Personality traits associated with problematic and non-problematic massively multiplayer online role playing game use

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Abstract

This research investigated the associations between personality traits and both normal and problematic massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPGs) play, as measured by a self report scale. A total of 225 participants completed the online questionnaire, 66 of whom played MMORPGs. Correlational analyses indicated that low levels of functional impulsivity and agreeableness alongside high levels of verbal aggression and video game dependency were associated with greater amount of time spent playing MMORPGs. When comparing problematic and non-problematic MMORPG players directly, problematic players were found to be lower in self regulation, dysfunctional impulsivity and agreeableness, suggesting that these traits may be important in the development and maintenance of problematic MMORPG use.

Highlights

► Problematic massively multiplayer online role playing game users’ personality. ► MMORPG play correlated with low functional impulsivity and high verbal aggression. ► Problematic, non-problematic players and non-players were compared. ► Problematic players were lower in self regulation. ► Problematic players were also lower in dysfunctional impulsivity and agreeableness.

Introduction

Problematic video game play (PVGP) is becoming an increasingly concerning issue, with studies estimating around 9.4% of gamers to be affected (Lemmens, Valkenburg, & Peter, 2009). Although at one point this may have implicated only a small number of people, recent figures suggesting that approximately 73% of the UK population play some form of video game (National Gamers Suvery, 2009) highlight how pertinent and widespread this concern may be. Significant controversy surrounds the notion of PVGP, but whether conceptualised as an addiction, an impulse disorder or just disordered behaviour, identifying its relationship with personality may be integral to fully understanding risk factors and causes. This is particularly important considering some of the negative consequences of PVGP that have been reported, for example the breakdown of family relationships or losing jobs (Chappell, Eatough, Davies, & Griffiths, 2006). As with problematic internet use, the prevalence of video game play amongst healthy populations makes it difficult to detect (Young & Rodgers, 1998) and knowing what personality traits or characteristics may differentiate problematic gamers from non-problematic players may assist in diagnosis. Research has also claimed that traits may predispose certain people to developing such conditions (e.g. Chak and Leung, 2004, Kim et al., 2008) and although currently no causal evidence has been generated, knowing what psychological characteristics are associated with PVGP may inform later research that attempts to identify casual factors.

Many types of games have been implicated in PVGP but one that has received the most attention is the genre of massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs). These have a number of unique characteristics that contribute to the likelihood of the development of problematic gaming (Seay & Kraut, 2007). One of these characteristics is that game play occurs within a persistent virtual world that continues to exist and develop irrespective of individual players’ presence in the game. This same world is accessed by all players of the game, meaning that logging out does not pause or stop the action as even if one person’s character is not involved, those who remain can continue to play. In conventional gaming, the world is individual to each player and is unaffected by others’ actions, with only those also playing from the same console or computer able to interact. Moreover, these games usually hold completing levels or challenges at the centre of their objectives, working towards the ultimate goal of completing the game which is achievable when all of these levels have been completed. MMORPGs, however, operate on a very different system. While there are achievements and challenges for the players to work towards, these are forever adapting and have no set number. This means that MMORPGs can never be completed; their challenges merely change. Many achievements within an MMORPG can only be reached through cooperative play and as such success relies on the help of other players (Kim et al., 2008), contrasting sharply with more competitive, restricted player formats. Players are rewarded for good performance not through level completions but by character improvements, a feature referred to as vertical game play (Chan & Vorderer, 2006). Even once the player has reached the highest character level, they can continue to play and gain other rewards through their improved status, such as weaponry, property or in-game currency.

Because of these vital differences between conventional game play and MMORPGs, it is unclear how current understanding of the interaction between personality and offline game use can be generalised. Therefore much more research is needed, especially in regards to compulsive use in order to inform diagnosis, understanding of the possible causes of developing PVGP and to allow generation of appropriately tailored treatments.

Whilst a vast number of traits have attracted empirical interest, the research described here focuses on the Big Five (Costa & McCrae, 1985), sensation seeking, impulsivity, self esteem, aggression, self regulation, and trait emotional intelligence as those were deemed most interesting in terms of previous findings and theoretical contributions.

In the Big Five literature, while studies looking at online game players in general have indicated that players are more open, conscientious and extraverted than non-players (Teng, 2008, Yee, 2001), problematic online game use has been associated with higher neuroticism and lower agreeableness, conscientiousness and extraversion (Huh and Bowman, 2008, Peters and Malesky, 2008), highlighting a potentially very real personality difference within gamers according to the level and nature of their game play.

Although sensation seeking is positively correlated with PVGP (Chiu, Lee, & Huang, 2004), including more specifically compulsive online game (Mehroof & Griffiths, 2009) and MMORPG play (Qiang, 2008), the related construct of impulsivity (Barratt, 1972) has been relatively under-researched in this area. It has featured heavily into investigations into addictive behaviours (e.g. Dawe, Matthew, & Loxton, 2004) and problematic internet users do indeed display higher levels of impulsivity than controls in behavioural tests of the trait (Cao, Su, Liu, & Gao, 2007) but this finding has not been entirely consistent when employing self report measures (Armstrong, Phillips, & Saling, 2000).

Similarly, self esteem has often been linked to substance addiction and has demonstrated negative relationships with problematic internet use (Armstrong et al., 2000) but few studies have investigated an active role in PVGP. This trait has been negatively correlated with the number of hours spent playing video games (Colwell and Payne, 2000, Fling et al., 1992, Funk and Buchman, 1996) although Greenberg, Lewis, and Dodd (1999) failed to uphold hypotheses relating to associations between low self esteem and compulsive internet or video game use. Methodological differences as well as technological advancements and increases in the prevalence of PVGP since 1999 prevent generalisation of this finding and attempts to replicate these results are therefore needed.

A much more unified research base emerges when looking at other traits. Aggression for example has been highlighted as potentially influential by Oh (2003), suggesting that problematic internet use is characterised by aggression as well as impulsivity and irritability, and positive correlations between compulsive online game play and trait aggression measures have been found by several studies (Kim et al., 2008, Mehroof and Griffiths, 2009).

Likewise, self regulation has emerged as a highly important factor in the development and maintenance of problematic online gaming (Seay & Kraut, 2007) and has been held as central to the issue of problematic media use in general (LaRose, Lin, & Eastin, 2003), possibly due to the logical link between the ability to manage and control impulses and the avoidance of damaging behavioural patterns.

Although only supported by a limited number of studies, trait emotional intelligence (trait EI) may also be highly influential. Defined as an individual’s self-perceived ability to identify, process and appropriately apply emotional stimuli (Petrides & Furnham, 2000), it has been identified as an important predictor of a variety of addictions, as well as compulsive internet and game use in adolescents, with problematic users scoring lower in EI measures (Parker, Taylor, Eastabrook, Schell, & Wood, 2008). However, despite links with measures of general health and other health related behaviours (Greven, Chamorro-Premuzic, Arteche, & Furnham, 2008), very few studies have further investigated this association.

The present study aims to consolidate the current literature base and investigate the presence of the aforementioned traits more specifically in relation to problematic and non-problematic MMORPG use.

Based on the outlined literature and investigations into substance based addictions behavioural dependencies, it is predicted that those problematic MMORPG players will score significantly lower on measures of openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, self esteem, emotional intelligence and self regulation and higher on neuroticism, aggression, sensation seeking and impulsivity than non-problematic and non-gamers. Non-problematic MMORPG players, however, are predicted to score significantly higher on measures of openness, conscientiousness and extraversion than problematic or non-players. Further to this, it will be assessed whether excessive gaming follows a similar pattern to the above hypotheses concerning problematic MMORPG use, as well as investigating more general and non-genre specific video game addiction.

Section snippets

Participants

A total of 225 participants were recruited (96 female) through advertising on social networking sites, a university website, local newspapers, forums and posters situated around the university building. They were incentivised by entry into a prize draw for £100 or, in the case of first year undergraduate psychology students, course credit. Ages ranged from 13 to 60 (M = 26.55, SD = 9.48) and the majority reported to be white (86.2%). A total of 33.8% were students.

Sixty-six participants reported to

Results

Due to the vast majority of the variables lacking a normal distribution, non-parametric correlational analyses were conducted (n = 225), the findings of which are summarised in Table 1.

As the results concerning the PVP may be confounded by the fact that only gamers completed this measure, it was felt that separate analyses including only MMORPG players were also necessary. Non-parametric correlational analyses on this subset (n = 66) demonstrated that the number of hours spent playing MMORPGs

Discussion

These results indicate that although personality traits do differ between problematic and non-problematic MMORPG players, these differences do not necessarily mirror those found when focusing on substance based addictions (e.g. Dawe et al., 2004). This therefore means that the findings do not entirely support the hypotheses but important implications remain.

The negative correlations evident between impulsivity and both MMORPG use and the PVP score, for example, indicate that impulsivity is not

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