Based on our results, we suggest alternative approaches that help reduce and avoid these problems. Although gaming can certainly have both beneficial and detrimental impacts on game players, these are not the be-all and end-all of young people’s gaming culture participation, nor did the young people in our study usually frame gaming primarily as a balancing act between the two. The spectrum of beneficial–harmful is only a single, narrow perspective on young people’s participation in the social world of gaming. Providing alternatives to the impact point of view is crucial to how we view games and gaming as culture, as media, and as a part of everyday life. The framing of gaming influences perceptions and attitudes (Kümpel and Haas, 2016), and whether gaming is primarily seen, for example, as a tool, a health risk, a form of art, or an everyday activity impacts how it is perceived, discussed, and studied. Furthermore, knowledge of the different potential impacts of gaming without a broader understanding and critical exploration of the phenomenon can cause its own problems, whether in the form of moral panics (Pasanen, 2017) or unrealistic optimism (Deterding, 2014).
The AI-Driven Revolution in Immersive Gaming
In 2024, 3.5 trillion hours were spent playing mobile games worldwide, according to PR Newswire. Also, the in-app purchase revenue increased by 8% to $82 billion compared to the previous year. The modern video game has journeyed through the dynamic intersections of technology and human behavior. The recreational pursuit of yesteryear has given rise to competitive careers today. These games are doubling as social spaces where gamers are building an active online community.
Technological Innovation Fueled By Games
How cultural markers from gaming are changing how we consume products and communicate our values. Ethical review and approval was not required for the study on human participants in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. Written informed consent from the participants’ legal guardian/next of kin was not required to participate in this study in accordance with the national legislation and the institutional requirements. The datasets presented in this article are not readily available because of privacy considerations, but will be made available through a public repository later for further research use once anonymized. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice.
Virtual Reality In Education
The DGR theory examines individuals’ engagement and relationship with the social world of digital gaming and was developed from the sport sociological theory of physical activity relationship (Koski, 2008) by Sokka (2021) and expanded by Meriläinen (2023). As a new theory, it has shown promise as a tool to understand gaming as a complex phenomenon (Meriläinen, 2023). The theory takes as its starting point that each individual has a different relationship with gaming, and an individual’s relationship with gaming develops, and is actively constructed, over a long period of time and is influenced by a variety of factors. These factors are the personal meanings given to gaming, internal and external influences on gaming, different ways of engaging with gaming, and the level of engagement with gaming.
Economic Power Of The Gaming Industry
Despite the rich data, it was apparent that some respondents had only answered the assisting example questions rather than going beyond them, limiting their responses. The assisting questions were added conscious of the possibility of this happening, as it was considered preferable to getting very short answers or the respondents misinterpreting the broad questions (see Braun et al., 2021). The cultural diversity of the respondents was limited, with ethnic and cultural minorities only marginally present. Because of our self-selected sample, our study is not representative of the diversity of young people who participate in gaming, although in our estimation, it likely reflects the experiences of typical, regular game players in Finland quite well. This said, people at opposing ends of the gaming spectrum, very intense, professional, or problematically gaming players as well as uninvested, occasional players are present in the data only to a limited extent.
2. Personal meanings of gaming
These are not arbitrary; they are crafted by developers who embed values within the digital experiences they create. This makes game developers modern-day storytellers and cultural architects whose creations shape the worldview and ethical compass of their audience. As a qualitative study of young people’s gaming through a reasonably large sample, our study is to our knowledge the first of its kind in Finland and provides important new insights into the subject. The responses suggest that many young people expressed themselves quite freely—something that might not have been possible in the social context of a face-to-face interview. By drawing on young people’s own experiences instead of using standardized quantitative measures, we have highlighted aspects of gaming that are essentially not measurable but are nevertheless integral to understanding it.
Funding Statement
Content creators are often not paid for this labor and it is quite common that they do not expect to be compensated either. However, there was also present an interesting continuum of ways of engaging and producing content for games or even full games for free as a hobby and simultaneously having a job related to games. Personal gaming can be seen as the activity of playing alone and solely engaging with the game rather than other mediums and meanings conveyed through them. Indeed, some of our respondents would explicitly mention that their gaming relationship consisted exclusively or almost exclusively of playing video games. Gaming appeared as a mundane part of their everyday life despite sometimes very intense gaming. However, when asked about negative gaming experiences or worries over gaming, some respondents specifically mentioned that gaming was not a problem for them if they were discussing intensive gaming, aware that it could be interpreted as such.
1. Level of engagement
- As a qualitative study of young people’s gaming through a reasonably large sample, our study is to our knowledge the first of its kind in Finland and provides important new insights into the subject.
- With the influx of virtual reality (VR) technology, learning experiences can be made much more immersive.
- Despite the rich data, it was apparent that some respondents had only answered the assisting example questions rather than going beyond them, limiting their responses.
- A different form of self-expression, game creation and modification as a hobby is an established part of gaming (Sotamaa, 2010; Lai et al., 2021).
- Besides regional variations, this disparity illustrates the universal reach of mobile gaming.
Hobbies, school, and work were mainly mentioned by respondents due to the time constraints they would introduce to playing video games. Related to this, some respondents mentioned that they would like to have some more time for playing video games or that they used to have more time to play video games. The changing rhythms of everyday life and engagements influenced how much the respondents spent time engaging with video games (see Apperley, 2010; Meriläinen, 2022). The questionnaire was targeted at 15–25-year-old Finnish speakers who played digital games.
Community Building And Social Connection
As demonstrated by the second quote below, a change in participation sometimes impacted only a part of the social world. The fourth group of respondents were those classified as tourists, who enjoyed different aspects of gaming but were nevertheless not very invested in it, transiency and entertainment being common features of their gaming (Unruh, 1979, p. 119). They might regularly play different kinds of games on a variety of platforms and devices or have a history of very intense gaming yet did not view gaming as all that important. This observation shows the shifting nature of DGR and contests common notions of “casual gaming”, stereotypically seen as occasional smartphone gaming limited to a few games (see Juul, 2010). Outside of a clinical context, video games are a therapeutic tool for the mind that helps promote mental health and well-being.
Data and method
As a result, players develop micro-behaviors that mimic real-world cooperation and leadership dynamics. Over time, such a dynamic blurs the line between recreational play and habitual engagement. As a report by Ernst & Young pointed out, popular games like Minecraft, Fortnite and Roblox have incorporated several aspects of the metaverse, including virtual worlds where players meet to play games and use features like in-game chats and in-game payments.
Gaming Beyond Entertainment: How Video Games Are Shaping The Future
It has evolved far enough to produce social and cognitive transformations that redefine user interactions in virtual spaces. In 2017, for example, a Guild Wars 2 player found that a fire had caused extensive damage to her home. She surveyed the destruction of her home in a video she posted to social media and found that her collector’s edition of Nightfall, an expansion for the game, was untouched.
The DGR theory acknowledges that there are as many individual formulations of young people’s gaming as there are young people, and thus lends itself well to the qualitative exploration of individual experiences while also allowing the identification of wider phenomena. Gaming is a common part of many young people’s social life (e.g., De Grove, 2014; Eklund and Roman, 2019; Bengtsson et al., 2021), and different aspects of social participation in gaming featured prominently in the data. None of the responses suggested that the respondent’s gaming was completely asocial.
Respondents discussed not only their preferences but also voiced their views on how they perceived competition as influencing gaming more broadly. Some respondents saw esports and the professionalization of gaming as a reason for gaming becoming too competitive (see Blamey, 2022). Echoing the different gaming mentalities mentioned above, these respondents saw a focus on competition as antithetical to relaxed fun and enjoyment (see Brock, 2017).
- The resulting games demonstrated creativity despite being developed using simple code and pixels.
- Virtual reality (VR) allows gamers to be immersed in a simulated 3D environment where they can interact and explore virtual surroundings that approximate reality.
- We then discuss agency and the positioning of youth in relation to gaming in research.
- In other words, the game’s design would entice players to return time and time again.
- These games are doubling as social spaces where gamers are building an active online community.
The values inherent in a culture are largely shaped by the words those people use to describe it. The digital world, particularly gaming, has evolved into a vibrant cultural environment with its own norms, values, and lexicons that cross traditional cultural barriers. In these digital spaces, gaming culture has become the dominant culture, unifying people from around the world. First-generation American and college graduate Joseph Kemp, 29, founded Games That Matter and created its first game “Disbarred” as a way to inspire people from low-income backgrounds to follow him into the legal progression. Michelle Jang, 29, leads Microsoft’s Xbox partnership efforts in Korea and started her own four-month educational course to empower indie developers from non-traditional backgrounds.
Attitudes toward gaming and gaming cultures appear to be slowly shifting, yet seeing games in a very polarized way has a long history that still influences contemporary discourses about gaming (Rogers, 2013). Shaw (2010) notes that in media, gaming has been largely depicted as an undesirable activity, and likewise those playing video games (see Kowert et al., 2014). This goes hand in hand with how videogames have long been targeted by moral panics and viewed as a source of aggression, moral decay, and addiction (Rogers, 2013; Pasanen, 2017).
Community Building And Social Connection
- Closely related to the previous dimension, Fun and free play1 addresses gaming for fun and playful experiences.
- Video game content creation can be seen as a form of labor, often discussed through the term playbour (Törhönen, 2021).
- The complex challenges to be solved to finish a video game help to develop cognitive skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking and decision-making.
- Some common uses of AI within gaming include altering in-game landscapes or changing the behavior of non-player characters (NPCs) based on human player decisions.
- Gaming is a common part of many young people’s social life (e.g., De Grove, 2014; Eklund and Roman, 2019; Bengtsson et al., 2021), and different aspects of social participation in gaming featured prominently in the data.
- Many of these games include a moral choice that the player must make, which forces a confrontation with the player’s values.
This said, few participants discussed long-term changes in their gaming participation. Much of previous research on youth gaming has focused on the impact of gaming, typically examined through variables such as gaming motives and spent time, on different aspects of wellbeing. The development of video games drives technological innovation in computer hardware and software, graphics and artificial intelligence, often pushing the limits of practical technology.
- The framing of gaming influences perceptions and attitudes (Kümpel and Haas, 2016), and whether gaming is primarily seen, for example, as a tool, a health risk, a form of art, or an everyday activity impacts how it is perceived, discussed, and studied.
- These can take very concrete forms, as demonstrated by our respondents organizing events, making and watching gaming videos and streams, and purchasing games and merchandise.
- Indeed, some of our respondents would explicitly mention that their gaming relationship consisted exclusively or almost exclusively of playing video games.
- Earlier research has shown that people sometimes avoid talking about their gaming activities or identifying as a gamer due to gaming being perceived in a negative and stigmatized way (Shaw, 2012).
- Echoing earlier research on engaging with games beyond playing them (Koskimaa et al., 2021), watching videos and live streams were the most popular ways of following transmedial content about games.
- In our data, changing life priorities and responsibilities were a common source of change in participation.
Although the adoption of VR by industries such as healthcare, retail and tourism is on the rise, the use in gaming has been slow due to high costs, uncomfortable equipment and a limited library. Developers of online Role Playing Games, like Guild Wars 2, have the opportunity to bring people together from across the world. 2We use the word “addiction” here as it was the word typically used by the respondents (cf. Nielsen, 2018). It was also possible to step into the world of the game itself, thanks to immersive gaming. Expect more advanced gaming features—such as the metaverse—to infiltrate nongaming business activities.
The cutting-edge solutions pioneered in games are also often appropriated for other purposes, including research in virtual reality, autonomous vehicles, medical imaging and more. Not only does it generate billions in revenue every year, but it also employs hundreds of thousands https://alltimesmagazine.com/the-new-game-generation-how-technology-shapes-gaming-behavior-in-ghana/ of people across the globe. Whether it’s games development and publishing or esports and streaming, gaming is a sector that has gone global. The earlier discussion on the habit economy focused on the external mechanisms through which games influence user engagement.
Problems of inclusion and exclusion can also come about through skill differences, as players’ different levels of skill can make it difficult or even impossible to play certain games together. Exclusion can also stem from lacking resources (i.e., not affording to buy games and gaming devices), tying into larger societal issues of inequality (Apperley and Gray, 2020). Different levels of production of gaming cultures are not separate categories, but a continuum that can be examined on the scales of professionalization and labor. Video game content creation can be seen as a form of labor, often discussed through the term playbour (Törhönen, 2021).
Even those who preferred single-player games, or for whom gaming was very private, still participated in online communities related to their favorite games, visited events, or discussed games with their friends. Closely related to the continuum of private–public, there are important power dynamics that influence youth gaming. As discussed in some of the responses, factors such as disability can also push individuals away from games if not accounted for when games and devices are designed (e.g., Baltzar et al., 2022). While engaging with gaming culture, young people are constantly taking part in both its consumption and its production. These can take very concrete forms, as demonstrated by our respondents organizing events, making and watching gaming videos and streams, and purchasing games and merchandise. Production and consumption can also take more abstract forms, as youth participate in the co-construction of the social world of gaming in countless everyday game play exchanges, discussions, and social media posts, in a process of simultaneous production and consumption.