"Online Abuse & Age in Dota 2": An article-based master's thesis
Mattinen, Topias (2021)
2021
Master's Programme in Game Studies
Informaatioteknologian ja viestinnän tiedekunta - Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences
This publication is copyrighted. You may download, display and print it for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2021-05-19
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202104253472
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202104253472
Tiivistelmä
This master’s thesis is based on an article titled “Online Abuse & Age in Dota 2”, which was published and presented in the international conference Mindtrek 2018. This thesis introduces, examines and analyzes the article in depth, introducing its research question, hypotheses and background research as well as methodology. It will also review the discussion that the results for the hypotheses brought about and lay out the conclusion that the study came to. In addition to reviewing the article itself, this thesis focuses on clarifying the work personally done in writing, publishing and presenting the article. The discussion chapter also hosts some self-reflective thoughts about working on the article and this article-based thesis.
The article itself examined the experiences and perceptions of verbal abuse (Communication Abuse) in a competitive online game, Dota 2. Specifically, the article focused on the relevance of the participant’s age regarding experiences and attitudes towards Communication Abuse in the game. The article used a dataset of 364 participants, which was gathered via an online survey in 2018. Overall, the data had a normal age distribution, however skewed to frequent playing males. Through the analyses, the participant’s age was found to be statistically significant when looking at 1) the opinion of seriousness of Communication Abuse (H2), 2) the number of times a participant reported being sent to the Low Priority Pool (H4), and 3) the frequency of partaking in Communication Abuse (H3). The article found no statistically significant relationship was between the participants’ age and the frequency they reported being a direct target of Communication Abuse (H1). Our findings suggested that, as a participant’s age increased, the frequency of partaking in Communication Abuse increased as well. Furthermore, younger players were found to have a more relaxed attitude towards Communication Abuse and possibly, partially as a result, reported being placed in the Low Priority Pool more often.
The article itself examined the experiences and perceptions of verbal abuse (Communication Abuse) in a competitive online game, Dota 2. Specifically, the article focused on the relevance of the participant’s age regarding experiences and attitudes towards Communication Abuse in the game. The article used a dataset of 364 participants, which was gathered via an online survey in 2018. Overall, the data had a normal age distribution, however skewed to frequent playing males. Through the analyses, the participant’s age was found to be statistically significant when looking at 1) the opinion of seriousness of Communication Abuse (H2), 2) the number of times a participant reported being sent to the Low Priority Pool (H4), and 3) the frequency of partaking in Communication Abuse (H3). The article found no statistically significant relationship was between the participants’ age and the frequency they reported being a direct target of Communication Abuse (H1). Our findings suggested that, as a participant’s age increased, the frequency of partaking in Communication Abuse increased as well. Furthermore, younger players were found to have a more relaxed attitude towards Communication Abuse and possibly, partially as a result, reported being placed in the Low Priority Pool more often.