Social network games: exploring audience traits

ABSTRACT

The audience of social network games is an as of yet unexplored group. Given the growing number of users and people spending time playing social network games, a better understanding of the audience, and how they are using social network games is important to crafting better social networking tools in the future. Respondents of this survey reported personality factors, demographics, habit strength, self-efficacy of social network games, and types of use by different features.

References

1. Bandura, A. Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. W. H. Freeman, NY, USA, 1997.
2. Bandura, A. Social cognitive theory: An agentic perspective. Annual Review of Psychology 52, (2001), 1--26.
3. Bryce, J. and Rutter, J. Killing like a girl: Gendered gaming and girl gamers' visibility. Proc. Computer Games and Digital Cultures, University of Tampere Press (2002), 243--255
4. Chou, T-J. and Ting, C-C. The Role of Flow Experience in Cyber-Game Addiction. CyberPsychology & Behavior 6, 6 (2003), 663--675.
5. Finn, S. Origins of media exposure: Linking personality traits to TV, radio, print, and film use. Communication Research 24, 5 (1997), 507.
6. Gosling, S., Rentfrow, P. and Swann, W. A very brief measure of the Big-Five personality domains. Journal of Research in Personality 37, 6 (2003), 504--528.
7. Heckathorn, D.D. Respondent-driven sampling: A new approach to the study of hidden populations. Social Problems 44, (1997), 174--199.
8. LaRose, R.J., Mastro, D. and Eastin, M.S. Understanding Internet Usage: A Social-Cognitive Approach to Uses and Gratifications. Social Science Computer Review 19, 4 (2001), 395--413.
9. Mayer, V. Living telenovelas/telenovelizing life: Mexican American girls' identities and transnational telenovelas. Journal of Communication 53, 3 (2003), 479--495.
10. Phillips, J., Butt, S. and Blaszczynski, A. Personality and self-reported use of mobile phones for games. CyberPsychology & Behavior 9, 6 (2006), 753--758.
11. 1Vancouver, J.B., Thompson, C.M. and Williams, A.A. The changing signs in the relationships among self-efficacy, personal goals, and performance. Journal of Applied Psychology 86, (2001), 605--620.
12. Vancouver, J.B. and Kendall, L.N. When self-efficacy negatively related to motivation and performance in a learning context. Journal of Applied Psychology 91, (2006), 1146--1153.
13. Wood, R.T.A. Problems with the Concept of Video Game "Addiction": Some Case Study Examples. International Journal of Mental Health Addiction 6, (2008), 169--178.
14. Yee, N. Motivations of Play in Online Games. Journal of CyberPsychology and Behavior 9, (2007), 772--775.
15. Yeo, G.B. and Neal, A. An examination of the dynamic relationship between self-efficacy and performance across levels of analysis and levels of specificity. Journal of Applied Psychology 91, (2006), 1088--1101.
16. Young, K. Internet addiction: the emergence of a new clinical disorder. CyberPsychology & Behavior 1, (1996), 237--2U.

Index Terms

• Applied computing

  • Computers in other domains

    • Personal computers and PC applications

      • Computer games

• Information systems

  • Information systems applications

    • Multimedia information systems

      • Massively multiplayer online games

• Software and its engineering

  • Software organization and properties

    • Contextual software domains

      • Virtual worlds software

        • Interactive games