WiG 2007 The Big Game - Shaun Lawson & Thomas Chesney

Shaun Lawson Lincoln Social Computing Research Centre, Dept of Computing and Informatics, University of Lincoln, Brayford Pool, Lincoln, UK. LN6 7TS. [email_address] Thomas Chesney Nottingham University Business School Jubilee Campus, Nottingham, NG8 1BB. [email_address] Virtual pets: great for the games industry but what’s really in it for the owners? Newport, Wales, April 2007

Virtual Pets … ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]

A commercial success ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],<200,000 Sony (Japan) Aibo 2,000,000 various Petz series 7,000,000 Nintendo (Japan) Nintendogs > 30,000,000 Hasbro (USA) Furby >50,000,000 Bandai (Japan) Tamagotchi Estimated Global Sales Manufacturer Virtual Pet or Companion

Who plays these games? ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],Cartoon is from Foxtrot.com by Bill Amend (2005)

Who plays these games? ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],“ I ultimately rid myself of … Nintendogs for this very reason. My maintenance -- things I had to do every time I started playing that took upwards of 15 minutes to complete -- started to drain my desire to do anything else. After a while I was *JUST* doing the maintenance” “ the (nearly) mandatory maintenance of a Nintendogs session ultimately drove me to quit playing, esp after I got Mario Kart DS. Mario Kart can be played for a few minutes and put down.” http://www.gamegirladvance.com/archives/2006/05/25/soft_punishments.html

And what is their impact? ,[object Object],[object Object]

Some interesting claims ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],“ … it can not only help develop our attention spans and motor skills, but also improves our ability to solve problems and think creatively …. teaches us how to bond and provides us with a sense of nurture and responsibility ….(and has) emotional effects, helping to raise self-esteem and develop strategic thinking” “… one value I always suggest is the player learning how to best take care of their pet, which translates to its use in the real world. This is valuable to both kids and adults, and if it results in one less abused animal in this world, that makes my job even more rewarding” (Reputedly from a study by Susan Quilliam (2005)) Interview on Gamasutra , November 2006

So, why are we interested? ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]

Directly Relevant Work ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],Isbister K. Better Game Characters by Design: A Psychological Approach. Morgan Kaufmann. 2006. Subrahmanyam, K. et al. The impact of computer use on children's and adolescents' development. Applied Developmental Psychology (22) pp. 7-30. 2001

Real pets ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],Mahalski, P.A. Jones, R. & Maxwell, G.M. The value of cat ownership to elderly women living alone. International Journal of Aging Human Development 27(4) pp. 249-260 (1988). Garrity, T.F., Stallones, L., Marx, M.B. & Johnson, T.P. Pet ownership and attachment as supportive factors in the health of the elderly. Anthrozoos 3(1) pp. 35-44 (1989). Wells, D.L. The facilitation of social interactions by domestic dogs. Anthrozoos 17, 340-352 (2004). Adkins, S.L. & Rajecki, D.W. Pets’ roles in parents’ bereavement. Anthrozoos 12(1) pp. 33041 (1999). Pattnalk, J. On behalf of their animal friends. Childhood Education Winter 2004/2005 pp. 95-100. 2004.

Some of our previous work ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],The Comfort from Companion Animals Scale (CCAS) Zasloff (1996) Chesney, T. & Lawson, S. The Illusion of Love: Does a virtual pet provide the same company as a real one? Interaction Studies: Social Behaviour and Communication in Biological and Artificial Systems . (in press). Zasloff, R.L. Measuring attachment to companion animals: a dog is not a cat is not a bird. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 47 pp. 43-48. (1996). 1. My pet provides me with companionship 2. Having a pet gives me something to care for 3. My pet provides me with pleasurable activity 4. My pet is a source of constancy in my life 5. My pet makes me feel needed 6. My pet makes me play and laugh 7. Having a pet gives me something to love 8. I get comfort from touching my pet 9. I enjoy watching my pet 10. My pet makes me feel loved 11. My pet makes me feel trusted

Our own work ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],Lawson, S. and Chesney, T. The impact of owner age on companionship with virtual pets. To appear in Proc of 15th European Conf on Information Systems (ECIS 2007), St. Gallen, Switzerland, June 7-9 2007. Chiasson S. and Gutwin C. 2005. Testing the Media Equation with Children. ACM CHI 2005. April 2–7, 2005, Portland, Oregon, USA. pp.829-839. Reeves B and Nass C. 1996. The Media Equation: How People Treat Computers, Television, and New Media Like Real People and Places. Cambridge University Press. Turkle S. 2005. Relational artefacts, children and elders: the complexities of cybercompanions: towards social mechanisms of android science. A COGSCI 2005 workshop, July 2005, Stresa, Italy, pp. 62-73.

Gender & Nintendogs ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]

Gender Hypotheses ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]

Gender Response rates and descriptive statistics 13 16 15 Mean female age 14 16 18 Mean male age 37 34 67 Number of females 27 16 38 Number of males 64 50 105 Response Dogs Cats Nintendogs

Gender *p<0.05 Five F tests for differences in variances of the Comfort from Companion Animals Scale scores 2.312* 5.22 37.74 27 Male Dog Owners 7.94 39.26 37 Female Dog Owners 2.949* 5.22 37.74 27 Male Dog Owners 8.97 33.73 38 Male Nintendog Owners 0.990* 7.94 39.26 37 Female Dog Owners 7.90 34.16 67 Female Nintendog Owners 2.657* 4.85 37.12 34 Female Cat Owners 7.90 34.16 67 Female Nintendog Owners 0.776 8.97 33.73 38 Male Nintendog Owners 7.90 34.16 67 Female Nintendog Owners F SD Mean N Name SD Mean N Name Compared With Group of Owners

What have we learned? ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]

Unanswered questions What health and ethical issues arise from virtual pet use – particularly when considering young and much older people? 7 What educational benefits, if any, are there from interacting with virtual pets? 6 What attributes of virtual pets are key to their commercial success? Is there an ultimate virtual pet requirements specification? 5 Are virtual pets merely social lubricants and used to facilitate new interactions with other people and/or strengthen bonds between existing friends and peers? 4 Are virtual pets merely casual games that we treat in the same way as Tetris and Mario Kart? 3 Do people of differing age groups, backgrounds and gender view virtual pets in different ways and get different benefits (if any) from them? 2 Why, fundamentally, do people buy and interact with different types of virtual pet – is it to get the same, some of same, or completely different benefits as they get from real pets? 1 Research question Q

Thanks and Questions? ,[object Object],[object Object],Shaun Lawson Lincoln Social Computing Research Centre, Dept of Computing and Informatics, University of Lincoln, Brayford Pool, Lincoln, UK. LN6 7TS. [email_address] Thomas Chesney Nottingham University Business School Jubilee Campus, Nottingham, NG8 1BB. [email_address]

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