Social Skills Amongst MMORPG-Gamers: Empirical Study

¹ St Petersburg University, Faculty of Sociology, 1/3, entrance 9, Ul. Smolnogo, St.Petersburg, Russia
² SI RAS – FCTAS RAS, 190005, 7-ya Krasnoarmeyskaya str. 25/14, St. Petersburg, Russia
³ ITMO University, Institute of Design & Urban Studies, 197101, 49 Kronverkskiy pr, St. Petersburg, Russia

^* Corresponding author: o.v.sergeeva@spbu.ru

Abstract

The research paper addresses the issue of the impact of MMORPGs on social culture and communication skills of individuals. The mainstream discourse about computer games which take individuals away from reality and substitute the real life by the fictional one is complemented by brand new ideas, which affirm that computer games do not substitute but supplement the real life and expand its possibilities. To confirm the presented point of view we use diagnostic questionnaire of interpersonal relations by A.A. Rukavishnikov. This questionnaire is aimed to evaluate typical ways of respondent’s attitude towards other people. At this point we have 43 gamers and 29 non-gamers involved in our research, aged 18 to 57. The comparison of a user and non-user answers gives a bigger view on an overall gaming experience. In the obtained indices we note that there are no fundamental differences between MMORPGs gamers and ordinary people. During research, MMORPGs users have showed many important social interaction skills such as striving to control own actions, collaborate with others, though with a low interest in emotionally charged relationships. Authors discuss the idea about the differences between addiction and fascination among gamers.