Digital Game-Playing: Considering Methodological Approaches and Ethical Issues for Future Research

In the past, traditional, non-digital games were limited by the physical space of play. Players would need to be physically together to play a game. With technological innovation, gameplay contexts have shifted from physical places to virtual environments. This mobility and apparent flexibility of games has provided an easy access to play; being everywhere, with anyone, and at any time. Indeed, the use of this technology for play among children and adolescents is elevated, with 91% of boys and 93% of girls now playing games online (M2 Research, 2010). As games become digital and play involves the use of sophisticated electronic devices to interact in a game space, it is important to investigate how children are using (Wood & Willoughby, 2008) and interpreting these technologies. This proposal provides a review of research studies conducted in online gaming environments for children. It also examines innovative practices and issues occurred during a case study research with elementary school children playing in a popular commercial online gaming environment marketed for all ages. To gather data for this research, 10 sessions of one hour long of game playing were held. Data collected from these visits include interviews, observations and computer screen video recordings. Interaction analysis approach (Jordan & Henderson, 1995) was implemented to examine the children interaction with the online environment. . The overall purpose of this proposal is to determine appropriate methodologies for future studies and analyze ethical issues that should be taken into account when conducting research in online gaming environments. References Jordan, B., & Henderson, A. (1995). Interaction analysis: Foundations and practice. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 4(1) (1995), 39-103. M2 Research (2010, August 18). Kids and Games: What Boys and Girls are Playing Today. Retrieved from http://www.m2research.com/kids-and-games-report-release.htm Wood, E. & Willoughby, T., (2008). Summary and looking ahead. In E. Wood & T. Willoughby (Ed.), Children’s learning in a digital world (pp. 299-3001). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing