A Theoretical Study of the Interactive Communication Process in Video Game Playing: A Symbolic Interactionist Approach

Video games have become the most popular leisure activity among children and adolescents. The increasing popularity of video games has urged researchers to determine the effects of video game playing on youngsters. Given the fact that most popular video games are violent in nature, much of the research has primarily focused on the correlation between playing video games with violent content and aggressive behavior in children. Most researchers have relied on previous media violence research, assuming similarities between television viewing and video game playing. However, video games are interactive media allowing the player to participate in the game scenario, which may intensify the impact of video game playing. Furthermore, the extent of possible influence by a video game may depend on the individual and environmental factors surrounding the player. This study examines the factors involved in video game playing within an interactive communication context. To achieve this goal, symbolic interactionism is used as a theoretical ground to explicate the interactive communication during video game playing. Once the pertinence of symbolic interaction theory to the player-video game interaction is demonstrated, the conceptual framework of symbolic interactionism is applied to video game playing. Based on the previous mass media models and symbolic interactionism, the interactive communication during video game playing is investigated. First, the individual and environmental factors surrounding the player are identified. Second, a theoretical model named video game interaction model (VGIM) is developed to examine how these factors affect the interactive communication during video game playing. VGIM illustrates the dynamics of the player-video game interaction and the relations among the variables contributing to this interaction