A MEASURE OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOR IN TEAM-BASED, MULTIPLAYER ONLINE GAMES: THE SOCIALITY IN MULTIPLAYER ONLINE GAMES SCALE (SMOG)

• Main Author: Hughes, Chelsea M
• Format: Others
• Published: VCU Scholars Compass 2015
• Subjects: pro-social behavior; anti-social behavior; personality; video games; online gaming; scale development; Counseling Psychology; Interpersonal and Small Group Communication; Other Communication; Personality and Social Contexts
• Online Access: http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/3884; http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4922&context=etd

Video games have become a new platform for social interaction. I review the sociality of video games and the relationship between virtual- and real-world behaviors. I review and address the pros and cons of methods of measuring social behavior. Finally, I present two studies drawn from internet populations. In Study 1 (N = 250), I develop a scale, The Sociality in Multiplayer Online Games Scale (SMOG), which measures the frequency of social gaming behaviors in team-based, multiplayer online games. I hypothesized these to align on dominance and affiliation dimensions of social interaction (Kiesler, 1982). In Study 2 (N = 104), I conduct a confirmatory factor analysis, which supports a two-factor structure—Destructive and Constructive social behavior, resulting in the SMOG-6. I examine construct validity using measures of dominance and affiliation. Controlling for age, gender, and frequency of game-play, both factors predict dominance. SMOG-Destructive negatively, and SMOG-Constructive positively, predicted affiliation.