Playing and Socializing—Adults’ Perceptions of the FIFA Digital Game

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The article is of particular interest in the field of studying the socialization of players in certain types of computer games. However, a more detailed definition of the very term of socialization and connection with the "words" considered in the work is required. A more rigorous definition of the psychological aspects of socialization is also required: the frequency of using words may be a consequence and specificity of the gaming environment itself, but not talking about the speech stock in the real world.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you so much for your considerations and the opportunity for revising our manuscript, hoping it may be accepted for publication (after this major revision). We are very grateful for all relevant corrections and suggestions to improve the submitted manuscript.

Replying to your request, we performed the suggested revisions. All comments and suggestions were carefully addressed, point by point.

To facilitate the reviewing process, in each question/remark we attach the revised/changed text that was included/changed, in red, in the new version of our manuscript.

Thank you for your attention and pertinent comments. We agree with your proposal, adding the following paragraphs in the theoretical reference, improving the introduction (a) and the results (b):

(a) Lines 115 to 125

In a specific way, socialization through digital games between people of different generations, between grandparents and grandchildren, for example, competition is an unnecessary game attribute, which gives rise to collaboration between players (De la Hera et al., 2017).

From a broader perspective, social perception takes place amid the process of socialization of people, which according to Abrantes (Abrantes, 2011), inspired by Elias and Bourdieu, such a process is defined "as the process of constitution of individuals and societies through interactions, activities and social practices, regulated by emotions, power relations and identity-biographical projects, in a dialectic between biological organisms and sociocultural contexts" (p. 121).

(b) Lines 472 to 479

Opinions about playing FIFA in the offline mode were mainly associated with two words, "friend" and "funny," whose participants suggest more fun, lack of competitiveness, or lower incidence of this variable (since the frequencies of the words "competitive" and "competitiveness " do not appear in the set of words that reflect players' perception of playing FIFA offline). So, the meaning of playing FIFA in the offline mode, in this study, can be interpreted by carrying out social practices associated with ludic activities through a digital game, a prevailing friendship between human players located in a physical and commonplace (De la Hera et al., 2017; Abrantes, 2011).

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper addresses a theme with some relevance for video game designers, video game users, and other people in their families and social circle. There are, however, some considerations that authors should take into account. The fact that there are people who react aggressively when a game doesn't go well for them doesn't just exist in the context of video games. These are transversal reactions among video game users and among players of any other type of games (board games, sports games). Is this type of reaction more frequent with video game users? What is the authors' opinion about this?

The same applies to feelings of stress and anxiety when playing a video game. They also exist when playing other types of games and not just video games or the FIFA game in particular.

With regard to the survey, is it not mentioned that the survey was presented in Portuguese but was the analysis for the study done before or after the translation into English? It is presumed to have been later, but the article does not make this point completely clear. It would be interesting to include the original survey in Portuguese as an annex. Could the need to translate have had any impact on the study carried out? It would be important to include a comment from the authors on this topic.

Referring to the possibility of doing a similar study with other games could also be indicated as future work.

Finally, the last sentence in the introduction seems confusing and only becomes clearer as you read further into the article. A reformulation of this sentence is suggested, pointing to a more general conclusion.

The list of bibliographic references is not always uniform and does not follow APA standards. Some publications do not include the editor. As they stand, it is not always easy to identify the year of publication.

Author Response

Proposal 1 and 2: 

Thank you for your proposals, which makes all sense, so, we add the following text in the conclusions (Lines 617 to 623):

Socializing through FIFA's online mode is inspired by the interaction between opponents in co-location and both looking for competition and challenges. In this research, there was no mention of social isolation, contrary to what may be found in previous studies, and there was also no mention of aggressive behavior directed at opponents, suggesting that the aggressive reactions were reactions under the influence of perceived stress and as a result of immersion in the game, in the face of competition (Pinheiro et al., 2020; Gajadhar et al., 2008; Colder Carras et al., 2020; Jennett et al., 2008).

Proposal 3:

Thank you for your comments about the survey. We add the following text in Data Collection section (a. Lines 217-220), and in the Conclusions section (b. Lines 614-615), concerning limitations:

a.

The original questionnaire was written in Portuguese (see appendix B), and only after adequate data treatment and analysis, through the indicated software, was translated into English language. The translation had no impact on the studies carried out.

b.

Although every care to ensure translated words retain their meaning, some semantic loss may have escaped us.

Proposal 4:

We also agree with this proposal, adding the following statement in the Conclusions (Lines 533-534):

… as well as the development of a similar investigation with other types of digital games. 

Proposal 5:

Thank you also for this pertinent suggestion. We add the following sentence in the Introduction (Lines 73-81):

The methods used to achieve the proposed objectives were based on two studies: one of a qualitative nature, in which lexicometry was used and which allowed the textual analysis of the participant's responses (through the use of the Iramuteq software); and another of a quantitative nature, whose data were analyzed using the SPSS software. The results suggest that the use of FIFA game in the online mode is usually chosen because it allows more significant competitive interaction between players. The use in the offline mode favors collaborative and friendly interactive practices between players.

Proposal 6:

Thank you also for this pertinent suggestion. Now the document follows APA, and we used Mendeley to do it.

Reviewer 3 Report

This paper presents the results of a survey study with 129 participants that investigated gamers’ perception of anxiety and socialization when playing the EA FIFA game. The investigation relies on a solid data snowball data collection that specifically targeted FIFA online communities. In general, I think this paper can provide an interesting contribution to Informatics.

Regarding the methodology, the approach to linguistic analysis is clever. Here are some suggestions that might improve the presentation of the results.

* Line 214. Can you describe the process you used to identify the “text segments (TS)”?

* In Figure 1 (or in the label), it would help to spell out what each class means. For example, I understand from line 238 that Class 3 refers to “Perception of rage”

* Although the tables (e.g., Table 1, Table 2) are very informative, it could be interesting to discuss some examples in the text. For instance, why are the words “floor” or “wall” classified as related to “rage?”

* In the second line of Table 8, I wonder if the word “handicap” is the proper translation from Portuguese. Does it refer to accessibility?

* Line 211: Q5 to Q10. Can you include some examples of the questions in the text? 

The second part of the analysis was conducted using t-tests. I think this approach is acceptable (although an ANOVA might have been a better fit to explore any interaction across dependent variables). In general, however, the current presentation of the results (e.g., lines 324-328) seems to suggest that your data proved that there was no difference between the two groups; rather, the test shows that we cannot prove that there was a difference. I would strongly suggest re-phrasing this portion of the results  to state that there was no statistically significant difference in the score. I’d suggest also reporting the actual value of p, rather than simply stating sig>0.05.

Finally, in the discussion, considering the framing of the paper, I would have expected to see some reflections related to the pandemic.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

Thank you so much for your considerations and the opportunity for revising our manuscript, hoping it may be accepted for publication (after this major revision). We are very grateful for all relevant corrections and suggestions to improve the submitted manuscript.

Replying to your request, we performed the suggested revisions. All comments and suggestions were carefully addressed, point by point.

To facilitate the reviewing process, in each question/remark we attach the revised/changed text that was included/changed, in red, in the new version of our manuscript.

Proposal 1:

Thank you for your attention. We agree with your proposal, adding the following paragraph to explain the process (in Study 1 – operationalization of objective 1, Lines 257-261):

The qualitative (or textual) data obtained for Study 1 – from the answers to questions Q6 to Q10 in the questionnaire – was analyzed by the content or textual analysis (a specific type of data mining). However, all the open answers were properly treated according, to the necessary requirements for the use of the software, and were grouped by type of question, which resulted in a corpus of six texts for a fully comprehensive analysis (supported by lexicometry).

Proposal 2:

Thank you. We changed the label of Figure 1, to indicate that we grouped the classes according to clusters meanings:

Figure 1. Grouping of classes by cluster meaning.

Proposal 3:

Thank you for your pertinent suggestion. To clearer the association of some words, and why they are linked, we selected some quotations of the participants that evidence the implicit associations between some words, like rage in relation to floor and wall – sometimes, users/gamers through something to the wall or to the floor when they feel or have a perception of rage, while they are playing. So, we add some examples – participants’ quotations – to illustrate the implicit connection between some words (from Line 298 to Line 373):

Man, 28 years: “I already broke a PlayStation controller and broke my cell phone.”

Man, 32 years: “I already broke the TV remote.”

Man, 36 years: "My wife already said she didn't want that kind of aggressive husband."

Man, 32 years: “I used to throw objects on the floor!”

Man, 26 years: “Once I threw some punches at the wall and hurt myself.”

Woman, 22 years: “I’ve already lost my mind and been rude to my mother and opponents.”

Man, 21 years: “I feel hate, a lot of anger and then a headache.”

Man, 27 years: “I feel stress and bad mood, sometimes sadness.”

Man, 45 years: “I already had an emotional disorder… my body was shaking.”

Man, 38 years: “I already felt anxiety and pain in my stomach.”

Man, 23 years: “large feelings of difficulty and excitement.”

Man, 24 years: “Allows you to play with more interactivity and competitiveness.”

Man, 26 years: “I like to play with friends in person… it's fun!”

Man, 22 years: “It's less stressful and funnier when the players are in the same place.”

Man, 19 years: “it is ridiculous to spend money to improve, and the game to manipulate and help the opponent.”

Man, 20 years: “It sucks when the game failure or manipulates matches.”

Man, 19 years: “The manipulation of game programming.”

Man, 22 years: “Internet or game failure”

Proposal 4:

Thanks for asking. To clarify the use of this term, we may say it is a term widely used by the gaming community, meaning one or more effects produced by the programming of a game, which usually occurs mainly in FIFA, benefiting one player to the detriment of the other. But we agree that the word may be misunderstood. So, we replace it with the words Accessibility and playability.

Proposal 5:

We agree with your proposal, adding the following examples (in Procedure section, Lines 244-249):

The question 5 (Q5) was applied with the intention of generating three or more groups of participants, for later comparison, based on the various editions of FIFA used by the players; Q6 aimed to generate two texts about the players' opinion, one about the game in online mode and the other about the game in offline mode; with Q7 to Q10 we sought the players' opinions about the game itself, concerning anxiety and stress, while using FIFA.

Proposal 6:

Thank you, we agree with your considerations. Regarding the use of ANOVA for the variance analysis, we emphasize that it was our initial intention through the analysis between groups of players who experienced different editions of FIFA. Unfortunately, when analyzing the responses (referring to Q5), there were no statistically significant results.

Regarding the suggest to re-phrasing, we made the changes as suggested to us. 

In Procedure (Lines 244): The Q5 was applied with the intention of generating three or more samples, for later comparison between them.

In Conclusions (Lines 526): Also, as a limitation, it was not possible to use ANOVA for statistical analyses, which could have contributed to more significant results.

Proposal 7:

Yes, we really understand your suggestion. So, we add the following text (Lines 490-494):

The results (from qualitative and quantitative studies) do not reveal any negative influence on FIFA users during the pandemic. There was also no mention of depression, anxiety, or increased stress in this period (WHO, 2021; WHO, 2022a). Another yes, it was found that the purpose of use beyond competition is socialization for recreational purposes when playing in person with friends (Collins et al., 2019; Collins & Cox, 2014).

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Thanks for your corrections. This version of the article is much better.