Me, myself and others: Connecting player identification to gaming social capital

Abstract

The social outcomes of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) have been subject to numerous studies in the past. In these games identification processes and virtual identities are present, yet most research measures game involvement solely through play frequency. This study proposes that time is an insufficient measure, and instead positively relates individual identification to in-game social connections among adult, German MMORPG players. This is done through mixing pre-existing theories, and scales; measuring Player Identification (van Looy et al. 2012), as well as online social capital (Williams 2006). The results from our study indicate that player identification positively predicts gaming social capital, a dedicated form of online social capital dedicated to gaming contexts, while time (measured by game experience) did not moderate this correlation. Hence, this study finds strong evidence for the insufficiency of time as game involvement measure, and the positive correlation between identification and social outcomes in MMORPGs.