In spring 2007, a postal survey conducted by the Finnish Youth Research Society was prepared and sent to young people aged 15–29 in Finland. A total of 1, 258 usable responses were re-ceived. The SPSS statistics program was employed as the data analysis tool. Individual analysis results are discussed below. In order to offer insights into the minds of young respondents, a brief profile of their demographical statistics is given. First, the frequency of playing MMOs was used to measure the current adoption rate among the young respondents. Second, the sample was divided into three different groups on the basis of respondent’s MMO experience obtained from their answers. The groups were labelled active gamers (those who played 2–3 times a week or more), inactive gamers (those who played 2–3 times a month or less), and non-gamers.
Third, descriptive statistics and the differences in demographics among the three groups were cross-tabulated and tested with a chi-square and a Kruskall-Wallis test. Fourth, to grasp the importance of respondents’ social shyness, a more detailed examination to measure and cre-ate a construct referring to the ability to approach and interact with strangers was conducted.
A study on the respondents’ personality was supposed to cast more light on the issue of social shyness in relation to the time spent playing MMOs. Thus, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted on items addressing the social shyness at a parsimonious representation. Respondents had to evaluate each item on a 5-point frequency scale. The convergent validity of included fac-tors was assessed by using principal component factor analysis. As shown in table 3, one factor consisting of two items was extracted from the data. Two statistical tests calculated separately for all groups were applied to evaluate reliability of extracted factor, namely Cronbach’s Alpha, and average variance extracted (AVE). Finally, the influence of social shyness on the time the three groups spent playing MMOs among the groups were analysed.
Results
The overall analysis revealed that 11 per cent of all respondents (N=1, 258) were currently in-volved in playing MMOGs. Of these gamers, 54 % were using MMOs actively and 46 % casually.
The analysis of the demographic variables demonstrated statistically significant difference among the groups in age and gender (Table 1–2). The results purport that males around their twenties with diverse educational backgrounds were predominantly represented among the gamers.
In addition, respondents younger than the age of twenty tended to spend more time playing MMOs. There were no significant differences in the level of education among these groups.
Table 1 Descriptive statistics of respondents
Descriptive Statistics of Respondents Active
Gamers Casual
Gamers Non-Gamers General Education Some Elementary
School 36% 48% 32%
Elementary School 11% 8% 13%
Some Secondary School 36% 37% 48%
Graduated 18% 8% 6%
Vocational Education Higher Education
No Vocational Education 55% 49% 46%
Vocational Institute 27% 30% 28%
Polytechnic 7% 10% 14%
University 5% 3% 9%
Other 5% 8% 3%
Age 15-19 51% 45% 33%
20-24 27% 28% 34%
25-29 22% 27% 33%
Gender Male 82% 69% 31%
Female 18% 31% 69%
Table 2 Comparison of Demographics Frequency of using MMOs
Active Casual Non-Gamers Kruskal-Wallis Test
Chi-Square Test Mean S.D. Mean S.D. Mean S.D.
Chi-Square
Sig.* Chi-Square
Sig.**
General Education
2.356 1.147 2.048 1.084 2.279 0.985 3.547 0.170 Not applicable Vocational
Education
1.795 1.142 1.905 1.201 1.950 1.108 2.556 0.279 Not applicable Age 1.703 0.806 1.813 0.833 2.003 0.815 12.091 0.002 Not applicable Gender 1.176 0.383 1.313 0.467 1.688 0.464 Not applicable 109.768 0.000
* P-values of Kruskal-Wallis test for equality of means: H-0: Means are equal. H-0 is rejected if p<0.05.
** P-values of Chi-Square test for expected frequencies: H-0: Expected frequencies are equal.
H-0 is rejected if p<0.05.
The test results of the reliability of social shyness construct are presented in Table 3. Data indicates that item loadings ranged from 0.886 to 0.916 among the groups, which exceeds
the acceptable value of 0.707 (Chin, 1998). The internal consistency of the construct was assessed using Cronbach’s Alpha and average value extracted (AVE). Cronbach’s Alpha ex-ceeded the threshold value of 0.70 (Nunnally, 1978). Consistent with the recommendations of Fornell and Larcker (1981), AVE was above 0.50. Since the three values of reliability were above recommended thresholds, the social shyness construct was deemed to provide ad-equate convergence reliability.
Table 3 Reliability of social shyness construct
Reliability of Construct Active Gamers Casual Gamers Non-Gamers
Item 1*: Loading 0.887 0.916 0.886
Item 2:** Loading 0.887 0.916 0.886
Cronbach’s alpha 0.724 0.789 0.720
AVE 0.611 0.626 0.610
* Item 1: “I feel comfortable initiating a conversation even with strangers.”
** Item 2: “I feel comfortable engaging in on-going conversation.”
Finally, the hypothesised relationship among social shyness and the time spent playing MMOs was examined with the Kruskal-Wallis test, as represented in Table 4. The results show that social shyness had no differential influence across the groups, thus the hypothesis was not supported.
Table 4 Influence of Social Shyness Frequency of using MMOs
Active Gamers Casual Gamers Non-Gamers Kruskal-Wallis Test
Mean S.D. Mean S.D. Mean S.D. Chi-Square Sig.*
Item 1 2.930 1.081 2.690 1.195 2.640 1.076 4.832 0.089
Item 2 2.290 0.919 2.350 0.907 2.360 0.896 0.349 0.840
Social
Shyness 0.105 1.015 0.026 1.095 0.001 0.999 0.429 0.807
* P-values of Kruskal-Wallis test for equality of means: H-0: Means are equal. H-0 is rejected if p<0.05.
Discussion
As opposed to prior studies (e.g., N. Yee, 2006), the gamers in this study were in their early twenties. It should, however, be noted that in this article the empirical data consisted only of respondents aged 15–29. At that age, the young are likely to move out of their parents’ home and pursue their university or vocational studies, or are in the beginning of their professional careers, which indicates they are learning to take responsibility for their own lives (Nikander, 2009). To offset this responsibility some of the young seem to use their freedom of choice for playing MMOs. The analysis also revealed that active gamers with diverse educational backgrounds were significantly younger than casual and non-gamers, suggesting that MMOs enjoy relatively high popularity particularly among young adults. However, it should be taken into consideration that currently only 11 per cent of the sample in the 15–29 age group play
MMOs. Moreover, compared to women, men were significantly more committed to playing MMOs. The results confirm findings of prior game studies that the content of MMOs may not be directed equally toward men and women who have dissimilar incentives. According to (Taylor, 2003, 124), MMOs would begin to “truly draw in a diverse gaming population and legitimize those already playing” if their designers were to “rise to the challenge presented by a sociology of the body and a more complicated understanding of gender”.
More interestingly, the study holds that gamers are as socially bold (or shy) as non-gamers. An ability to interact with strangers is not sufficient factor to explain the time spent on the Internet playing MMOs. Moreover, a post hoc analysis confirmed that when non-gamers were removed, no significant difference was revealed between active and casual gamers, showing that playing MMOs had no negative or positive influence on social shyness – referred to as social compe-tence which can be improved with practice. Overall, there is also little evidence, if none at all, that social shyness would inhibit young adults from accruing social capital both from virtual and non-virtual environments. Thus, on the basis of social shyness, the need for youth services in MMOs to reassert personality is not well-founded.
It is however essential to bear in mind that personality is only one factor that affects social exclusion. Although MMOs do not primarily attract socially shy young gamers, the presence of virtual youth service in MMOs is still justified. As mentioned earlier in this study, game publishers offer various rewards to gamers for staying in MMOs as long as possible. Instead of simply striving to adjust the gamers to the society or form their personality, the point of view should however be more in preventive virtual youth service, including responsible media use.
In order to make connections and build strong relationships with these young gamers youth workers are thus advised to play along in guilds or clans44 and share their knowledge based on their personal experience. Doing this, the young have at least one person whom to contact for personal problems. Or even better, a person who provides solutions before the problems arise.