1. Do Social Games Help Us Get Socialized
Do Social Games Help Us Get Socialized? : Findings that are against common beliefs
Changwoo Suh
Ph.D student
KAIST College of Business
Byungho Park
KAIST Graduate School of Information and Media Management

2. Abstract Background Data and Measure Results Conclusion
Rapid increase in people using social media
Social games leading growth of social media since the adoption of Open API
Q: Do social games really help us get socialized?
Background
Internet-based survey(Qualtrics) using ISCS developed by Williams (2006) for measuring internet user’s social capital and characteristics
Data and Measure
Playing social games does not necessarily promote bonding social capital (which is different from prior studies of the Internet users)
Playing social games impedes bridging social capital. In other words, social game usage hinder browsing activities
Social gamers tend to use social media longer than non-gamers
Results
Using social games reduces social activities like TV (Campbell et al., 1999)
Using social games does not reduce other functions of social media
Conclusion

3. Which of these benefits will social game users receive?
Introduction
Explosion in social media usage: leading to various social changes
Social Media
Social medias such as such as Friendster, CyWorld, and MySpace allow individuals to present themselves, articulate their social networks, and establish or maintain connections with others (Ellison, 2008)
Social media users develop relationship and maintain it. They express themselves and communicate in the network (Boyd & Ellison, 2008)
Social media contains detailed information about where discussions are made and how people participate, so social media can induce users discussing and making opinions directly (Delli-Carpini & Michael, 2000; Shah, Kwak & Holber, 2001)
Which of these benefits will social game users receive?

4. Social media usage strengthens positive social capital formation
Introduction
Social media usage strengthens positive social capital formation
Social Capital
Social capital broadly refers to the resources accumulated through the relationships among people(Coleman, 1998)
Putnam (2000) distinguishes between bridging and bonding social capital
Bonding social capital: deep relation, strong tie
Bridging social capital: wide relation, weak tie
It is possible that new forms of social capital and relationship building will occur in online social network sites(Ellison, Steinfield & Lampe, 2007)
Facebook usage was found to interact with measures of psychological well-being, suggesting that it might provide greater benefits for users experiencing low self-esteem and low life satisfaction (Ellison, Steinfield & Lampe, 2007)

5. Introduction
People use of social applications via social media: Social games on top of the list
Social Game
A social application that can be played in social media. It utilize Open API to use social media information
Jung and Lee (2010) showed that adopting Open API functionality was a good option to surpass competitors
- Open API: application programming interfaces to use social media information that can be used within/without social media
Users who can play social games are already being friends in social media
Different user base in comparison to studies of online game or social media itself.

6. Debates on social feature of social games
Introduction
Debates on social feature of social games
Social game developers and service providers
Social games strengthen social media friendship via frequent interaction (Alschuler et al., 2004)
Like social media research, users of social games can make new friends and maintain their relationships. (Lampe et al., 2006; Xu et al., 2011)
VS.
Non-social game developers and service providers
It’s not really about doing things with them because you’re never playing at the same time (Caldwell, “Blow interview”, 2011/2/15, PC Gamer).
It is a game exploiting your friends list that you already made.
They’re really just called social games because they run on social networks but they’re way less [social]

7. Do social gamers generate more social capital than non-social gamers?
Research questions
Do social gamers generate more social capital than non-social gamers?
두 번째 RQ는 Cannibalization issue를 논하는 것임.
Do social game usage impede usage of other functions/services via social media?

8. Usage time of Social Media Bonding Social Capital
Research model
Prior studies did not show significant relationships
Use of
Social Game
Usage time of Social Media
Bridging
Social Capital
Bonding Social Capital
Literature Review를 통해 Research model을 구조화.
Social game의 사용에 따라 bonding social capital과 bridging social capital이 모두 증가할 것이고, SNS의 사용시간도 증가할 것이라 예상.
금희조 논문에 따라 SNS 사용시간의 증가는 bonding/bridging social capital의 증가에도 영향을 미칠 것.
따라서 bonding/bridging으로 구성된 social capital은 social game의 사용과 SNS 사용시간에 의해 증가할 것이라는 생각.
Prior studies showed positive and significant relationship
Increasing social media usage time influence positive effects on bonding and bridging social capital (Keum, 2010).
Expected 1: social game usage influence positive and significant effects on bonding and bridging social capital.
Expected 2: positive relationship between using of social game and social media

9. Usage time of Social Media Bonding Social Capital
Research model
Bonding
/Bridging
Social
Capital
Usage time of
Social Game
Use of
Social Game
Usage time of Social Media
Bridging
Social Capital
Bonding Social Capital
Social game의 사용은 social game의 사용시간과 사용빈도를 합친 개념으로 본다.
이 두가지가 합쳐진 social game의 사용이 bonding과 bridging social capital에 각각 어떤 영향력이 있는지를 연구하기로 한다.
이 때, age/gender/number of SNS Friends 등을 control하여 유의미한 요소를 밝히기로.
그 중에서도 Gender는 관련 연구 review를 통해 유의미할 것이라 예상되므로 H4로 설정하고 ANOVA 분석으로 증명하고자 한다.
H1 and H2 analyze correlation between social game using time and social capital.
In H3, we analyze impacts of social game usage time to social media usage

10. Social capital measure
Methods
Survey statistics
Survey is done in May 2011
Respondents: Convenient sample was used: (61 KAIST students, 37 recruited via social media/Internet)
Male respondents: 63 (average age: 29.4),
Female respondents: 30 (average age: 28.2)
Social Capital 측정
Social capital measure
We use ISCS (Internet Social Capital Scales) developed by Williams(2006) (We use Korean version translated by Keum (2010))
Social Capital 측정
Mean SE α
Bonding social capital
3.05
.352
.88
(Keum, 2010)
3.41 (4.78)1
1.81
.85
Briding social capital
3.33
.351
3.66 (5.12)
1.98
(1) Keum(2010) used 10-point scale. The value in the parenthesis is for 10-point scale, and the value outside the parenthesis is transformed value for 5-point scale

11. Statistic description
Social media usage
Social game usage
Social Capital 측정
Frequent use of social media and number of friends in social media
Utilization of social media and social game
- Using time, friends visit ratio
Facebook
Cyworld
Twitter
Frequency of usage
43%
34.6%
20.7%
Contents
Avg
Total using time of social media
11.70
Visiting days of social media in a week
5.82
Using time of social media on a visit
1.74
Average using time of social game
.37
Frequency to visit friends in a social game
1.61
# of friends
Frequency
Ratio(%)
More than 200 25
25%
100 ~ 200 32
32%
50 ~ 100 20
20%
Less than 50 16
16%
No Answer 7 7%

12. Bonding Social Capital 형성 성향이 강할 것이다.
Results
There was no significant correlation between social game usage and bridging social capital.
Social media using time per visit
Total social media using time a week
Social game using time
Bonding social capital
Bridging social capital 1
.999** (<.001)
.381* (.050)
-.296 (.134)
-.163 (.418)
.373† (.055)
-.293 (.138)
-.164 (.415)
-.275 (.165)
-.478* (.012)
.344† (.079)
Bridging social capital
처음에 bonding social capital에 영향을 줄 것 같은 변수들을 모두 correlation 분석을 해 보았다.
그 중 correlation이 높은 변수들을 뽑아서 회귀분석을 했고,
그 중 통계적으로 유의한 ( 유의수준이 낮은 ) 독립변수들을 회귀식 모형의 독립변수로 지정하였다.
Social Game을 많이 즐길수록
Bonding Social Capital 형성 성향이 강할 것이다.
Correlation analysis
Insignificant correlation between bonding social capital and social game using time.
 Social game usage does not augment bonding social capital.

13. Bonding Social Capital 형성 성향이 강할 것이다.
Results
Social gamers built less bridging social capital than others who did not play social games.
Social media using time per visit
Total social media using time a week
Social game using time
Bonding social capital
Bridging social capital 1
.999** (<.001)
.381* (.050)
-.296 (.134)
-.163 (.418)
.373† (.055)
-.293 (.138)
-.164 (.415)
-.275 (.165)
-.478* (.012)
.344† (.079)
Bridging social capital
처음에 bonding social capital에 영향을 줄 것 같은 변수들을 모두 correlation 분석을 해 보았다.
그 중 correlation이 높은 변수들을 뽑아서 회귀분석을 했고,
그 중 통계적으로 유의한 ( 유의수준이 낮은 ) 독립변수들을 회귀식 모형의 독립변수로 지정하였다.
Social Game을 많이 즐길수록
Bonding Social Capital 형성 성향이 강할 것이다.
Correlation analysis
Negative and significant correlation between bridging social capital and social game using time
 Social game usage impede “browsing” weak ties (not well known relationship)

14. Results SS df MS F
p-value
Social game usage
21.791 1
34.068
<.001
51.810 81
.640
73.601 82
Social media visit a week
10.889
3.973
.050
2.741
Social media using time per visit
10.901
8.379
.005
1.301
Total social media using time
5.657
.020
Total social media using time except social game usage
4.488
.609
.437
7.364
Social game 비사용자와 사용자 2개 집단의 평균값의 유의미한 차이를 검증하기 위하여 ANOVA 분석 채택.
ANOVA
Comparing social media using time between social gamers and non-social gamers
Social gamers showing high rate of visits and longer using time per visit.
But there’s no significant difference except social game usage
 Social gamers are more enthusiastic user of social media, but there is no difference in social media using time when we exclude social game usage

15. Results of research model Bonding Social Capital
-.275(.165)
Bonding Social Capital
Use of
Social Game
Usage time of SNS
Social Capital
Bridging
Social Capital
-.478 (.012) **
Similar to other studies of the Internet, social game usage does not lead increasing of bonding social capital.
Social game usage decrease bridging social capital significantly.
This result is similar to Campbell et al. (1999) which showed that TV reduce bridging social capital.
Social game usage increase social media usage except social game insignificantly.

16. Conclusion Conclusion Limitation Sampling bias: gender ratio
Original Survey
2. Small sample (N=83)
3. Newly developed scale (ISCS; Internet Social Capital Scale)
Social game usage decrease bridging social capital.
Social game usage doesn’t reduce social media usage
We find that nature of social game is similar to TV, not the Internet or social media. But service providers can earn more opportunity to increase total usage time of social media, they have to caution to adopt social game service.