoyable experience due the game’s ability to restore one’s social needs. However, in a 2 (social inclusion vs. social ostracism) x 2 (choosing to play alone vs. co-playing) quasi-experimental design, individuals who were socially ostracized in a ball tossing game reported no deficit in their subsequent enjoyment of the video game- reporting above-average enjoyment - while individuals who were socially included reported significantly lower enjoyment when playing alone compare to all other conditions. These effects held, controlling for individual sex, trait need for belonging, video game self-efficacy, and individual performance at the game. These results ran counter to predictions regarding the socially restorative power of video games following a social ostracism episode, and offer insight into how social scenarios might foster expectations of entertainment media products.



BACKGROUND

• Video games are a decidedly social endeavor

• Coplaying makes up ~ 60 to 75% of all gaming experiences



BACKGROUND

• Gaming and sociability– Games as “third spaces of

discourse”– Extraverts prefer gaming– Gaming fosters relatedness– Interdependence (from

gaming) fosters transactive memory



BACKGROUND

• Social inclusion is key to psychological well-being…

• …and media usage (including video games) is linked to social inclusion



BACKGROUND• Social ostracism triggers a

need-threat cognitive model…

• …which leads to a drive to restore social needs via social monitoring (such as seeking opportunities for inclusion)



HYPOTHESES

• (H1) Socially ostracized individuals are more likely to select co-playing game scenarios than socially included individuals.

• (H2a) individuals choosing to play with others should enjoy the experience more than individuals choosing to play alone

• (H2b) socially ostracized individuals should enjoy co-playing significantly more than socially included individuals.

Research questions considered the impact of (RQ1) performance on enjoyment and (RQ2) need for belonging on both game choice and enjoyment



METHOD

• N = 88 (n = 54 male, 21.25 years, 75% White) • Random assignment to social ostracism (n =

40) or ostracism (n = 48) setting• Option to play video game for three rounds• Post-treatment measures of need for belonging,

video game self-efficacy, video game enjoyment (scalar); perceived closeness (graphical)



OSTRACISMWe used a modified live version of Kip Williams “ball toss” task. • 90% of included participants said

“we” threw ball• 100% of ostracized participants said

“they” threw ball• Closeness scores higher for included

(~5.40) than ostracized (~2.50) participants



VIDEO GAME

Player chose to watch, play CPU, or play another (online or co-located) for three rounds. Player always chose “Ryu” to control for avatar identification.


Increased need for belonging (trait) led to a likelihood to play with others (B = -.353), but only for those socially included.

RESULTS

• H1: Game selection; not confirmed Alone Co-Play

Isolated (binomial p = .608)

15a 19a

Included(binomial p = .043)

27a 13b

χ2(1) = 4.09, p = .043



Enjoyment impacted by performance, game choice (co-play) and game self-efficacy – but only for those socially included.

RESULTS

• H2: Enjoyment highest when co-playing (5.23) than alone (4.69), t(72) = 2.13, p = .037


Alone Co-Play

Isolated t(32) = .237, p = .814

5.10a 5.19a

Includedt(35.40) = 2.72, p

= .010

4.46b 5.29a


DISCUSSION

• We expected ostracism to lead to a desire for social interaction…

• …but we found that inclusion lead toa) a desire to play alone

b) diminished enjoyment when making this choice!


What’s happening?

(a) Contrast effects, such that being included first may have provided an anchoring bias regarding the gaming activity

(b) Ostracized folks might become asocial rather than hypersocial following the ostracism event


FUTURE RESEARCH

• Closer examination of affective dimensions of ostracism

• Context-specific perceptions of ostracism• Cooperative vs. competitive tasks • Variations of interdepencence and task

demand



FOR MORE INFORMATION

Nick Bowman, Ph.D. [CV]Twitter (@bowmanspartan)Skype (nicholasdbowman)[email protected]

http://comm.wvu.edu/fs/research/lab


http://ndbowman.info/cv.htm

mailto:[email protected]




when the ball stops, the fun stops too: the impact of social inclusion on video game enjoyment

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