The rise of social casino games: Changes in the size and composition of the Android social casino market from 2012-2020, availability to children, and predictions for future growth

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Zendle
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Practical Importance ◽  
The Past ◽  
Social Casino Games ◽  
The Social ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Casino Game ◽  
Future Growth ◽  
Key Questions

Social casino games are video games that consist of simulations of gambling products and activities. Players of social casino games may pay money to gamble. However, they are unable to ‘cash out’ their winnings, allowing these games to be commonly regulated as video games rather than gambling products.There is concern that exposure to social casino games may lead to problem gambling. However, key questions regarding the past and future growth in prevalence of social casino games remain unanswered. Furthermore, it is unclear how much innovation in terms of products on the market have occurred in recent years, and how available these products are to children. The practical importance of the relationship between social casino play and gambling is therefore unclear.In order to address this, we analysed the monthly estimated installs of all social casino games (n=2344) on Android phones from March 2012 to February 2020. Results suggested that social casino games increased in prevalence from 33.30 million estimated installs in 2012 to 1.39 billion in 2020, projected to increase to 1.73 - 2.03 billion by February 2022. This expansion appears linked to a related expansion of mobile phone gaming. Indeed, analysis of the entire Android gaming market (n=75168) indicated that the prevalence of social casino games relative to the overall market diminished during the period under test from 2.54% of all game installs to 1.56%, and projected that this metric is unlikely to rise importantly in future.Analysis suggests a high level of churn and innovation in the social casino game market, with new products continually emerging and old ones being constantly retired: For example, of the 1166 social casino games available in February 2020, only 47 were on the market in 2012. Finally, an analysis of the age ratings of social casino games currently available to download on Android reveals a market overwhelmingly available to children: Of the 1132 games whose ratings were extracted, 1107 (97.7%) bore an age rating of 12+ or younger.When taken together, these results suggest that social casino games constitute a dynamic genre of gambling-like products that are experiencing continual and important growth, are forecasted to continue growing, and are highly available to children.

scholarly journals Play! A Special Issue

Sexualities ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 136346072110136
Author(s):  
Caroline Bem ◽  
Susanna Paasonen
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Sexual Pleasure ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Sexuality Studies ◽  
The Past ◽  
Sexual Representation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sexual Play ◽  
Sex Toys

Sexuality, as it relates to video games in particular, has received increasing attention over the past decade in studies of games and play, even as the notion of play remains relatively underexplored within sexuality studies. This special issue asks what shift is effected when sexual representation, networked forms of connecting and relating, and the experimentation with sexual likes are approached through the notion of play. Bringing together the notions of sex and play, it both foregrounds the role of experimentation and improvisation in sexual pleasure practices and inquires after the rules and norms that these are embedded in. Contributors to this special issue combine the study of sexuality with diverse theoretical conceptions of play in order to explore the entanglements of affect, cognition, and the somatic in sexual lives, broadening current understandings of how these are lived through repetitive routines and improvisational sprees alike. In so doing, they focus on the specific sites and scenes where sexual play unfolds (from constantly morphing online pornographic archives to on- and offline party spaces, dungeons, and saunas), while also attending to the props and objects of play (from sex toys and orgasmic vocalizations to sensation-enhancing chemicals and pornographic imageries), as well as the social and technological settings where these activities occur. This introduction offers a brief overview of the rationale of thinking sex in and as play, before presenting the articles that make up this special issue.

scholarly journals Metapragmatic stereotypes about geographical diversity in Greece

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 124-154
Author(s):  
Dimitris Papazachariou ◽  
Anna Fterniati ◽  
Argiris Archakis ◽  
Vasia Tsami
Keyword(s):  
Social Stratification ◽  
Geographical Variation ◽  
School Location ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
The Past ◽  
Rural Settings ◽  
The Social ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Children's Beliefs ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Over the past decades, contemporary sociolinguistics has challenged the existence of fixed and rigid linguistic boundaries, thus focusing on how the speakers themselves define language varieties and how specific linguistic choices end up being perceived as language varieties. In this light, the present paper explores the influence of metapragmatic stereotypes on elementary school pupils’ attitudes towards geographical varieties. Specifically, we investigate children’s beliefs as to the acceptability of geographical varieties and their perception of the overt and covert prestige of geographical varieties and dialectal speakers. Furthermore, we explore the relationship between the children’s specific beliefs and factors such as gender, the social stratification of the school location and the pupils’ performance in language subjects. The data of the study was collected via questionnaires with closed questions. The research findings indicate that the children of our sample associate geographical varieties with rural settings and informal communicative contexts. Moreover, children recognize a lack of overt prestige in geographical variation; at the same time, they evaluate positively the social attractiveness and the personal reliability of the geographical varieties and their speakers. Our research showed that pupils’ beliefs are in line with the dominant metapragmatic stereotypes which promote language homogeneity.

scholarly journals The Musings of ‘Evil Bastards’: Perspectives from Social Casino Game Professionals

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-20
Author(s):  
Jennifer Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
Social Networking Sites ◽  
Mobile Apps ◽  
Social Casino Games ◽  
The Social ◽  
Game Designer ◽  
Game Developers ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Player Behaviour ◽  
Casino Game

Technology has blurred the lines between gambling and gaming. While the convergence can be witnessed on many different levels, social casino games on social networking sites and mobile apps illustrate just one example. Much of what we currently know about social casino games focuses on player behaviour, with little understanding about this genre from the perspective of social game professionals. This paper aims to fill the gap in our understanding of social casino games through interviews with the professionals who design them. In-depth interviews were conducted with 14 professionals from the social casino games industry. Interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings illustrate tensions that exist between the two fields of gambling and gaming; however, both are trying to separate themselves from the stigmatized ‘dirty secret’ that is gambling. Further, as a result of social casino games residing, for the most part, in an unregulated ‘grey area,’ findings illustrate the ethical struggle felt by social casino game professionals. This convergence has significant consequences, not only for players, but for game developers, designers, and researchers, and highlights the importance of game designer education.

Jaziret Fadel

2021 ◽  
pp. 104-126
Author(s):  
Amal Adel Abdrabo
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Mutual Interaction ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Preliminary Research ◽  
The Village ◽  
Key Questions

The plight of refugees fleeing from Palestine in 1948 raises several key questions regarding their historical fragmentation as a nation and their future. From a social anthropological point of view, the existing literature seems to tackle the Palestinian case from different perspectives influenced by the mass exodus of Palestinians from their homeland. Such perceptions took for granted the recognition of the state of “refugeeness” of the exiled Palestinians around the globe, while, in reality, it is a mutual interaction between people, place, and time. In the aftermath of the Arab-Israeli War at the beginning of the year 1948, more than 700,000 Palestinians fled their homes in Palestine to the nearby Arab countries, among them was Egypt. Some thousands settled in different areas all over Egypt. Based on a preliminary research on the literature, the author can argue that this is the first ethnographic study of the social life of the village of Jaziret Fadel and its Palestinian inhabitants in Egypt. The chapter is about tackling the historical trajectories, genealogies, memories, and present of the inhabitants of this village who seemed to be torn between two nostalgic pasts. The author's emphasis within this chapter is about how the narratives of the past memories could reveal a lot about the present time of the human societies and their future.

Introduction

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Albjerg Graham
Keyword(s):  
Academic Achievement ◽  
Racial Segregation ◽  
Academic Learning ◽  
School Practices ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Musical Scores ◽  
American Children ◽  
High Level ◽  
Over Time

Schools in America have danced to different drummers during their long history. Sometimes the drumbeat demanded rigidity in all programs; sometimes it wanted academic learning for only a few. Sometimes it encouraged unleashing children’s creativity, not teaching them facts. Sometimes it wanted children to solve the social problems, such as racial segregation, adults could not handle. Sometimes it tacitly supported some schools as warehouses, not instructional facilities. Sometimes it sought schooling to be the equalizer in a society in which the gap between rich and poor was growing. Sometimes the principal purpose of schooling seemed to be teaching citizenship and developing habits of work appropriate for a democratic society, while at other times its purpose seemed to be preparation for employment, which needed the same habits of work but also some academic skills. Now, the drumbeat demands that all children achieve academically at a high level and the measure of that achievement is tests. The rhythm and tempo of the drumbeats have shifted relatively frequently, but the schools have not adjusted to the new musical scores with alacrity. They are typically just beginning to master the previous drummers’ music when new drummers appear. Many, though not all, of the new beats have been improvements both for the children and for the nation. All drummers have sought literacy in English for American children, though very modest literacy levels have been acceptable in the past. Drummers have always sought a few students who attained high levels of academic achievement, including children from disparate social, economic, and racial backgrounds. Beyond that consensus, however, what we have wanted from schooling has changed dramatically over time. These expectations for schools typically have been expressed through criticisms—often virulent—of current school practices, and the responses that followed inevitably were slower and less complete than the most ardent critics demanded. These are the shifting assignments given to schools. The following chapters of this book describe these shifting assignments given to schools and then to colleges during the last century: “Assimilation: 1900– 1920”; “Adjustment: 1920–1954”; “Access: 1954–1983”; and “Achievement: 1983–Present.”

From Control to Ownership: China's Managerial Revolution

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew G. Walder
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Governance ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
Corporate Sector ◽  
New Variety ◽  
The Past ◽  
Corporate Elite ◽  
The Social ◽  
Economic Assets ◽  
And Control ◽  
Key Questions

Over the past decade, the ownership and control of China's corporate sector has finally begun to depart fundamentally from patterns typical in the socialist past. Students of corporate governance have watched these changes with an intense curiosity about their impact on firm performance. Students of comparative economic institutions have examined them for hints of a new variety of Asian capitalism and have sought to anticipate China's international competitiveness and impact. But these changes potentially will create a new corporate elite with greater compensation, personal wealth, and independence from government agencies than ever before. This transformation of China's political economy may eventually alter the Chinese state itself, although the extent and nature of this change are still far from clear. The key questions of interest are the social origins of the new elite, the scale of the economic assets they control, and especially their continuing relationships with party and government agencies. The answers will vary decisively by sector, four of which are described here: a state-owned sector, a privatized sector, a transactional sector, and an entrepreneurial sector. The evolving mix of these sectors will determine the future contours of the Chinese corporate economy.

scholarly journals Phillips Curve: The Greek Case

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Panagiotis Liargovas ◽  
Marios Psychalis
Keyword(s):  
Phillips Curve ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
Economic Adjustment ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
The Past ◽  
Greek Economy ◽  
Classical Economic ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Relationship

One of the most important problems facing Greece is the long-term and high-level unemployment rate. The Economic Adjustment Programmes (EAPs) focused on the supply side of the economy, aiming at the adjustment of prices and wages, draw on the classical economic model, as it is widely accepted that internal devaluation policies keep inflation low. This article attempts to examine whether the Keynesian theory and the Phillips Curve, which shows the relationship between unemployment and inflation, apply in the case of the Greek economy. We use descriptive statistics, ordinary least squares (OLS) and VAR Analysis to examine the relationship between the variables. According to the results, there is a negative correlation between unemployment and inflation in Greece, thus confirming the Phillips Curve hypothesis. Finally, results show that unemployment is less dependent on inflation compared with the past, and there are numerous other decisive factors affecting unemployment.

The impact of setting on wine tasting experiments

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 578-590
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Lewis ◽  
Steve Charters ◽  
Benoît Lecat ◽  
Tatiana Zalan ◽  
Marianna McGarry Wolf
Keyword(s):  
Willingness To Pay ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Subjective Assessment ◽  
Social Setting ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Wine Consumption ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose Tasting experiments involving willingness to pay (WTP) have grown over the past few years; however, most of them occur in formal wine-tasting conditions, removed from real-world experience. This study aims to conduct experiments on wine appreciation and willingness to pay in both settings, to allow a comparison of how tasters reached conclusions in different situations. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted two sets of experiments in Dijon, France, with knowledgeable wine drinkers, in 2014 and in 2016, to explore the relationship between wine ratings, WTP and objective characteristics (appellation, labelling and price). The first was in a formal wine-tasting setting (n = 58), and the second in the social setting of a restaurant (n = 52). The experiments involved deception: the tasters were presented with five wines, but in fact only three wines were involved, two of the wines being presented twice. Findings The results from the 2014 study showed that even with a group of experienced tasters, objective characteristics overwhelmed subjective assessment (taste, sensory perception) of the wine. Ratings and WTP were driven by the appellation or brand, labelling and price of the wines. The authors replicated the experiment in a social setting in 2016 which, contrary to their expectations, produced very similar results. In neither experiment did the experienced tasters detect the deception. Research limitations/implications The social setting was a lunch in a restaurant with a group of students who were graduating together. The tasting was conducted by some of their professors, which may have influenced the results and raises questions about whether the setting was truly ‘social’. The sample size for the experiments was comparatively small and further research, including novice and expert tasters, might contradict these findings, or at least add nuances to them. Originality/value The study finds that, contrary to expectations, in the social wine consumption setting of a restaurant meal enjoyed with colleagues, objective wine characteristics over-rode subjective appreciation of the wine.

Collective Memory

Sociology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Simko
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
The United States ◽  
Emile Durkheim ◽  
State Legitimacy ◽  
The Past ◽  
National Memory ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Borders ◽  
Monuments And Memorials ◽  
The Relationship

Collective memory encompasses both the shared frameworks that shape and filter ostensibly “individual” or “personal” memories and representations of the past sui generis, including official texts, commemorative ceremonies, and physical symbols such as monuments and memorials. Sociological work on collective memory traces its origins to Émile Durkheim and his student, Maurice Halbwachs. In the United States, the contemporary sociology of memory coalesced in the 1980s and 1990s, after Barry Schwartz brought renewed attention to Durkheim’s focus on commemoration as well as Halbwachs’s interest in how the past is reconstructed in the present, in the service of present needs, interests, and desires. Though this line of research initially emphasized heroic pasts—particularly national commemorations that bolstered state legitimacy with reference to triumphant episodes—scholars quickly began to address the ways that collectivities grapple with “difficult pasts,” or episodes that evoke shame, regret, and/or dissensus, and that threaten to “spoil” national identity. What is the relationship between memory and forgetting, and related concepts such as silence and denial? Can the increasingly pervasive language of “trauma” help us understand the current preoccupation with difficult pasts in both scholarly literature and public culture? More recently, scholars have critiqued the field’s overwhelming focus on national memory from two angles. First, studies of micro-level memories have revived Halbwachs’s initial interest in the social frameworks that structure (seemingly) individual memories. Second, globalization facilitates connectedness and identification beyond and/or outside of national frames of reference, and thus scholars have pointed to the emergence of “cosmopolitan” memories that create community and solidarity beyond and outside formal political borders.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE COMPETENCE OF THE CITIZENS OF POLAND AND CZECH REPUBLIC WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF CURRENT ALL-EUROPEAN LINGUISTIC

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 512-523
Author(s):  
Yevhen Gromov ◽  
Alla Kolomiiets ◽  
Natalia Lazarenko ◽  
Olesia Zhovnych ◽  
Liliia Biretska
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Educational Systems ◽  
Language Competence ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
High Level ◽  
Economic Nature

The comparative analysis of the foreign language competence among the citizens of Poland and Czech Republic has been accomplished. The received findings were compared with current observations of all-European linguistic tendencies. Having analysed various statistics the authors succeeded in assembling the social portrait of an average multilingual European. The authors have also considered the fact that over the past years the official percentage of multilingual citizens, both in Poland and the Czech Republic, has significantly decreased due to intensive emigration processes. In the authors’ opinion, this problem is mostly of the socio-economic nature and demonstrates rather not the weakness of educational systems, but the ability of educational institutions of both countries to prepare competitive specialists who are able (due to the high level of foreign language competence) to find decent job in the labour-market of the United Europe. It has also been stated that since the foreign language competence has become a professional and cultural prerequisite for creation of the unified globalized Europe, and multilingualism has become a part of the European identity, the future specialists’ foreign language training in Ukraine should be conducted precisely taking into account the prospects of European integration.

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