Can People Develop a Sense of Belonging ThroughPlaying League of Legends?

Abstract

This paper investigates the relation between playing League of Legends and levels of sense of belonging. Firstly, the differences between players and non-players are studied. Secondly, the difference in sense of belonging between premade team and solo players is examined. To investigate this, a questionnaire containing questions about League of Legends and a measure of sense of belonging was posted on Facebook and on several online League of Legends platforms. Firstly, participants were assigned to either the player or non-player group. Subsequently, the player group was divided into a solo and pre-made team condition. In order to compare the groups, two independent samples t-tests were performed. The results do not show a significant difference in levels of sense of belonging between players and non-players. However, the results indicate that pre-made team players have a significantly higher level of sense of belonging than solo players.