Online First Person Shooter Games Research Articles

Facets of competitiveness as predictors of problem video gaming among players of massively multiplayer online first-person shooter games

Massively Multiplayer Online First-Person Shooter (MMOFPS) games are among the most high-risk games related to the development problem video gaming. These games are often designed to promote direct competition between players, and research has identified competition as a key motivator for participation in online games. However, it is not clear whether competitiveness measured as a personality trait is associated with problematic video gaming engagement. The primary aim of the current study was to examine the relationship between three facets of trait competitiveness and problem online video gaming among players of MMOFPS games who reported playing these video games at least 1–4 times a week. A multiple regression analysis revealed that dominant competitiveness was the only facet of trait competitiveness to predict problem gaming score. The results of the current study expand upon previous indications that competitiveness motivates online gaming, suggesting that inherent dominant competitive tendencies may increase the risk of problematic participation in competition-centered online video games.

Harsh Words and Deeds: Systematic Content Analyses of Offensive User Behavior in the Virtual Environments of Online First-Person Shooter Games

Extensive research has examined the prevalence and potential effects of potentially harmful video game content produced by game developers, such as violence, profanity, and sexualized portrayals, but much less research has systematically examined the large range of potentially problematic content produced by players in increasingly popular online games. This player-generated content may actually be of more social concern than content programmed in the games, as it is largely undocumented and unaddressed by industry ratings and consumer advisory groups. While potential effects of such antisocial and offensive online game content are not well understood, a first step toward exploring this concern is systematic documentation of offensive user-generated content in online games. To that end, a pair of large-scale systematic content analyses documented a range of offensive user-generated content, including utterances, text, and images, from a total of more than 2,500 users in popular first-person shooter video games. Findings indicated that some content, such as profanity, were frequent among users who spoke during games. More offensive and potentially harmful content such as racial slurs was proportionally very rare but frequent enough to be encountered often by regular game players. Implications for further research and practice are discussed. Results should be interpreted tentatively based on this relatively unprecedented systematic investigation, should not be interpreted as evidence that online shooter games are harmful or lack healthy elements, and should not be extrapolated to other online game genres and communities until further research is conducted.

Appeal of Playing Online First Person Shooter Games

First Person Shooter Games (FPSG) such as Counter Strike are often the subject of public concern. Surprisingly, there is no published research available about playing these games. We conducted an exploratory Internet survey (n 5 751) in order to gather information about who the players of online first person shooters are, and why they spend time on playing this particular kind of video game. The results of our survey on the one hand confirmed the stereotype of the gamer as it is often presented in popular media: the players of online FPS were indeed almost exclusively young men (mean age about 18 years) who spend a lot of their leisure time on gaming (about 2.6 h per day). We also found that the most committed gamers, that is, the ones who were members of a (semi)professional clan, scored highest on motives with respect to competition, and challenge in comparison with members of amateur clans and online gamers who had not joined a clan. On the other hand, our results cast doubt on the accuracy of the stereotype. This study showed clearly that online FPSG are not played in isolation. More than 80% of our respondents were member of a clan. Also, the regression analysis showed that the social interaction motive was the strongest predictor of the time actually spend on gaming.