Measuring Social Interaction in Video Games

I'm a video game enthusiast and anytime information science and video games overlap I'm particularly fascinated.  I recently ran across this interesting article that discusses research on social interaction in video games.  The original study the article refers to is the combined efforts of researchers Voida, Carpendale, and Greenberg.  Particularly interesting in the study were the defined categories of interaction and player types:

Categories of interaction

Voida et al.'s Original Category	Revised Social Interaction Category	Description
Constructing Shared Awareness	Shared Awareness	Shared Awareness includes building a shared awareness of the game state, and can include collaborative working out, giving hints, or making another player aware of something within the game, such as game mechanics or "what to do". It can also include reporting to other players what activities you are performing within the game. "Let me have the health pack, I'm low on health"
	Requesting Information	Requesting Information typically includes asking about what is happening in game, how the game works, or how to achieve their goal. It can also include asking other players to report their status. It is often combined with a period of shared awareness. "How do I solve this puzzle?"
Reinforcing Shared History	Shared History	Shared History includes discussing what happened earlier in the game, or in a prior play session. May include links to other games, or with players not present. "Remember when we beat that boss?"
Sharing in Success and Failure	Shared Success	Shared Success includes celebrating a group success, or congratulating another player on their success. It can include a group celebration despite being in a competitive situation. "Well done, that was really hard!"
	Shared Failure	Shared Failure includes taking group responsibility for failing a task, offering reassurance, or commiserating with a player who has failed a task. It does not include blame (which may be more appropriate under Trash Talk). "It's not your fault, it was a difficult question!"
Engaging in Interdependence and Self-Sacrifice	Team Optimization	Team Optimization includes discussing the group dynamics, or negotiating an individual's contribution to the group. It can include assessing the ability of others, and discussions over who is leading or in control. Can also include denying players the chance to join in. "Let me do this bit, I'm better at math!"
Talking Trash	Trash Talk	Trash Talk includes celebrating your own success over the other players, or laughing at their failure. This can be in competitive or collaborative game types, and often involves put downs or insults. "You suck!"
Falling Prey to the computer's holding power	Self Indulgence	Self Indulgence includes not playing the game at the expense of other players' enjoyment, making up one's own meta-game, or not participating fully, leading to a disruption of the flow of the game. It can include repeatedly performing the same action (i.e. viewing a hidden in-game feature or Easter egg). "My character's going to have a nap now."
N/A	Off Topic	Off Topic includes discussing non-game based interaction or discussion "Nice weather we're having!"

Types of players

Player Type	Description
Killers (Clubs)	Killers are interested in combat/competition with other human players, and prefer this over interaction with non-player characters.
Achiever (Diamonds)	Achievers are most interested in gaining points or alternative in-game measurements of success. These players will often go out of their way to gain items that have no in-game benefit besides prestige, such as Achievements' or Trophies.
Explorer (Spades)	These players are interested in discovering the breadth of a game, and will explore new areas or take non-optimal routes to explore. They do not like time limits, since this limits the potential to explore options.
Socializers (Hearts)	These players are interested in the social aspect of game play, rather than the game itself. They enjoy interacting with other players, and use the game primarily as a means of communication.

Check out the full article to see the breakdown of what type of interaction the different types of players typically engaged in.


References:

Voida, A, S Carpendale, and S. Greenberg. "The Individual and the Group in Console Gaming." CSCW '10  Proceedings of the 2010 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work, 2010

Ackermann, J. Playing computer games as social interaction – an analysis of LAN-Partys. In: Fromme, J. Computer Games / Players / Game Cultures Berlin: Springer, 2011

Facebook: Users vs. Non-users

It seems to be a common perception among non-Facebook users that regular users of the social networking site do not value face-to-face interactions and are missing out on human interaction.  It has become a popular enough sentiment that is has popped up in national television commercials.  Take a look at this commercial for the Toyota Venza:

The message of this commercial is clear: facebook isn't real living.  The young woman in the ad believes (mistakenly) that older people are anti-social and criticizes her parents for their low virtual friend count.  All the while her parents are shown living it up with their real life friends in their new Toyota. No doubt this ad is targeted at those who have negative or ambivalent attitudes toward social networking.

However, the article "Grooming, Gossip, Facebook and Myspace: What can we learn about these sites from those who won't assimilate?" by Zeynep Tufekci tells a different story.  The article reports on in-depth research of college student users and non-users of social media.  The results showed that "the non-users reported similar numbers of very close and somewhat close friends as compared with SNS [social networking site] users." and furthermore "the number of friends kept in touch with weekly was significantly higher among SNS users."  So according to this study not only do social network users have just as many close friends (to enjoy their new Toyota with) as non-users, but that they also keep in touch with more friends than non-users.

Another interesting find in the study was that "that non-users display an attitude towards social grooming (gossip, small-talk and generalized, non-functional people-curiosity) that ranges from incredulous to hostile."  It's not hard to imagine that the creative minds behind the Toyota commercial are some of the same people that are antagonistic towards social networking.  Hopefully, as more research is done it will show that neither users or non-users are missing out on fundamental elements of living and the misconceptions between the two  groups will disappear.

Reference:

Zeynep Tufekci (2008): GROOMING, GOSSIP, FACEBOOK AND
MYSPACE, Information, Communication & Society, 11:4, 544-564

First Post: Hello

Hello, this is my personal blog dedicated to issues related to social informatics.  I'm currently enrolled in a social informatics course at the University of Tennessee, so I am new to the subject.  In the coming weeks as I learn more through my coursework, I will post regular thoughts, observations, and reflections.  Discussion is encouraged so feel free to comment.