Affiliation:
1. ISNI: 0000000419369430 York University
2. Underwood Institute
Abstract
Organizing games by categories based on playstyle (e.g. single-player vs. multiplayer) makes sense from a marketing perspective, but when it comes to organizing players into such categories, things get tricky. To illustrate that categorizing players based on preferences for single-player vs. multiplayer games may be problematic, we analysed millions of posts in Reddit for single-player and multiplayer games to see which players use more extroversion (pro-social) words, citing research suggesting that those who prefer multiplayer games should use more extroversion words. We found no noticeable differences between the two groups, although unexpectedly single-player gamers did use more extroversion words in a statistically significant manner. Ultimately, we offer caution that categorization of games and gamers – although useful at times – can oversimplify assumed preferences and, when not critically examined, may lead to the reification of misleading and exclusionary categories of both games and the people who play them.
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