Social Play

@inproceedings{1358814,
author = {Brian Gajadhar and Yvonne de Kort and Wijnand IJsselsteijn},
title = {Influence of social setting on player experience of digital games},
booktitle = {CHI '08: CHI '08 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems},
year = {2008},
isbn = {978-1-60558-012-X},
pages = {3099--3104},
location = {Florence, Italy},
doi = {http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1358628.1358814},
publisher = {ACM},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
}

Bowman, Nicholas. and Tamborini, Ron. "Facilitating Game Play: How Others Affect Performance and Enjoyment of Video Games" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, TBA, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, May 21, 2008 Online . 2008-12-05

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: As video games become an increasingly social activity, accounting for the role of audience presence during game play can increase understanding of how games are played and enjoyed. Social facilitation theory is used to explain the potential for audience presence to influence the gaming experience. To this end, a 2 (game skill) x 2 (game challenge) x 2 (audience presence) mixed-factorial design was used to test the potential for dominant game skill and game challenge level to moderate the influence of audience presence on performance and enjoyment in a video game context. The pattern of findings associated with a three-way interaction closely mirrors hypotheses predicting that when game challenge is low, the presence of an audience benefits the performance of high skill gamers significantly more than low skill gamers, but when game challenge is high the added benefit to high skill gamers is lost.

Author's Keywords:
social facilitation, drive theory, cognitive ability, enjoyment, video games, performance