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Game Transfer Phenomena: Is it Real or Is it Fake?

By IGI Global on Oct 31, 2011
Video game playing is a popular activity and its enjoyment among players has been associated with absorption and immersion experiences. Over the course of many years, a debate has raged on as to whether or not video games have a direct effect on those that play them. Are people really that influenced by what they do in video games that it starts to blend in with their reality? According to a new study published in the third issue of theInternational Journal of Cyber Behavior, Psychology and Learning, gamers can experience an integration of video game elements into their everyday lives, whether this was through intentional or automatic response, thanks to behavior analysis labeled game transfer phenomena, or GTP for short.

"The results of this study suggest almost all gamers reported some type of GTP, but in different ways and with varying degrees of intensity," according to researchers, Angelica B. Ortiz de Gortari, Mark D. Griffiths, Nottingham Trent University, UK and Karin Aronsson, Stockholm University, Sweden. "When people become engaged in games, they experience psychological absorption. More commonly known as ‘immersion,' this refers to when individual logical integration of thoughts, feelings, and experiences is suspended."

Today's video games have evolved tremendously thanks to massive technological advances, resulting in high levels of realism and emotional design that include diversity, experimentation, and (perhaps in some cases) sensory overload.

To investigate this phenomenon, a total of 42 frequent video game players aged 15 to 21 years old were interviewed. Thematic analysis showed that many players experienced GTP, where players appeared to integrate elements of video game playing into their real lives. These GTP were then classified as either intentional or automatic experiences. Results also showed that players used video games for interacting with others as a form of amusement, modeling or mimicking video game content, and daydreaming about video games. Furthermore, the findings demonstrated how video games sometimes triggered intrusive thoughts, sensations, impulses, reflexes, optical illusions, and dissociations.

Overall results of this study suggested that most gamers got emotionally engaged in video games, but not all gamers' mood states were affected by game playing. This depended upon how serious they took their game playing involvement. The personal characteristics of the individual may have influenced the presence of Game Transfer Phenomena (GTP) experiences. However, different individuals have reported similar phenomena in the same games. The reports that were similar concerned an array of activities including: climbing buildings, planning to shoot in real life sceneries, zooming in to see things in real life with a sniper rifle, and moving fingers or performing involuntary movements such as when they were actually playing the video game. Some players experienced hallucinations such as boxes hovering over peoples' heads. Other players reported having quite similar experiences in games like Grand Theft Auto, Assassin's Creed, Alan Wake, Heavy Rain, Half-Life, Tetris, and Guitar Hero.

"This study was unique in that it explored players' experiences from a phenomenological perspective. However, we are still in a period of adaptation to the effects of interactive media consumption. The incidence of cases of GTP among young people demonstrates human suggestibility, and it seems important to encourage more research in this promising area. In future studies it would be useful to collect data regarding the intensity of these experiences, subject these data to further quantitative analyses, and identify relationships among these variables, particularly how the "way of experience" and "intensity" are related to cognitive, emotional, and behavioral outcomes for participants."

The article is "Game Transfer Phenomena in Video Game Playing" by Angelica B. Ortiz de Gortari, Mark D. Griffiths, Nottingham Trent University, UK and Karin Aronsson, Stockholm University, Sweden. It appears in the International Journal of Cyber Behavior, Psychology and Learning, Volume 1, Issue 3 (October 2011) published by IGI Global. To learn more about this study, visit the following website: http://playersexperiences.wordpress.com/. Should you wish to purchase a copy of "Game Transfer Phenomena in Video Game Playing: A Qualitative Interview Study", click on the following link: www.igi-global.com/article/game-transfer-phenomena-video-game/58041. Research like this can be found in the International Journal of Cyber Behavior, Psychology and Learning. To purchase a subscription to this journal, please click on the following link: www.igi-global.com/icbpl.
Additional reading on the study of Game Transfer Phenomena can be found on the following Websites:


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