Rune Klevjer and Jan Fredrik Hovden, "The Structure of Videogame Preference", Game Studies: The International Journal of Computer Game Research 17, 2 (2017). (Thomas)

From Digital Culture & Society

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The article looks to find correlations between the types of games people play, to develop profile preferences. Data used was from surveys conducted between 2008 and 2010 of Norwegian higher education students about their cultural, media, and lifestyle preferences, Among questions asked in the survey, participants were asked to mention up to three of their favorite videogame titles, along with how often they play. Of 2367 survey participants, 758 mentioned one or more favorite videogames (32%), and 553 different games were mentioned total. With this information, The article provides an example of the question it is trying to answer, "If a respondent states that one of her favorite games is Mass Effect, then how statistically likely will it be that she will also point to the football manager series as a favorite?"

From demographic data taken from the surveys, the article shows that gaming is gendered heavily towards males, showing males are 13 times more likely to play videogames on a weekly basis. This number seems much different to what we would expect. Perhaps this is due to the demographic being surveyed, or possibly due to the result of asking such a limited question "what are your favorite game titles".

The 553 different game titles are organized by series, and removing any series mentioned by less than 5 participants. This leaves 64 series representing 417 participants. Using a matrix, the article displays all 64 game series and how they relate to each other, according to the researchers interpretation of the survey responses. From left to right on the matrix is Inclusive to Exclusive games, and top to bottom is Mainstream to Niche games (Figure 1 in article). According to this data matrix, someone who prefers angry birds, a mainstream and inclusive game, would be unlikely to also enjoy BioShock, a niche, and exclusive game. Additionally, if player enjoys World of Warcraft, it is difficult to interpret a game preference, as World of Warcraft is found to be near the center of the matrix. Games on the matrix more along the Inclusive side, can be categorized as more family-friendly and require less time commitment to fully enjoy. The authors also found that the majority of female gamers listed games that were along the inclusive side.

The article sections the matrix into 7 gamer clusters. The clusters being Strategist, Roleplayers, Partygamers, Nintendos, Casuals, Lads, and Esporters (Tables 2a and 2b in article). Some clusters share common characteristics, for example Nintendos and roleplayers have a preference towards singleplayer games, where as Esporters are strongly online oriented. Lads are mostly males, with only 4% female representation, and Casuals are mostly female, with 69% representation.

In the conclusion of the article, it states that based on the research, there is indeed a "pattern and a logic" to videogame preference and game preference can be an indicator to predict preferred cultural and media consumption.