Abstract
This study examines the impact of MMORPG play on social capital in both virtual world and real worlds. MMORPG play is conceptualized as a combination of general-play (represented by the time and frequency of game play) and collective-play (represented by the frequency of joint gaming actions and gamers’ assessment of the experience in guilds and groups). A two-wave online survey was conducted to collect data from 232 MMORPG players. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the hypothesized effects of collective MMORPG play on gamers’ online/offline social capital and the effects of online social capital on offline social capital. The results show that collective-play positively affects gamers’ online bonding social capital, online bridging social capital and online civic engagement, which suggests that group-play and guild-play in MMORPGs can broaden gamers’ social networks in the virtual world and enhance gamers to engage in online civic activities. The effect of collective-play on offline bonding and bridging social capital is not significant; the effect of online bonding/bridging social capital on offline bonding/bridging social capital is not significant either. The study finds a significantly positive impact of collective-play on offline civic engagement, which may attribute to the reason that collaboration and community participation in MMORPGs can improve gamers’ civic skills and build their self-efficacy in public affairs. The effect of online civic engagement on offline civic engagement is found to be non-significant, inferring that due to the convenience and low cost of online civic participation, those who are active in online communities may not necessarily perform actively in offline communities. In comparison with collective-play, general-play is found to negatively affect individual-level social capital and collective-level social capital in both virtual world and real world. This finding justifies the importance to differentiate collective-play from general-play.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publication status | Published - 5 Aug 2009 |
| Event | Convention of Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC 2009) - Boston, United States Duration: 5 Aug 2009 → 8 Aug 2009 |
Conference
| Conference | Convention of Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC 2009) |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | United States |
| City | Boston |
| Period | 5/08/09 → 8/08/09 |