Group polarisation among location-based game players: an analysis of use and attitudes towards game slang

Abstract

PurposeThis study investigates how game design, which divides players into static teams, can reinforce group polarisation. The authors study this phenomenon from the perspective of social identity in the context of team-based location-based games, with a focus on game slang.Design/methodology/approachThe authors performed an exploratory data analysis on an original dataset of n = 242,852 messages from five communication channels to find differences in game slang adoption between three teams in the location-based augmented reality game Pokémon GO. A divisive word “jym” (i.e. a Finnish slang derivative of the word “gym”) was discovered, and players' attitudes towards the word were further probed with a survey (n = 185). Finally, selected participants (n = 25) were interviewed in person to discover any underlying reasons for the observed polarised attitudes.FindingsThe players' teams were correlated with attitudes towards “jym”. Face-to-face interviews revealed association of the word to a particular player subgroup and it being used with improper grammar as reasons for the observed negative attitudes. Conflict over (virtual) territorial resources reinforced the polarisation.Practical implicationsGame design with static teams and inter-team conflict influences players' social and linguistic identity, which subsequently may result in divisive stratification among otherwise cooperative or friendly player-base.Originality/valueThe presented multi-method study connecting linguistic and social stratification is a novel approach to gaining insight on human social interactions, polarisation and group behaviour in the context of location-based games.

Understanding toxicity in multiplayer online games: The roles of national culture and demographic variables

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Comparing Social Media Reactions to Early Game Songs and Final Boss Music in Single Player Adventure Games

“…Gathering open online data has the benefit over surveys and interviews that there is no research setting influencing and exerting bias to the data [14]. Instead, open online data can capture users' authentic reactions [15]. The YouTube comment section has been deemed a fairly reliable source of information, although not representative of the global population [16].…”

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“…The extant literature on sociality in Pokémon GO is outlined in Table 2. There exists a wide range of studies related to social interaction in Pokémon GO, discussing both offline and online social gameplay [35,55]. Early on in 2016, shortly after the launch of Pokémon GO, sociality did not seem to motivate players to play the game [54].…”

“…At the same time, there is strong evidence that Pokémon GO was able to activate players [31,63], bring players to physical proximity to meaningfully cooperate with one another [11], increase their social connectedness [64] and to even influence the language and slang preferences of players [35].…”

“…Laato et al, 2021 [35] LBGs are a mixture of online and offline interactions that are heavily interlinked.Players' teams influence their linguistic identity and attitudes towards the game.…”