Abstract
The increasing popularity of multiplayer online video games has given rise to the creation of linguistic communities with specific forms of communication and rules. Among the several features of those digital communities, some differences among men’s and women’s communication behaviours seem to be real when they play video games. Thus, the objective of this research is to analyse gender differences in the socialisation process among MOG Players (Multiplayer Online Game). To this aim, this research introduces an experiment with 201 MOG players (males: 147; females: 54) who responded to a survey concerning the use of 20 social communicative acts (based on Guntermann and June, 1982, p. 26) in three different contexts: the participant knew in advance the other player from a) the real world, b) the virtual world, or c) they had never met before. The results obtained from this analysis have shown some differences between both male and female MOG participants in their socialisation process when interacting with other players by determining the frequency and the per cent variation on the use of the selected communicative acts. In conclusion, it seems that there are some similarities and differences between men and women when interacting with MOG players that may interfere in the way they play videogames and behave towards other players.
Highlights
The aim of this paper is to analyse gender differences and similarities when multiplayer online games (MOG) Players (Multiplayer Online Game) attempt to socialise with other players within the same virtual world
By comparing the first two columns, it can be observed that male participants affirmed that they tend to overall interact more often with other participants than female participants (6.42%). These results show that both groups communicate more often with players they know from the real world than with players they know from the virtual world or with unknown ones
As it can be observed, the per cent variation between men and women when they interact with people that they know from the real world is 4.18%, with people they know from the virtual world is 7.43%, and this variation is 8.36% if the participants do not know the other players
Summary
The aim of this paper is to analyse gender differences and similarities when MOG Players (Multiplayer Online Game) attempt to socialise with other players within the same virtual world. 207 ) suggested that the worldwide industry reached $99.6 billion in 2016 These results seem to be clear evidence that the community of gamers is fastly growing, and with them the creation of online gaming communities with their own discursive, linguistic and behaviour rules. These brand new communities seem to be worth studying; and this paper attempts to fulfil this research purpose by responding to two research questions that have been formulated below: RQ1) which are the most usual social communicative acts among male and female players? These brand new communities seem to be worth studying; and this paper attempts to fulfil this research purpose by responding to two research questions that have been formulated below: RQ1) which are the most usual social communicative acts among male and female players? RQ2) is there any variation on the use of social communicative acts when men and women interact with people they know from the real and virtual worlds and with unknown people?
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