The Village Green

 I went to an interesting presentation today on Internet safety and online gaming.  It was sponsored by Qwest Communications.  My notes are below, followed by a short reflection.

The Qwest Incredible Internet
A Colorado Online Safety Coalition Executive Forum
Nick Yee Ph.D. - Business Week, CNN International, WSJ, and the New York Times
Boundaries of Play - Uses, Risks, & Benefits of Online Games
http://www.nickyee.com

The presentation started with a video introduction to World of Warcraft (WOW.)
Screen shot of Tune Town - Disney - safe words - furniture used by kids to circumvent the language restrictions.
Examples of online behavior:

• 4 hour wait in WOW standing in line, no one cut in the line
• wedding plans in WOW
• funeral arrangements in WOW
• Paying people to level up their characters

Online gaming tends to be broken into categories for younger and older audiences, and between social environments and games.

Younger Audiences -
Game Worlds
Club Penguin - minigames, safe chat
Social Worlds
Habbo Hotel - mostly a chat space where kids customize their avatars and rooms - micro transactions for premium features

Older Audiences -
Game Worlds
World of Warcraft - purchased software and monthly subscription - demo followed - kill creatures to get loot to buy upgrades to kill bigger creatures
Social Worlds
Second Life - social world targeted at adults - everything is created by the members of the virtual community - avatar customization is extensive - currency is based on Linden dollars

There are differences between an online gaming experience and that of a social experience:

• Game Worlds - higher costs, game-based interaction - age and gender are hidden, so predation is lower than in places like MySpace where age and gender are part of the experience
• Social Worlds - lower or no cost, no predefined goals

Some games are not safe for younger audiences - SL (Second Life) for example, limits users to audiences above 18, although there is little to no way to check - SL does have a teen specific area.

Audition - online dancing ‘game’ from Asia - uses micro-transactions to upgrade your avatar.

Asian market is not as focused on moderated chat.

Who plays these games?

• Average Age = 26
• Median Age = 25
• Range = 11-69
• 25% are teenagers
• 8-16% female users depending on the game
• 50% work full time
• 36% are married
• 22% have children
• Some online spaces are unique where student, children, adults, retirees, professionals, etc work cooperatively

Benefits of online gaming:

• Diverse social backgrounds
• collaboration with adults
• leadership opportunities
• endless ad-hoc groups in safer spaces

Risks for online gaming:

• Kids being treated as adults

Usage patterns:

• average number of hours per week = 20 hours per week
• compares with TV hours - average TV viewing in US is a little over 20 hours a week - as gaming increases, TV viewing decreases
• 8% of users spend 40 hours or more per week
• 70% of users have spent 10 hours or more continuously in the game
• Age is not correlated with usage

Is online gaming anti-social?

• 20% play with a family member
• 25% play with romantic partner
• 70% play with a friend
• 80% of players play with someone they know
• Online gamers play online to keep in touch with their friends
• Online gamers see online play as a way to maintain relationships as a shared experience

Parents see shared gaming as an opportunity or window to view and participate in their children’s world - gives them an opportunity to see how their kids interact with others, provides many learning opportunities to discuss social interactions/skills

Online gaming provides:

• unique social spaces
• working with others has potential benefits
• parents can play with children productively

Example guidelines:

• only play with supervision
• only group with parents or fiends
• only group with others when a parent or teacher is able to supervise
• free to group with others but tell parents hot it went

Why do People Play?

• Achievement - Advancement, Competition, Mechanics
• Social - Socializing, Relationships, Teamwork
• Immersion - Discovery (my favorite), Role-Playing, Customization, Escapism

Not all players are playing for the same reason

Gaming motivations:

• Online gaming may be fulfilling psychological needs that some people aren’t getting in the physical world
• Behavioral Conditioning (BF Skinner)
• Gaining prestige and status
• Sense of constant progress

Other examples:

• EVE Online - corporations as organization structure
• WOW - a guide is much like running a small business
• Peace Maker - explores both sides of the Israeli - Palestinian conflict
• Ohio State - replicated campus for recruiting (Second Life?)

Typed Chat and Anonymity:

• less inhibition when people type their information
• Idealization - we tend to see only what people want to present, and so we often see people in an idealized way
• About 50% of online users have shared a secret with an online friend that they’ve never shared elsewhere - females at a higher rate than males
• Seeing people behave in an online game shows some of their character - provides a stressful environment to expose character
• 80% of online gamers have made really good friends with someone they met online first - not as much of a gender difference for this question

Why do some relationships only happen if they start online?

• Shyness on the part of either partner
• Inside-out - superficial qualities (appearance, social circles, age) would have prevented individuals from striking up a relationship

Online relationships are not better or worse, they are just different - while it is easier to idealize someone, we also have opportunities to see character traits not easily seen

Online relationships start with virtual contact that takes time to progress (variety of tools, IM, email, video chat) to an ‘analog’ or physical contact.

Problematic Usage:
Amount of time is problematic.  60% have played for 10 hours or more at a time.  40% lose sleep to play.  17% have had relationships, finances, or jobs suffer due to playing habits.

Predisposition factors:  Depression, loneliness, social anxiety.  There is mixed evidence as to whether Internet use helps or hurts in the long term.

Just removing access may not address underlying issues.  Because people play for different motivations, one treatment may not help all cases.

Be proactive:

• Set clear limits and expectations
• Encourage balanced interests
• Be involved

Summary:

• Many kinds of virtual worlds
• Unique social spaces
• Play can get very complex
• Both easier and harder to know someone
• be proactive in preventing problematic usage
• Start with sound pedagogy - just because it is virtual doesn’t make it better

My thoughts: 

It was terrific to share a discussion with other people who have a stake in keeping kids safe online, especially because the discussion focused on the positive aspects of online gaming instead of just decrying all of the potential problems.  It was interesting to see that at least one person in the room responded to the presentation by saying she didn’t understand how people could spend this much time on gaming.  Someone else pointed out that she was thinking with her ‘adult-parent’ perspective instead of seeing it from the perspective of our students.  This really is an issue of perspective.  All of the pluses amount to very little if you don’t value the gaming experience.