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Gaming Social Capital and Civic Involvement Among Russian MMORPG Players

Student: Mikhalchuk Daria

Supervisor: Anna Shirokanova

Faculty: Saint-Petersburg School of Social Sciences

Educational Programme: Sociology and Social Informatics (Bachelor)

Final Grade: 9

Year of Graduation: 2020

This research examines the relationships between gaming social capital of players and civic involvement in the life of their community and country. Multiplayer gameplay as a feature of MMORPGы environment where players achieve collective goals together, collaborate on solving problems within the game and learn tactics from each other stimulate the accumulation of the gaming social capital and also pro-civic people’s behavior. An online survey was conducted to collect the data from 321 Russian MMORPG players. The work contributes to the field of multiplayer online games by exploring the potentially positive impact of multiplayer online games on accumulating in-game social capital as well as on the civic involvement of players. It also shapes some attitude towards online games as an environment which can unite players, provide them with skills of teamwork and collaboration and facilitate new social ties.

Full text (added May 22, 2020)

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