Online Gaming: Motivation and Habits

Kevin and I have been working together on our project about online gaming. We have been interested in finding out what draws people to online gaming (a huge segment of video games). Not only what attracts people to playing video games in online gaming communities but what are their habits and experiences while they are playing in these communities.

To start our project off, we looked at the current literature on the subject of online gaming and online gaming communities to get a better understanding of the issues related to this area. Much of what we found has shown that online gaming communities have a structure that often provides a sense of community or belonging for members. Roles and duties tend to be interchangable among members (often depending on the type of game being played). Other research has focused a great deal on the possible negative effects of game play. These effects are similar to the effects of addictive behaviors such as gambling and drinking. There seems to be a segment of gamers that exhibit addictive behavior with regards to their gaming habits. This might include, loss of time, over use of gaming, interferences with aspects of their life (such as job performance, love life, social life, etc), inability to quit playing, and even depression.

Based off of the literature we found, Kevin and I developed a short 10 item survey on online gaming habits and found people to fill them out for us. Based on what we have found, we intend on writing a paper that presents this information and what possible reasons might account for the results (based on the literature and our own theories on the subject).