scholarly journals Online Gamers, Lived Experiences, and Sense of Belonging: Students at the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 122-137
Author(s):  
André J. Pietersen ◽  
Jan K. Coetzee ◽  
Dominika Byczkowska-Owczarek ◽  
Florian Elliker ◽  
Leane Ackermann
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
South African ◽  
Online Communities ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Daily Basis ◽  
Video Gaming ◽  
Online Video ◽  
Video Gamers ◽  
The University ◽  
Depth Interviews

Individuals who partake in video games are often regarded with prejudice. It is an activity that is perceived to be mainly related to senseless leisure and teenage entertainment. However, many diverse people make video games such an important part of their lives that they become passionately engaged in it. Video games and online video gaming offer the player immersive experiences unlike any other forms of media. A phenomenological and interpretive exploration is undertaken in order to gain a deeper understanding of the narratives of online gamers and their experiences of a sense of belonging to the associated online communities. Through the use of in-depth interviews, the article explores various aspects of the life stories of a group of eight South African university students. It attempts to show how online gaming has become a part of their lifeworlds. The aim of this article is to present the narratives of online gamers as rich and descriptive accounts that maintain the voices of the participants. Various aspects of the lifeworlds of online gamers are explored. Firstly, an exploration is undertaken to gain an understanding of what it means to be a gamer. It focuses on how a person can become involved with gaming and how it can evolve into something that a person is engaged with on a daily basis. Secondly, it explores how video games influence the perception of reality of gamers. Immersion in video games can transfer a player into an alternative reality and can take the focus away from the real world. This can lead to feelings of joy and excitement, but can also lead to escapism. Lastly, the article shifts attention towards how online video gamers experience online communities. Players can have positive experiences with random strangers online, but because of the anonymous nature of the online environment, it can also lead to negative and isolating experiences.

Casual Resistance: A Longitudinal Case Study of Video Gaming’s Gendered Construction and Related Audience Perceptions

2020 ◽  
Vol 70 (6) ◽  
pp. 819-841
Author(s):  
Amanda C Cote
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Longitudinal Case Study ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Change Over Time ◽  
Audience Studies ◽  
Casual Games ◽  
Video Gamers ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Over Time

Abstract Many media are associated with masculinity or femininity and male or female audiences, which links them to broader power structures around gender. Media scholars thus must understand how gendered constructions develop and change, and what they mean for audiences. This article addresses these questions through longitudinal, in-depth interviews with female video gamers (2012–2018), conducted as the rise of casual video games potentially started redefining gaming’s historical masculinization. The analysis shows that participants have negotiated relationships with casualness. While many celebrate casual games’ potential for welcoming new audiences, others resist casual’s influence to safeguard their self-identification as gamers. These results highlight how a medium’s gendered construction may not be salient to consumers, who carefully navigate divides between their own and industrially designed identities, but can simultaneously reaffirm existing power structures. Further, how participants’ views change over time emphasizes communication’s ongoing need for longitudinal audience studies that address questions of media, identity, and inclusion.

scholarly journals Attitudes and practices of medical students regarding video-games: should community medicine educationists get serious about serious games

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 729 ◽  
Author(s):  
Varun M. Malhotra ◽  
Pratyush R. Kabra ◽  
Ritika Malhotra
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Serious Games ◽  
Community Medicine ◽  
Video Gaming ◽  
Undergraduate Medical Students ◽  
Learning Tool ◽  
Attitudes And Practices ◽  
Video Gamers ◽  
Teaching Learning

Background: Present medicos belong to a generation called ‘Millennials’ or ‘Net Generation’. They spend less time reading, and are more comfortable in image-rich environments provided by New Media.  The objective of the study is to identify knowledge, attitudes and practices of medical students regarding video-games, with the aim of prompting community medicine teachers to consider serious games as a teaching-learning tool.Methods: The study was conducted among undergraduate medical students who self-administered a structured questionnaire eliciting their practices and attitudes regarding video-games, perceptions regarding impact of video-gaming on their academic performances and acceptability of serious games as a learning tool in community medicine.Results: A total of 255 medical students participated in the study, out of which 242 (94.9%) were current video-gamers. The students started playing video-games at a mean age of 11.72+3.63 years. Mobile phones were the commonest platform for video-gaming. The median duration of video-gaming was 150 minutes/week, with semi-inter-quartile range of 255 minutes.  57.4% of students reported that video-games helped them relax, while 26% felt that video-gaming increased their skills.  The study revealed that 43.6% students were aware of serious games and 22.7% had used them as a learning tool in last three months. Moreover, about 95% of medicos welcomed learning of community medicine through serious games.Conclusions: The study reveals that contemporary medical students are spending considerable time playing video-games. It also shows that the learner is willing to learn community medicine through serious games. The study prompts community medicine educationists to consider serious games as a teaching-learning tool.

Everyday discourses of belonging of first-generation Eritrean refugees in South Africa: lived experience and attachment*

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-182
Author(s):  
Amanuel Isak Tewolde
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
South African ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
African Context ◽  
The University

Research is scant on the everyday sense of belonging of refugees in South Africa. This paper addresses this gap by exploring the everyday discourses of belonging of Eritrean refugees in South Africa. Purposive sampling technique was used to recruit participants, and qualitative data was gathered from 11 participants in the City of Tshwane, South Africa, through open-ended interviews and focus group discussions. Analysis of data resulted in three dominant discourses: 1) ‘we feel like outsiders’; 2) ‘we are neither here nor there’; and 3) ‘South Africa is home’. Drawing on the participants’ discourses, I argue that in the South African context, refugees’ sense of belonging tends to be varied mirroring multifaceted lived experiences. Participants’ construction of South Africa as their home also counters previous research that portrayed foreign nationals in South Africa as ‘excluded’.* This article is based on research conducted at the University of Pretoria, South Africa.

scholarly journals Does ‘African mathematics’ facilitate access to mathematics? Towards an ongoing critical analysis of ethnomathematics in a South African context

Pythagoras ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 0 (65) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai Horsthemke ◽  
Marc Schäfer
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Political Correctness ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Critical Position ◽  
Cultural Specificity ◽  
African Context ◽  
And Mathematics ◽  
The University ◽  
The Relationship

Mosibudi Mangena, the Minister of Science and Technology, said in an address to the Annual Congress of the South African Mathematical Society at the University of the Potchefstroom, November 2, 2004: “There is one thing we need to address before anything else. We need to increase the number of young people, particularly blacks and women, who are able to successfully complete the first course in Mathematics at our universities.” How is this to  be achieved? A popular trend involves a call for the introduction and incorporation of so-called ethnomathematics, and more particularly ‘African mathematics’, into secondary and tertiary curricula. Although acknowledging the obvious benefits of so-called ethnomathematics, this paper critically analyses three aspects of ethnomathematics that have been neglected in past critiques. Our focus is not on the relationship as such between ethnomathematics and mathematics education. Our critique involves (1) epistemological and logical misgivings, (2) a new look at practices and skills, (3) concerns about embracing ‘African mathematics’ as valid and valuable – just because it is African. The first concern is about problems relating to the relativism and appeals to cultural specificity that characterise ethnomathematics, regarding mathematical knowledge and truth. The second set of considerations concern the idea  that not all mathematical practices and skills are necessarily culturally or socially embedded. With regard to the validity and viability of ‘African mathematics’, our misgivings not only concern the superficial sense of ‘belonging’ embodied in the idea of a uniquely and distinctly African mathematics, and the threat of further or continuing marginalisation and derogation, but the implicitly (self-)demeaning nature of this approach. This paper serves as a reminder that a critical position in the deliberations of ethnomathematics needs to be sustained. It warns against the bandwagon syndrome in a society where political correctness has become a prominent imperative. This paper is framed by many unanswered questions in an attempt to inspire and sustain a critical discourse in the ethnomathematics movement.

Perspectives from Multiplayer Video Gamers

2011 ◽  
pp. 150-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan B. Beedle ◽  
Vivian H. Wright
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Higher Order Thinking ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
Video Gaming ◽  
Educational Value ◽  
Higher Order Thinking Skills ◽  
Video Gamers ◽  
Multiplayer Video Games

The purpose of this study is to determine whether multiplayer video gamers perceive that playing video games can increase higher order thinking skills such as motivation, problem-solving, communication, and creativity. Multiplayer video gaming allows participants the opportunity to collectively discuss problems with other players, find solutions and accomplish objectives. This study was used as a barometer to determine if multiplayer gamers perceived that playing multiplayer games had educational value. This research specifically sought to verify whether multiplayer video gamers perceived that higher-order thinking skills such as motivation, communication, problem-solving, and creativity were increased by playing multiplayer video games. The bulk of respondents reported that they somewhat felt there was learning occurring in all of these areas.

scholarly journals Video Games as Objects and Vehicles of Nostalgia

Humanities ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Péter Makai
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Generation X ◽  
Computer Games ◽  
Video Gaming ◽  
Computer Gaming ◽  
The Past ◽  
Player Experience ◽  
Video Gamers ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
A Site

Barely 50 years old, video games are among the newest media today, and still a source of fascination and a site of anxiety for cultural critics and parents. Since the 1970s, a generation of video gamers have grown up and as they began to have children of their own, video games have become objects evoking fond memories of the past. Nostalgia for simpler times is evident in the aesthetic choices game designers make: pixelated graphics, 8-bit music, and frustratingly hard levels are all reminiscent of arcade-style and third-generation console games that have been etched into the memory of Generation X. At the same time, major AAA titles have become so photorealistic and full of cinematic ambition that video games can also serve as vehicles for nostalgia by “faithfully” recreating the past. From historical recreations of major cities in the Assassin’s Creed series and L. A. Noire, to the resurrection of old art styles in 80 Days, Firewatch or Cuphead all speak of the extent to which computer gaming is suffused with a longing for pasts that never were but might have been. This paper investigates the design of games to examine how nostalgia is used to manipulate affect and player experience, and how it contributes to the themes that these computer games explore. Far from ruining video games, nostalgia nonetheless exploits the associations the players have with certain historical eras, including earlier eras of video gaming. Even so, the juxtaposition of period media and dystopic rampages or difficult levels critically comment upon the futility of nostalgia.

A Blur Line Between Hobby and Addiction: Online Video Gaming Among the Youth of Arunachal Pradesh

2021 ◽  
pp. 0972558X2199424
Author(s):  
Mudang Pampi ◽  
Md. Asghar
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Video Gaming ◽  
Online Video ◽  
Arunachal Pradesh ◽  
Gaming Culture ◽  
Youth And Young Adults ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Online Video Games

Online video games have become more popular among the youth and young adults in the past decade. These games are exceedingly addictive. The youths and young adults engage many hours of their day playing these games. This article is an attempt to understand the players’ perceptions and reasons for spending hours playing it. This article also explores the factors responsible for the growth of video games as a trending popular culture. The current study examines the impact of excessive gameplay on a gamers’ life as a whole. This study found out that graphics, gameplay, and story line of a gameplay play a vital role in the popularity of a particular game. It is the extra-realistic gaming experience that online games offer, which makes it so addictive. It is also revealed that players felt socially stigmatized for being a gamer since playing video games is not a socially accepted form of a hobby in Arunachal Pradesh unlike in some parts of the world. Basically, this article focuses on the insights of players about their experience as an insider in this gaming culture.

Perspectives from Multiplayer Video Gamers

2011 ◽  
pp. 1848-1869
Author(s):  
Jonathan B. Beedle ◽  
Vivian H. Wright
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Higher Order Thinking ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
Video Gaming ◽  
Educational Value ◽  
Higher Order Thinking Skills ◽  
Video Gamers ◽  
Multiplayer Video Games

The purpose of this study is to determine whether multiplayer video gamers perceive that playing video games can increase higher order thinking skills such as motivation, problem-solving, communication, and creativity. Multiplayer video gaming allows participants the opportunity to collectively discuss problems with other players, find solutions and accomplish objectives. This study was used as a barometer to determine if multiplayer gamers perceived that playing multiplayer games had educational value. This research specifically sought to verify whether multiplayer video gamers perceived that higher-order thinking skills such as motivation, communication, problem-solving, and creativity were increased by playing multiplayer video games. The bulk of respondents reported that they somewhat felt there was learning occurring in all of these areas.

scholarly journals Prevalence of addiction to online video games: gaming disorder among medical students

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (10) ◽  
pp. 4237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pradeep Yarasani ◽  
Roshakhi Sultana Shaik ◽  
Achyuth Rama Raju Myla
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Sleep Disturbances ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Behaviour Pattern ◽  
Video Gaming ◽  
Online Video ◽  
Undergraduate Medical Students ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Online Video Games

Background: Video gaming has become a most popular leisure activity in many parts of the world, which appears to develop problems as a result of excessive gaming, most commonly among students. The behaviour pattern is of sufficient severity to result in significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning. In this context present study was done to know the prevalence of addiction to online video games among medical students.Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted from March 2017 to July 2018 in Katuri Medical College, Guntur among 575 undergraduate medical students including interns. The data was collected using Young’s online gaming addiction scale questionnaire and was analyzed using SPSS 21 version and Epiinfo 7.Results: In our study, the mean age of students was 22±4 and the average duration of gaming was 3 hours, while students who were addicted to gaming had playtime for 7 hours. Majority of the students used Mobile phones (73.9%), followed by computers (12.2%) for playing games. There was statistical significance between male and female students regarding usage and Problems faced due to video games (p<0.0001, S*).Conclusions: Gaming disorders are on a rise, which had lead students to psychosocial disturbances, anxiety, depression, mood disorders, sleep disturbances, head ache, lack of social activities, and impairment in education. So, it is time to regulate the usage of Electronic devices, Internet and video games.

scholarly journals International Students' Cocurricular Involvement at a University in South Africa

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 990-1009
Author(s):  
Sapna Naik ◽  
Matthew R. Wawrzynski ◽  
Joelle Brown
Keyword(s):  
International Students ◽  
Student Affairs ◽  
South African ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
International Student ◽  
Student Experiences ◽  
Learning And Development ◽  
Student Affairs Practitioners ◽  
African Context ◽  
The University

Despite a growing body of literature on international student involvement, international students in the South African context have remained understudied. In this quantitative study, we examined international students’ cocurricular involvement and associated learning and development in a South African university. Participants included 198 international students who completed the Student Experiences Survey (SES). We found international students were generally highly involved and reported benefits and barriers to their involvement as well as a strong sense of belonging. Recommendations to better integrate international students into the university by minimizing barriers and increasing opportunities and learning in involvement are included for student affairs practitioners.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document