Defeating the Boss Together; Online Interaction Rituals in Video Games
(2025) SOCK10 20242Sociology
- Abstract
- This study aimed to look into how video game interaction can be analysed as interaction rituals. It also looks at how people playing online videogames feel the lack of physical presence affects their interactions in the game. The study based its theoretical work on Randall Collins model of interaction rituals and his claim that physical presence is a necessity for the ritual's success. The study used a qualitative semi-structured interview method to test its research question. Five participants were interviewed and asked about their experiences of playing video games online with people they only knew through the game. The material was analysed using thematic coding, where the themes were derived from Collins theoretical model. The study... (More)
- This study aimed to look into how video game interaction can be analysed as interaction rituals. It also looks at how people playing online videogames feel the lack of physical presence affects their interactions in the game. The study based its theoretical work on Randall Collins model of interaction rituals and his claim that physical presence is a necessity for the ritual's success. The study used a qualitative semi-structured interview method to test its research question. Five participants were interviewed and asked about their experiences of playing video games online with people they only knew through the game. The material was analysed using thematic coding, where the themes were derived from Collins theoretical model. The study found that a lot of the outcomes that Collins sees coming from successful interaction rituals were found in the descriptions from the participants. The interaction in video games had less intense emotional aspects than could be seen in other physical interactions. This, the study discusses, could be an effect of how the theory defines emotional aspects or a result of the nature of video games as less serious. Physical presence, the study found, was also something that affected how easy it was to connect with people and communicate between players. This effect could result in it becoming more difficult for online interactions to become successful. However, the study argues that online video game interactions can become successful and that the theory on interaction rituals should be expanded to include online interactions where there isn’t a physical co-presence. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9182900
- author
- Jönsson, Sebastian LU
- supervisor
-
- Gökhan Kaya LU
- organization
- course
- SOCK10 20242
- year
- 2025
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- Social interactions, Randal Collins, Interaction rituals, Video games, Online interactions.
- language
- English
- id
- 9182900
- date added to LUP
- 2025-01-27 11:34:21
- date last changed
- 2025-01-27 11:34:21
@misc{9182900,
abstract = {{This study aimed to look into how video game interaction can be analysed as interaction rituals. It also looks at how people playing online videogames feel the lack of physical presence affects their interactions in the game. The study based its theoretical work on Randall Collins model of interaction rituals and his claim that physical presence is a necessity for the ritual's success. The study used a qualitative semi-structured interview method to test its research question. Five participants were interviewed and asked about their experiences of playing video games online with people they only knew through the game. The material was analysed using thematic coding, where the themes were derived from Collins theoretical model. The study found that a lot of the outcomes that Collins sees coming from successful interaction rituals were found in the descriptions from the participants. The interaction in video games had less intense emotional aspects than could be seen in other physical interactions. This, the study discusses, could be an effect of how the theory defines emotional aspects or a result of the nature of video games as less serious. Physical presence, the study found, was also something that affected how easy it was to connect with people and communicate between players. This effect could result in it becoming more difficult for online interactions to become successful. However, the study argues that online video game interactions can become successful and that the theory on interaction rituals should be expanded to include online interactions where there isn’t a physical co-presence.}},
author = {{Jönsson, Sebastian}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Defeating the Boss Together; Online Interaction Rituals in Video Games}},
year = {{2025}},
}