Virtual cultivation

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Williams, D. (2006) "Virtual cultivation: online worlds, offline perceptions." Journal of Communication, 56:69-87. doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2006.00004.x

What is the possibility of cultivation effects within realistic-looking fantasy spaces, especially games?

Contents 1 Immersive video games and cultivation theory 2 Six major objections to cultivation theory 2.1 Nonfalsifiability 2.2 Imprecise content measures 2.3 Imprecise exposure measures 2.4 Ambiguity between "media" and "real" answers 2.5 Spurious causation 2.6 Ignoring variation in viewers 3 Understanding the game world 4 Potential cultivation within Asheron's Call 2 4.1 H1: Exposure to an MMRPG leads to cultivation effects 4.2 H2: Cultivation effects will work through spreading activation rather than remain constrained to a particular present construct (assault with weapons) 4.3 RQ1: For which groups will cultivation effects be strongest? 4.4 RQ2: What is the functional form and threshold of cultivation effects? 5 Method 6 Discussion

Immersive video games and cultivation theory

To what extent does the theory in Growing up with television hold up amid an "increasingly ... diverse digital media environment"? (70)

• Games particularly popular and disruptive medium
• Games displace TV viewing

Problem of generalizability

• One crit of Gerbner, et al is that they (at least initially) consider "TV viewing" without regard for the specific types of programming
• How can cultivation research of video games deal with this same problem? (70)
  • Be precise with specific games
  • Indicate the generalizability of the games under study (71)

Activity levels

• Some believe gaming to be "higher" activity level than tv viewing
• Will this affect cultivation potential?

"Realism"

• Does the "realism" of video game graphics affect its cultivation ability?
• Was "realism" a factor in TV cultivation?
  • Is HDTV more or less likely to cultivate a "tv worldview" than SDTV?
• What heuristics concern "realism"?
  • Representation?
  • Uncanny valley?
  • Socially realistic (people respond in predictable ways?)

Interactive content

• Explicity constructed in part by the player
• Variable linearity, scripting
• Content is influenced by player choice and action

Six major objections to cultivation theory

Nonfalsifiability

• Hirsch, 1981
• Cultivation can explain anything
• Irrefutable

Imprecise content measures

• Gunter, 1994; Potter & Chang, 1990
• Content (television) is not uniform
• Game content even less so

Imprecise exposure measures

• Potter, 1991
• Imperfect, inconsistent measures include "arbitrary cut points"
• Need difficult to gather continuous measures

Ambiguity between "media" and "real" answers

• Potter, 1991; Newcomb, 1978
• Questions and answers need contextualization, clarification for their categorization as "tv" or "real" world

Spurious causation

• Cook & Campbell, 1979
• Links between exposure and attitude not neccesarily causal
• Correlational data always limited

Ignoring variation in viewers

• Cohen & Weiman, 2000
• Some studies ignore differences among viewers
• Gerbner responds that the theory is intended to detect "overall 'gravitational'" effect

Understanding the game world

Asheron's Call 2

• 2-month participant observation
• Not generalizable to all games (72)
  • PC-based
  • RPG (but players are not "in character") (73)
  • MMO
  • Persistent world

Why this game?

• Considered highly "accessible" among MMORPGs
• Friendly to noobs
• Tolkien-esque setting unlikely to inspire "setting-based" cultivation (73)
• But "violence is omnipresent", could be potential source of cultivation (73)
• MMORPGs displace TV and other games
  • Cultivation requires a "consistent metamessage" (74)

Potential cultivation within Asheron's Call 2

H1: Exposure to an MMRPG leads to cultivation effects

• More hours playing the game should leave to a view of the "real" world that reflects characteristics of the "game" world.
• Also, Shrum's 1995 "activation" model
  • Player/viewers can more easily access images from game/tv than real world and thus use those images to respond to problems, questions rather than the "real" data

H2: Cultivation effects will work through spreading activation rather than remain constrained to a particular present construct (assault with weapons)

• "Spreading activation" has to do with a cultivation of general beliefs in contact with the specific circumstances of the game/tv world.
  • e.g., although AC2 is primarily sword-fighting, heavy players may "spread" activation to other forms of violence

RQ1: For which groups will cultivation effects be strongest?

RQ2: What is the functional form and threshold of cultivation effects?

• Does quantity of exposure make a difference?
• How long do effects take to occur?
• Will effects continue in a linear fashion over time or trend?
• What is the functional form of effects and when do they start? (76)

Method

• Research designed around the 6 criticisms

Discussion

Central finding: "there is a cultivation effect from playing this particular online game" (81)

• Targeted and specific effect (violence with a weapon)
• Rather than spreading activation
• Only those in-game events with "real" world parallels showed an effect (82)
• Cultivation theory may need to be refined with these findings in mind (83)
• This could be adapted to positive or therapeutic purposes (84)