Ownership of video game technology
Widespread ownership of both hardware and software was found throughout the province. For example, 95 per cent of the teens surveyed said they had access to either a video game machine or home computer and a similar proportion (90 per cent) said they owned at least some video games.
There was no difference between girls and boys for the ownership of one video game machine. Eighty percent reported owning one machine, however, boys (41 per cent) were more likely to own two or more machines than girls (28 per cent). As well, boys (58 per cent) were more likely to own a home computer than girls (44 per cent).
Surprisingly, there was little relationship found between ownership of hardware and the amount of time spent playing. However, heavy players were more likely to own a home computer and were quicker to purchase newer game machines such as the Nintendo 64 and the Panasonic 3 DO released just prior to the survey.
Participants were asked how much their parents had invested in video game and computer technology. Teens estimated that their families had spent approximately $2800 on computer and video game hardware and about $430 on video game software.
There was no difference found between families of boys or girls for expenditure on hardware, but families of male children did report spending more ($477) on games than families of females ($352).
Heavy players reported owning more games (23 on average) and spending more on them ($500) than light players (17 games on average; $410). Extensive collections of +50 games were owned by a large number of heavy players (17 per cent) and a small proportion of light players (9 per cent).
Video game play
The results of the survey indicated that video game play has become a common leisure activity among B.C. teens. Eighty per cent of teens said they played at least occasionally and the average amount of time spent gaming for the sample was 5 hours per week.
There was considerable variability found in the amount of time that kids spent playing. Fifty per cent of the sample spent less than three hours per week playing games, the rest were equally divided between regular players who spent anywhere from three to seven hours a week and heavy players who spent over seven hours a week gaming.
The survey also revealed that video games were largely a male pastime. Boys, for example, said they spent twice as much time playing (6 hours per week) as girls (less than 3 hours per week). This finding supports the male preference for video games found in other international studies (Durkin, 1995).
By and large, video game play has become a domestic activity with the majority of youth playing at home (46 per cent of respondents) or at a friend's house (25 per cent). In comparison, only 17 per cent said they played at an arcade.
The social dimension of play
In order to assess the social dimension of game play, teens were asked to specify how often they played alone, or with their family and friends.
In general, adolescents played more often with their siblings than their parents. A large proportion of teens said they played at least sometimes with their brother (50 per cent of respondents) and with their sisters (25 per cent). Only a small proportion played at least sometimes with their fathers (18 per cent) or mothers (7 per cent).
Teens prefer to play games with their friends. 22 per cent of our sample, reported that most of their friends played games. Not surprisingly, boys had significantly more friends who played than girls. Heavy players were divided: 40 per cent reported having mostly gamer friends while 51 per cent reported having only a few friends that played.
It thus appeared that there were at least two types of heavy gamers: for one group, gaming was a highly social activity forged around networks of gamer friendships - a gamer culture who talked and lived video gaming. However, for others video games are played to kill time when friends are not available. Many heavy players, in fact said gaming was their favorite solitary activity.
The experience of play
One of the aims of this study was to understand why video games were so compelling. One way of gaining insight into motivations was to assess the desired emotional experience of game play. Teens were given a list of emotions and asked to indicate the degree to which they applied to gaming.
The majority of teenagers (over 80 per cent) said that playing them produced a pleasant, exiting, challenging, and interesting experience. A great number of teens also felt gaming to be involving (77 per cent) and at times frustrating (63 per cent). We found that boys and girls experienced games differently, with boys more likely to associate positive emotions with play (e.g. pleasing, exciting, and involving) and girls more likely to associate negative emotions with play (e.g. frustrating, boring, and stressful).
Heavy players were almost in total agreement in their description of play. They said that playing video games was exciting (98 per cent of heavy players), interesting (96 per cent), pleasant (92 per cent) and involving (90 per cent). This supports the perception of the video game as a "pleasure machine" (Brody, 1992). The survey also revealed some large and significant differences between players. For example, a higher proportion of heavy players described video games as exciting, interesting, and involving than light players. In addition, heavy players reported experiencing these emotions much more intensely than other players.
