| PDF Document | 2006 Home | MS Word |

Volume 1 Issue 4
Article 1

Article: Gaming Experience: Adolescent versus Adult Gamers

Author: Su-Ting Yong Curtin University of Technology, Malaysia Campus. yong.su.ting@curtin.edu.my

Abstract: Today, video and computer games are very popular and common among kids, teenagers as well as adults. Due to the popularity of video/computer games, more and more people are addicted to games by spending few hours a day in playing games without doing other activities.

According to experts, spending more than 14 hours a week in playing games is one indicator of video games addiction (ABC News, 2005). Research shows that the younger the gamers, the longer the time they spend on playing video and computer games(Griffiths, Davies Mark & Chappell, 2004; Kolo & Baur, 2004).

However, other research shows that adult gamers are the obsessive gamers (Designtechnica, 2004; Gamewarden cited in Game, 2000). Thus, the objective of this research is to explore the gaming experience of different group of gamers, adolescent versus adult. Questionnaires will be used for data collection and there are 20 respondents in each group of gamers. In this research, adolescent gamers tend to be more obsessive in playing games and there are about 30% of adolescent gamers that are addicted to games. The result of this research support the literature that, younger the gamer, the longer the time they spend each week playing games (Griffiths, Davies Mark & Chappell, 2004; Kolo & Baur, 2004).

A recent study by PriceWatherhouseCoopers estimates that the gaming industry will garner sales of over 55 billion by the end of the decade (Arthur Inc., 2004). Today, video and computer games are very popular and common among kids, teenagers as well as adults. Due to the popularity of video/computer games, more and more people are addicted to games by spending few hours a day in playing games without doing other activities. According to Survey conducted on Everquest (Griffiths, Davies Mark & Chappell, 2004) and Ultima Online (Kolo & Baur, 2004), the younger the gamers, the longer the time they spend on playing video and computer games. However, this may not be the fact as more adult gamers are spending whole night playing games as compared teenagers (Designtechnica, 2004). This contradiction in literature has lead to the research question for this study. The objective of this research is to explore the gaming experience of different group of gamers (adolescents and adults) as most of the gamers are teenagers (Hauge and Gentile, 2003; Computer and Video Game Survey, 2004; Arthur Inc., 2004) and adults (Designtechnica, 2004; Gamewarden cited in Game, 2000). Furthermore, research in video game playing among teenagers is an unexplored area (Anderson, Funk & Griffith, 2004).

Game Addiction

According to Suler (2004) "Addictions" has a loose definition which can be healthy, unhealthy, or a mixture of both. Recently, new studies by researchers at Berlin's Charité hospital have found that computer games can lead to addiction (DW World, 2005) and NBC News ( 5-19-05 ) reported that 1 in 8 gamers develops patterns similar to other types of addiction and abuse (Kem, 2005). This lead to the term games or gamer addiction. According to Meunier (as cited in Kem, 2005), gamer addiction refers to as stimulus addiction, narcissistic self-stimulation or feelings management technology. According to experts, spending more than 14 hours a week playing games is one indicator of video games addiction (ABC News, 2005). Survey conducted by Computer and Video Game Survey (2004) found more than 50% of gamers spend more than 10 hours per month to play games by spending more than $100 per month for games. Games addiction causes students drop out from the school and employees decrease their productivity during working hours. Psychological research even confirms that violent video games can increase children's aggression. (American Psychological Association, 2004). Some people died because of long hours of game playing, as an example in Korea and Taiwan.

Age Difference in Gaming Behaviour Today, the rise and popularity of video and computer games as a leisure phenomenon has become an ever-increasing part of many adolescent people (Anderson, Funk & Griffith, 2004). Survey conducted by Computer and Video Game Survey (2004) on 445 respondents found out that 95% of them played video games. The research conducted by Hauge and Gentile (2003) suggested that video game “addiction” is a problem among teenagers and this is supported by a survey conducted by Computer and Video Game Survey (2004) that discovered majority of gamers are 15 to 18 years old. Survey conducted by Kem (2005) on graduate class also showed that 1 in 8 of these students is addicted to gaming. In U.K. one telling statistic found that 30% of pre-teens to early teenagers play video games on a daily basis and 7% of them play video games for more than 30 hours a week (Arthur Inc., 2004). Survey conducted on Everquest (Griffiths,Davies Mark & Chappell, 2004) and Ultima Online (Kolo & Baur, 2004) showed that the younger the gamer, the longer the time they spend each week playing. However, this argument may not be the fact as more adult gamers have stayed up all night playing games than teenagers (Designtechnica, 2004). The Computer Gaming World Game Buyer Universe Study conducted among 4500 game buyers found that computer gamers are 31 years old on average (Gamewarden cited in Game, 2000) and USA Today (2004) reported that the average age of game buyers is 36. In fact, the average age of gamers is29 (USA Today, 2004). Majority of gamers are now over 18 years of age (USA Today, 2004; ABC News, 2005) and make up more than 50% of the market (ABC News, 2005). A study also found out that 90% of 200 Information Systems Managers have accessed to computer games in the workplace and 58% of them play several times a week and even several times a day (Gamewarden cited in Game, 2000). In 2004, AOL Games' "Casual Games Report," conducted by Digital Marketing Services (DMS) uncovered that woman over 40 are the most obsessive gamers (Designtechnica, 2004; MSNBC, 2004;Always on Network, 2004). They spend 9.1 hours a week playing online computer games, versus teen's 7.4 hours and younger women's 6.2 hours (Always on Network, 2004). In conclusion, game playing is no longer a child’s play.

Methodology

Questionnaire is used for data collection. Questionnaires were distributed among gamers in some locations like games outlets, cyber cafe and schools. The respondents of this research are adolescent and adults gamers. Adolescent gamers are those below 21 years old and adults are those age 21 and above. The sample size for this research is 20 adolescent gamers and also 20 adult gamers. SPSS is used for data analysis and some statistical analysis used is percentage, independent sample T-test and calculation of means. The five dimensions measured in this research are Game Lover, Benefit, Health, Social Life and Study/Work. The explanation of the 5 dimensions are as follows: Game Lover: if they like to play games; Benefit: if they think that playing games is beneficial; Health: if they think that playing games is hazard to their health; Social: if they think that playing games can affect their social life; Study/Work: if they think that playing games can affect their study or work.

Results and Discussion

In this survey, there are 15 male and 5 female gamers in each sample group. Number of male gamers tends to outnumber the number of female gamers because some of the female respondents do not play games. The data analysis is divided into 3 parts, first part is focusing time spend and frequency in playing games; second part is focusing on some gaming patterns and the third part is focusing on views in game play.

Frequency table in table 1 shows that 21% of the adolescent gamers and 16% of adult gamers play games more than 15 hours a week. According to ABC News (2005), this is one indicator of games addiction as they play more than 14 hours a week. That means 21% of adolescent gamers are addicted to play games and this figure is quite high. The results of this research support the literature that game “addiction” is a problem among teenagers (Hauge and Gentile, 2003; Computer and Video Game Survey, 2004). On the other hand, 16% of adult gamers are addicted to play games. This indicates that games addiction is no more the problem among adolescent gamers but also adult gamers. In other words, adult gamers are also obsessive gamers and this result supports the arguments made by Designtechnica (2004), USA Today (2004), ABC News (2005). Although there are some gamers that are addicted to games, majority of adolescent and adult gamers play about 1 to 5 hours a week. In addition, table 1 also shows that majority of adolescent gamers play games once a day and majority of adult gamers play less than once a month. Overall, adult gamers spend less time and less frequent to play games if compared to adolescent gamers. The result of this research also shows that younger the gamer, the longer the time they spend each week playing games (Griffiths, Davies Mark& Chappell, 2004; Kolo & Baur, 2004).

Table 3 compares the means between adolescent and adult gamers in 5 dimensions measured. Adolescent gamers love to play games more if compared to adult gamers. Adolescent gamers also have stronger agreement that playing games can increase critical thinking and release stress. However, adolescent gamers have stronger disagreement that playing games can be hazard to health, cause negative impacts on social life and cause them to neglect their work or study. Sample T-test is used to test the mean differences between adolescent and adult gamers but there are no significant differences in all dimensions measured. Therefore, no meaning conclusion can be made from table 3.

Conclusion

Adolescent gamers in this research tend to be more obsessive in playing games and some of them are even games addict. Besides that, adolescent gamers also are spending more money on games. However, there are no significant differences in means for both groups of gamers in the 5 dimensions measured. This is a preliminary research; therefore the sample size used is small. Future research should increase the sample size to gain a better meaningful result.

References

ABC News.(2005).Video Game Addiction. Retrieved November 18, 2005 from http://abclocal.go.com/wls/index?section=features&id=3469943.

Always on Network. (2004). Online gamers: They aren't who you think they are. Retrieved December 1, 2005 from http://www.alwayson-network.com/index.php.

American Psychological Association. (2004). Violent Video Games - Psychologists Help Protect Children from Harmful Effects. Retrieved December 1, 2005 from http://www.psychologymatters.org.

Anderson, C.A., Funk, J.B. & Griffith, M.D. (2004). Contemporary issues in teenager video game playing:brief overview and introduction to the special issue. Journal of Adolescence 27, pg. 1–3.

Arthur Inc. (2004).The Electronic Chronic. Retrieved November 17, 2005 from http://www.trentarthur.info/archives/2004_12.html.

Computer & Video Game Survey. (2004). Computer & Video Games Survey 2004 Results. Retrieved November 17, 2005 from http://www.video-games-survey.com/survey_en.htm.

Designtechnica. (2004). Study Looks At Online Gaming Habits. Retrieved November 17, 2005 from http://news.designtechnica.com/news_printerfriendly2635.html.

DW World. (2005). Study: Computer Games Can Lead to Addiction. Retrieved November 17, 2005 from http://www.dw-world.de/popups/popup_printcontent/0,,1773386,00.html.

Game – The Psychological And Physical Impact (2000). Retrieved November 27, 2005 from http://multimedia.design.curtin.edu/cache/g/0007.

Griffiths, M.D., Davies Mark N.O. & Chappell, D. (2004). Online computer gaming: a comparison of adolescent and adult gamers. Journal of Adolescence 27, pg. 87–96.

Hauge, M.R. & Gentile, D. A. (2003). Video Game Addiction Among Teenagers: Associations with Academic Performance and Aggression. Presented at Society for Research in Child Development Conference, April 2003, Tampa, FL.

Kem. L. (2005). Gamer Addiction: A Threat To Student Success! What Advisors Need To Know. NACADA Clearinghouse of Academic Advising Resources. Retrieved November 17, 2005 from http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Clearinghouse/AdvisingIssues/Gamer-Addiction.htm.

Kolo, C. & Baur, T. (2004). Living a Virtual Life: Social Dynamics of Online Gaming. The international journal of computer game research, 4(1).

MSNBC. (2004). Women over 40 biggest online gamers, Study finds many online friendships turned into real-life ones. Retrieved November 17, 2005 from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3033082.

Suler, J. (2004). Computer and cyberspace addiction. International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, 1, 359-362.