Tim Wulf

The winner takes it all

We investigate the effect of in-game success on mood repair and enjoyment.We also account for the effect of need satisfaction on those outcomes.In-game success predicts mood repair.Need satisfaction moderates relationship between success and enjoyment. Recent research found that playing video games is able to serve mood management purposes as well as contribute to gratifications such as need satisfaction. Both aspects can foster the enjoyment as entertainment experience. The current study explores the question of how in-game success as a prerequisite for satisfying the need for competence and autonomy positively influences mood repair and game enjoyment. In a laboratory setting, participants were frustrated via a highly stressing math task and then played a video game (Mario Kart). Results show that in-game success drives mood repair as reflected in the experience of anger, happiness and activation. Moreover, fulfilling the intrinsic needs for competence and autonomy mediated the effects of in-game success and predicted enjoyment of the video game. Results are discussed in context of recent conceptualizations of media entertainment and the hierarchical order of emotional gratifications.

A matter of font type: The effect of serifs on the evaluation of scientific abstracts.

Text-based communication is one of the substantial ways of spreading scientific information. While the content and contextual aspects of written words have been widely researched, the impact of font characteristics on text perception is an almost blank page. The following study deals with the influence of serifs on the evaluation of online-presented scientific abstracts. Yet there is only evidence for faster reading times when texts are presented in sans-serif fonts, although the opposite is stated in parts of the literature. The present work examines if the presence or absence of serifs also have an impact on the appraisal of scientific texts when all other important font characteristics do not change. For this purpose, 188 university students participated in an online experiment and rated different aspects of scientific abstracts as well as of the research outlined in the abstracts. The results show that missing serifs led to increased reading speed. However, and in contrast to the perceptual fluency hypothesis, the presence of serifs had a positive effect on all evaluation dimensions. The results of a second study with 187 participants also indicated that reading fluency counteracted the liking of texts. Implications for future studies and media production are discussed.

Wallowing in Media Past: Media-Induced Nostalgia’s Connection to Parasocial Relationships

This article elaborates on media-induced nostalgia as a mixed emotion elicited by remembering past media content and characters. It argues that social components of media consumption such as parasocial relationships (PSRs) play an important part in the elicitation of nostalgia. In an online study, participants (N = 96) remembered their individual media use and preferred media characters as children. Results show that media-induced nostalgia is significantly associated with PSRs to characters in the past. These findings are evaluated concerning their implications for future research on nostalgia and PSRs.

“Drive the Lane; Together, Hard!”

As an entertainment technology, video games are a popular social activity that can allow for multiple players to cooperatively engage on-screen challenges. Emerging research has found that when people play together, the resulting teamwork can have beneficial impacts on their prosocial orientations after gameplay – especially when the players are cooperative with one another. The present study wanted to expand the scope of these beneficial interpersonal effects by considering both inter- and intrapersonal factors. In an experimental study (N = 115) we manipulated the difficulty of a game (easy or hard) and the behavior of a confederate teammate (supportive or unsupportive playing style). We found that neither coplayer supportiveness nor game difficulty had an effect on the expectations of a teammate’s prosocial behavior or one’s own prosocial behavior toward the teammate after the game (operationalized as willingness to share small amounts of money with one’s teammate after playing). Increased expectations of prosocial behavior from one’s teammate were related to one’s own prosocial behaviors, independent of our manipulations. Considering these results, we propose alternative theoretical approaches to understanding complex social interactions in video games. Furthermore, we suggest to explore other types of manipulations of game difficulty and cooperation between video game players as well as alternative measures of prosocial behavior.

Watching Players: An Exploration of Media Enjoyment on Twitch

Video game streaming platforms have reached high popularity within the last years. As one of these popular platforms, Twitch provides users with the opportunity to participate in several gaming situations: They can simultaneously watch in-game actions, the streamer playing the game, and additionally, they can interact with the streamer and other viewers by using the chat. In an online survey, the current study explored how individuals (N = 548) experience media enjoyment when using Twitch. Findings indicate that social aspects of using Twitch predominantly contribute to enjoyment. Approaches toward the phenomenon of video game streaming as well as implications for research on the usage of second screens and Social TV are discussed.

Kooperation in Videospielen als Determinante für Stimmungsregulation und prosoziales Ver halten

Im nun folgenden empirischen Teil der Arbeit wird der Spielmodus im Sinne der sozialen Interdependenz (Kooperation versus Kompetition) manipuliert, und seine Auswirkungen auf die Regulation von Stimmungen (insbesondere Einsamkeit), prosoziales Verhalten sowie das Spielvergnugen untersucht werden. Jeweils zwei befreundete Versuchspersonen wurden zu diesem Zweck zunachst einsam gestimmt und spielten anschliesend entweder kooperativ oder kompetitiv ein zeitgemases Videospiel. Die Ergebnisse belegen, dass kooperativ spielende Versuchspersonen sich gegenuber unbekannten, bedurftigen Menschen prosozialer verhalten. Auch wird im kooperativen Spiel das Bedurfnis nach Verbundenheit besser erfullt. Die Stimmungsregulation hingegen wird masgeblich durch die Bedurfnisbefriedigung bestimmt.

Teamplay pays off

Die vorliegende Studie untersuchte den Einfluss von Kooperation und Kompetition auf die Stimmungsregulation, Bedurfnisbefriedigung und prosoziales Verhalten im Anschluss an ein gemeinsames Videospiel. Es zeigte sich, dass Kooperation im Gegensatz zu Kompetition zu hoherer Befriedigung des Bedurfnisses nach Verbundenheit und starkerem prosozialen Verhalten gegenuber der eigenen sozialen Gruppe fuhrte. Von der Befriedigung des Bedurfnisses nach Verbundenheit wiederum waren Stimmungsregulation sowie Spielvergnugen gepragt.

Auswertung und Ergebnisse

Die Auswertung der Ergebnisse erfolgte mithilfe des Statistikprogramms SPSS. Fur die Betrachtung der Ergebnisse wurden hierzu die Mittelwerte der Items einer jeden Skala berechnet. Wenn angewendet, wurde die Adjustierung des α-Niveaus mithilfe der Korrektur nach Bonferroni durchgefuhrt.

Psychologische Bedürfnisse und die Erfüllung durch Videospielnutzung

Das folgende Kapitel befasst sich mit der Frage, inwiefern grundlegende psychologische Bedurfnisse, insbesondere das Bedurfnis nach sozialer Verbundenheit, durch das Spielen von Videospielen erfullt werden konnen. Das Bedurfnis nach sozialer Verbundenheit wurde hierbei ausgewahlt, da die bisherige Forschung im Bereich der Videospiele dieses Bedurfnis bislang unzureichend untersucht hat. Dabei ist soziale Isolation als Zustand mangelnder Befriedigung dieses Bedurfnisses im derzeitigen gesellschaftlichen Kontext eine hoch problematische Angelegenheit.

Kooperation als Teil der menschlichen Kultur und Psyche

Bereits in den alten Schriften und kulturellen Klassikern steht geschrieben, dass Menschen einen grosen Vorteil davon gewinnen, wenn sie sich zusammenschliesen und an einem gemeinsamen Ziel arbeiten.