Bour (2015) Players’ perspectives on the positive impact of video games: A qualitative content analysis of online forum discussions
Thesis/Purpose: Bour explores how some existing game developers claim that the full extent of potential that can be made out of video games has not been touched on, players are already presenting evidence of significant impact and daily effects in their lives due to video games; therefore, video games contribute to the “social institutionalization (Stöber, 2004: 484–485) of gaming.”
Sometimes it can become evident that a game is seen as “a site of struggle (McAllister, 2004).” To build on the matter further, media scholars should separate themselves from the norm and take on a different perspective where they can better understand rhetorical positions in a game.
Methods: The study was conducted by looking at games that were on forums that were ranked the most popular using Alexa.com. Each individual forum was scanned using Google search. Google search was used by typing in a variety of keywords that had any sort of connection towards the impact of video games. The very first 100 words were then scanned to find threads that were relevant. It took about three tries using the following keywords: “change life,” “affect life” and “impact life.” However, there were actually no relevant threads found off of these keywords. The data that was able to be collected consisted of 32 threads that contained 1,615 messages or units of analysis that were viable. Every one of the threads that were published to make sure that the data was public and not private. The place that this information was published is (available at http://www.onderwijskunde.ugent.be/ files/dataNMS.zip). It was not really needed to get consent from the players to create the data because no one was required to register to use the public forums, being (Mo and Coulson, 2008).
Comparison to other material: This compares drastically different in comparison to the other material I have read. Not many people want to prove that video games can have positive effects on people but instead its negative effects. As a people, looking to take out negative aspects of life seems to be the ultimate goal instead of highlighting what works. Also, the way that the data was collected is very different because consent was not required and little aspects like gender and the amount of data was not controlled necessarily because it would not have affected the outcome by any large amount.
Keywords: “Computer games, content analysis, digital games, discussion forums, impact of media, media debate, media effects, online talk, positive effects, video games”
On the (non)existence/impact/nature of bias: The device that the data search engine was collected from plays a bias role and influences the data. No matter whether or not the device that the data was used to search the keywords into Google on had search history or not, there is a bias in Google’s predictions. The device plays a role in bias concerning this case study. The data was intended to “alter perceptions” (Bour 10) but every human does not necessarily want or intend to conform to a different perspective of an idea or way of looking at something. Therefore, there must be bias in that as well.
On the nature of learning: Some forums of intense game play may influence and re-shape a player’s perspective and associations on some aspects of the game based on real life and vice versa. It is noted that games can trigger thoughts outside of the game and relate to real life situations that are going on or have happened in the past. Messages showed this development in the data analysis. There are learning scenarios in games where the player might want to make one decision but decides to take the high road because that is what they would do in real life and not necessarily in a game because the decisions made in the game are not going to have real life consequences. However, on the flip side of that, a player can make a wrong choice in the video game and learn from the online consequence so that it does not have to happen in real life. Moments of reflection and change of perspective were seen in the collected data.
Sometimes it can become evident that a game is seen as “a site of struggle (McAllister, 2004).” To build on the matter further, media scholars should separate themselves from the norm and take on a different perspective where they can better understand rhetorical positions in a game.
Methods: The study was conducted by looking at games that were on forums that were ranked the most popular using Alexa.com. Each individual forum was scanned using Google search. Google search was used by typing in a variety of keywords that had any sort of connection towards the impact of video games. The very first 100 words were then scanned to find threads that were relevant. It took about three tries using the following keywords: “change life,” “affect life” and “impact life.” However, there were actually no relevant threads found off of these keywords. The data that was able to be collected consisted of 32 threads that contained 1,615 messages or units of analysis that were viable. Every one of the threads that were published to make sure that the data was public and not private. The place that this information was published is (available at http://www.onderwijskunde.ugent.be/ files/dataNMS.zip). It was not really needed to get consent from the players to create the data because no one was required to register to use the public forums, being (Mo and Coulson, 2008).
Comparison to other material: This compares drastically different in comparison to the other material I have read. Not many people want to prove that video games can have positive effects on people but instead its negative effects. As a people, looking to take out negative aspects of life seems to be the ultimate goal instead of highlighting what works. Also, the way that the data was collected is very different because consent was not required and little aspects like gender and the amount of data was not controlled necessarily because it would not have affected the outcome by any large amount.
Keywords: “Computer games, content analysis, digital games, discussion forums, impact of media, media debate, media effects, online talk, positive effects, video games”
On the (non)existence/impact/nature of bias: The device that the data search engine was collected from plays a bias role and influences the data. No matter whether or not the device that the data was used to search the keywords into Google on had search history or not, there is a bias in Google’s predictions. The device plays a role in bias concerning this case study. The data was intended to “alter perceptions” (Bour 10) but every human does not necessarily want or intend to conform to a different perspective of an idea or way of looking at something. Therefore, there must be bias in that as well.
On the nature of learning: Some forums of intense game play may influence and re-shape a player’s perspective and associations on some aspects of the game based on real life and vice versa. It is noted that games can trigger thoughts outside of the game and relate to real life situations that are going on or have happened in the past. Messages showed this development in the data analysis. There are learning scenarios in games where the player might want to make one decision but decides to take the high road because that is what they would do in real life and not necessarily in a game because the decisions made in the game are not going to have real life consequences. However, on the flip side of that, a player can make a wrong choice in the video game and learn from the online consequence so that it does not have to happen in real life. Moments of reflection and change of perspective were seen in the collected data.
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