Prosocial activities in video games player type based study concerning the genres assively Multiplayer Online, Shooter and Role-Playing Games

Abstract

Many people enjoy playing video games in their free time. Just like other media, the consumption of video games can influence people’s social behavior. This has already been proven in many studies, which mainly look at games that contain violence, to examine whether this negatively affects the players. But games can also influence the player positively. Therefore, we have investigated if players are influenced positively by prosocial activities in games. A survey was used to examine how often players perceive prosocial actions in video games and whether they like them in the games. In addition, participants were asked to assess if prosocial actions in video games had an impact on their real lives. A distinction was made between different genres and player types in order to find possible differences between genres and player types.