More and more people are playing digital games, but why do only some of them consider themselves ‘gamers’?
A new Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication study that looked at the issue in 100 undergraduate students found that the more frequent one plays digital games, the stronger one will identify as a gamer; however, friendship networks provide an environment in which a gamer identity can flourish over and above the influence of individual behaviors and characteristics related to gaming. The more people see their friends in the network as gamers, the more they’ll tend to include themselves in the gamer category.
De Grove, F., Courtois, C. and Van Looy, J. (2015), How to be a gamer! Exploring personal and social indicators of gamer identity. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12114
For more information about this study please contact, sciencenewsroom@wiley.com.