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Abstract

With the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, loneliness has become an ever-growing problem within our nation. This study investigates how multiplayer video games can affect a player’s loneliness and whether or not a multiplayer game that encourages players to communicate, causes players to feel less lonely. For this study, an artefact was created that consisted of a sloth-themed multiplayer virtual world game that encouraged players to explore and chat with each other. Participants then used this artefact in small groups before and after answering survey questions about their loneliness. Results show that multiplayer games that encourage communication do help alleviate loneliness. In particular, female participants reported themselves to be feeling less lonely one hundred percent of the time after playing while male participants felt less lonely seventy-one percent of the time. These results suggest that multiplayer games (that encourage communication) have a similar impact on someone’s loneliness to talking with others online.

Course: Computer Games Enterprise - BSc (Hons) - C1672

Date Deposited: 2022-02-11

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis13773.html