issue 1 09 - APS Member Groups - Australian Psychological Society

Excessive Videogame Playing66progress in the game. This feature enables theplayer to ‘reload’ an earlier part of the game ifthey wish to correct an error or otherwiserepeat a previous game section (“I like beingable to replay it over and over, getting a partdone just right” [G2, M, 22]).‘Recognition’ was another importanttheme related to empowerment. Manyparticipants reported a sense of fulfilmentassociated with being rewarded or ‘recognised’for having invested tens to hundreds of hoursplaying some video games. Examples includedbeing given a special title or rank within thegame, earning unique items for in-gamecharacters, like weapons or armour, or even anin-game timer that recorded time spent playingthe game. Part of the value of these itemsrelated to the difficulty in acquiring them,The best sword in the game is hardto come by. But that’s good andbad, bad because I don’t get asword really quickly but that’sgood because everyone elsedoesn’t [G2, M, 17].‘Meta-game’ features also recognisedplayers’ effort and time commitment. Acommon example was online player ‘leaderboards’, where players could compare theirprogress in a video game with their friends orother players. The ‘achievement point’ systemfor a popular video game console system(Xbox360) was also mentioned. Achievementpoints are similar to loyalty rewards programs;they reward players for not only completingthe game but also for performing ratheresoteric or unusual actions, such as playing agame non-stop for eight hours, or playing agame with 16 other players at once. Anotherexample was “playing 1000 games so you canget the Elite achievement points” [G2, M, 23].Recognition features were very appealing tomale participants, but were less interesting forfemale participants.Social networks have associated socialresponsibilitiesIt is undeniable that modern videogames feature numerous advanced socialutility functions, which coalesce to connect theindividual to many others within a large socialnetwork. In this study, all participants reportedto enjoy playing video games with ‘multiplayer’support. The social nature of video gameplaying was the primary appeal of the activityfor some players. Common experiencesincluded helping friends to earn in-gamerewards or other achievements, cooperatingtogether to finish a video game, or competing ina team against other players. These experienceswere sometimes framed as a type of ‘socialresponsibility’ within the network (oneparticipant even referred to the video game ashis “second job”). Some participants reportedthat video games enabled a type of onlinecommunity which shares a common space forthe anonymous exchange of personalinformation as well as information about thevideo game.Players reported to adopt an identitywithin this online ‘space’ that is associated withthe names, titles, language and/or motifs withinthe video game (“I have this friend who’ll askme what I’m doing and I’ll say “I’m the Hero ofCyrodiil”. He’s a super, fantastical hero” [G6,M, 17]), which reinforces a sense of‘togetherness’ when working together toachieve various goals within the game. A videogame community is composed of a number ofsocial institutions and groupings which exist inthe online world, which have the functionalpurpose of linking certain kinds of playerstogether. Often these social groups holdorganised events in the video game that can runfor unpredictable periods of time. These eventsrequire the participation of a network of playersand thus create a ‘social responsibility’ for eachplayer within that network (“You are part of theplaying group and they rely on you” [G6, F,27]).This responsibility makes it very difficultfor participants to stop playing a video gameprematurely (i.e., before other players have‘finished’) and also encourages the player not tospend too long away from a video game. As oneparticipant stated, “We’re in a team of eight,The Australian Community Psychologist Volume 21 No 1 June 2009