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This chapter investigates sidewalk sociability and neighborhood use, by focusing on the regular encounter of a group of retired men to play cards on their neighborhood’s main street. Direct and ethnographic observations were used on one Lisbon suburban working and lower middle-classes residential district.

Sidewalk card-playing is understood as “focused gathering” (Goffman, 1971a) and this concept discloses the social organization of a public gaming held encounter and the specific rules created to regulate interactions between players and their audience. The sidewalk sociability effects produced by card-playing are interpreted as originating from “triangulation stimuli” (Lofland, 1998; Whyte, 2002) and “sociability pillar” construction (Charmés, 2006).

Card-playing encounters are discussed in detail as a practical and symbolical neighborhood-use (Blokland, 2003) enacted by an elder-men peer-group. Research underscores the relationship between the elderly peer-group members’ practices and the neighborhood’s public space appropriation, their public characters’ attributes (Jacobs, 1972) and behavior, and social construction of a sidewalk small social place. Among aged peer-group members, sidewalk card-playing accounts for an increase in social and psychological benefits, ranging from social contacts to memories self-expression, derived either from the gaming situation or from its pervasive sociability.

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship of gamification design elements on social play habit and we-intention to continue playing in a mobile multiplayer game context. The study further intends to reveal the mediating role of social play habit in the relationship between gamification design elements and we-intention to continue playing.

The proposed model was empirically evaluated using survey data collected from 292 PUBG users based in Malaysia. PLS-SEM analysis was used to assess the model since it includes formative and reflective constructs.

The results indicated that gamification design elements significantly affect social play habit in a positive direction. In the simultaneous condition, social play habit also significantly affects the we-intention to continue playing the mobile multiplayer game. However, these three elements of gamification design did not significantly affect the formation of we-intention to continue playing in the context of mobile multiplayer games. Notably, social play habit was found to fully mediate the relationships between immersive-related interaction, achievement-related interaction, social-related interaction and we-intention to continue playing.

This study highlights the importance of social play habits as a factor linking the relationship between gamification design elements and we-intention to continue playing. In addition, this study also provides significant insights for the game creators to emphasise the gamification design elements so that the sustainability of the game can be secured from the perspective of retaining the current users through the social play habit element.

The study is noteworthy because it is the first attempt to use gamification design elements to explain how social play habit affect the formation of we-intention to continue playing in the setting of a mobile multiplayer game environment. In addition, the findings may add to the body of knowledge in the field of gamification theory.

Purpose – This chapter examines disputes produced by two young children during computer game playing and considers how the disputes were related to the children's ongoing activity.

Methodology/approach – The study is framed by ethnomethodology and conversation analysis. Sequential analysis of recorded data details the mutual production of disputes during talk and interaction.

Findings – The analysis establishes how the children made each other accountable to the agreed-upon way of playing the game after one child offered to show the other how to play. Conflict developed during the game and disputes built upon previous disputes, especially in relation to claims made about knowing how to play.

Research implications – The disputes here are best understood in relation to how disagreement was avoided initially but then emerged as the gaming progressed. Examining disputes in the course of computer activity shows how the children turn agreement into disagreement over time.

Social implications – This study establishes some of the ways that disputes arise out of young children's social interactions during computer game playing and how disputes are related, or not, to shared understandings of what is going on moment by moment in the game.

Originality – Overall, this chapter provides a detailed sequential analysis across computer activity and establishes how the children's disputes challenge the order of game playing as the game progresses.

Professional sports teams employ highly paid managers and coaches to train players and make tactical and strategic team decisions. A large literature analyzes the impact of manager decisions on team outcomes. Empirical analysis of manager decisions requires a quantifiable proxy variable for manager decisions. Previous research focused on manager dismissals, tenure on teams, the number of substitutions made in games or the number of healthy players on rosters held out of games for rest, generally finding small positive impacts of manager decisions on team success.

The authors quantify manager decisions by developing a novel measure of game-specific coaching decisions: the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI) of playing-time across players on a team roster over the course of a season.

Evidence from two-way fixed effects regression models explaining observed variation in National Basketball Association team winning percentage over the 1999–2000 to 2018–2019 seasons show a significant association between managers’ allocation of playing time and team success. A one standard deviation change in playing-time HHI that reflects a flattened distribution of player talent is associated with between one and two additional wins per season, holding the talent of players on the team roster constant. Heterogeneity exists in the impact across teams with different player talent.

This is one of the first papers to examine playing-time concentration in the NBA. The results are important for understanding how managerial decisions about resource allocation lead to sustained competitive advantage. Linking coaching decisions to wins can help teams to better promote this core product.

This chapter is concerned with exploring the various ways in which Pokémon Go complements or challenges family life. The chapter begins by explicating the multisided concept of play and the myriad definitions that surround this term. Having established the various way in which this phenomenon can improve the lives of those who engage in it – physically, emotionally and cognitively – we go on to consider how play has gradually shifted from public spaces and into designated playgrounds, and how this trend corresponds with children concurrently moving away from the streets and into their bedrooms. Following this, we explore the impact digital technologies are having on the practice of parenting, paying particular attention to video games as a significant facet of youth culture that is often associated with a range of negative connotations. Yet, video games are not intrinsically bad. As we outline, research on intergenerational play and joint-media engagement (JME) readily demonstrate the many benefits families can experience when these games are played together. What is missing from this developing body of work is the familial playing of locative games and the extent to which this practice adds contours to our understanding of this field. The chapter is, therefore, driven by the following research questions. First, why and how do families play Pokémon Go? This includes the different roles that family members adopt, alongside motivations for families playing this game, how the playing of this game complements the rhythms of family life and the extent to which this hybrid reality game (HRG) is suited to intergenerational play. Second, what impact does locative familial play have on families, collectively speaking, and regarding individual family members? Here, we are not just interested in whether this game allows families to bond and how this bonding process is experienced, but also whether the familial play of Pokémon Go provides families with any learning opportunities that might facilitate personal growth beyond the game. Third, what worries might parents have about the familial playing of Pokémon Go and to what extent does the locative aspect of this game reshape their apprehensions?

Previous researches point that children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) show particular interests in computers and other multimedia electronics (Mazurek et al., 2012). Experts in pediatric care contemplate the possibility of exploiting this relationship to inform the interventions among children with Autism. This paper aims to explore how video games can be used to aid the cognitive and social development among children with ASD and typically developing children (TDC).

The study design used was experimental, with 112 children as the main participants. The researchers watched the behaviors of the children through controlled observation as they compared the behaviors with their established models. In this case, the structured models worked as the control group in the experiment. To understand the relationship between the variables: exposure to video games and children's social interactions, the researchers used multiple linear regression analysis, ANOVA and correlation coefficients

The predictor model was effective because it accounted for at least 26% of the variation in the dependent variables at a statistical significance level of p < 0.000. Other than the structured models, there were also individual predictors, which also established that when families played games with children, the children tended to calm down their negative behaviors. Hence, family playing games with children can help ease the symptoms of children with ASD and TDC at (t = 2.631, 4.180 and 0.024, p = 0.05). However, the duration of watching or playing the games did not contribute to children negative behavior such as poor school performance, failing to complete homework, playing games past bedtime and feeling agitated or isolated.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is original, and it is first to report the findings of this type of study. This research used unique sample sizes and variables, though within the existing theoretical framework of social science experiments. All borrowed ideas have properly been cited to original owners’ efforts.

The purpose of this study is to develop and test a theoretical model that accounts for an individual's we-intention to continue playing a mobile multiplayer game.

Drawing on habit-intention and habit formation theories, this study conceptualizes social play habit as a determinant of the we-intention to continue playing and identifies its antecedents. The proposed model was tested through a survey of 277 players of Honor of Kings, a popular mobile multiplayer game.

The results indicate that developing social play habit is critical to the formation of a we-intention to continue playing in the context of mobile multiplayer games. The results also suggest that technological (social features embedded in the game) and individual (desire for co-play and privacy concerns) factors jointly influence social play habit.

This study contributes to the literature on we-intention by conceptualizing social play habit and verifying its role in facilitating a shared intention to continue playing mobile multiplayer games. Our work responds to the call for understanding the mechanism by which multiple people form a shared intention to continue using an information technology at a collective level. Our findings provide significant insights into the design of information technologies for collaboration.

This study is among the first to extend the literature on gaming habits by considering other players' involvement. Specifically, our study shifts researchers' attention from gaming habits characterized by individual properties to social gaming habits characterized by communal properties.

As the need is rife for today's leaders to make swift and perfect decisions, they need to learn critical thinking and interpersonal skills as quickly as they can. The traditional pedagogical techniques of training lack the potentiality to make these happen. Not only are they rigorous, and less dynamic, but also they are less learner‐centered, less experiential, and often predispose learners to evaluation anxiety situations. The method of role‐playing differs in many unique ways. Its ability to induce participants to quick understanding notwithstanding, it also has the potential to transform theoretical concepts into an experiential format. In all the scenarios presented in this paper, role‐playing has presented itself as one of the most promising training techniques today. This paper attempts to reflect on the efficacy of role‐playing as an effective pedagogical technique. Implications for practice and research are also discussed.

The purpose of this study is to explore the role of co-playing as a moderator of the relation between parents’ and children’s play of violent video games.

The study uses dyadic parent/child survey data to estimate the conditional effects in the model, both direct and indirect.

The positive effect of parents’ violent video game play of children’s playing behaviors is attenuated by parent/child co-playing. Parents’ knowledge of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) ratings leads to higher levels of co-playing, thereby indirectly attenuating violent video game play in children as driven by parents’ play.

The paper extends the literature on consumer socialization and the impact of co-playing and identifies an antecedent for co-playing in this context.

The paper reveals that knowledge of the self-regulatory ESRB rules plays a valuable (indirect) role in mitigating violent video game play by children through an increase in co-playing, which attenuates the positive effect of parents’ play on children’s play.

The study incorporates data from both parents and children to investigate the relationship between parents and children’s violent video game play while empirically investigating the uncertainty in the literature concerning the moderating impact of co-playing.

Traditional sports have seen declining participation at many levels, with football being no different. This is occurring at a time when emergent technologies present new challenges, particularly to the crucial yet ignored cohort of millennials. Without meeting the needs of millennials, football cannot be successful in the future. This research seeks to understand how millennial football fandom (sport, not team) in Australia impacts football participation, whilst empirically examining the impact of football video games (FVGs).

Survey data are collected from online groups, forums and social media pages of Australian football (soccer) fans. Quantitative analysis of millennial fandom and its influence on football participation (for the first time demarcated into play and engagement) is undertaken, including the moderating influence of time spent playing FVGs, amidst covariate influences of age and number of children.

Results highlight the multi-dimensionality of millennial football fandom in Australia, reveal the typical hours spent playing football across a range of participation types (including play and engagement), support fan involvement’s influence on engagement with football, establish that a desire to interact with other football fans manifests in playing more football, specify how playing FVGs moderates these relationships, supports the covariate influences of age and evidences that playing FVGs does not hamper football play.

This is the first study to examine millennial fans of football (the sport, not tied to a club) and the influence of fandom on football participation. By separating football participation into two forms, play and engagement, we highlight discrete influences, whilst evaluating for the first time the moderating influence of the time millennials spend playing FVGs. For sport managers and administrators, these are important findings to facilitate better segmentation, recruitment, retention and participation, each with broader societal health benefits. This is undertaken in Australia where football is not a dominant code, relegating fandom to a niche, thus revealing important findings for sports and business management.