Sociala digitala spel har ökat i popularitet sedan genren etablerades år 2007. Sociala spel är en vardag för många människor och återfinns på- eller runtomkring sociala nätverk, exempelvis Facebook. För att skapa kvalitativa sociala spel kan tydliga direktiv användas för hur design och utvärdering ska genomföras. En brist uppmärksammades av denna typ av direktiv i form av färdigutvecklade heuristiker för att designa och utvärdera sociala spel. För att undersöka hur sociala spel kan designas och utvärderas användes initiala heuristiker som kompletterades via en litteraturstudie. Dessa kompletterade heuristiker undersöktes sedan kvalitativt med hjälp av spelutvecklare och spelare. Denna studie resulterade i utvecklade heuristiker för design och utvärdering av sociala spel med spelbarhet och sociabilitet i fokus.Nyckelord: sociala spel, heuristiker, sociabilitet, spelbarhet / Social digital games have grown in popularity since the genre was established in 2007. Social games are an everyday reality for many people and can be found on- or around social networks such as Facebook. In order to create as qualitative social games as possible, clear directives can be used to know how these games should be designed and evaluated. This study highlights a lack of this type of directives in the form of fully developed heuristics for designing and evaluating social games. To examine how social games can be designed and evaluated initial heuristics were used and then supplemented by a literature review. These complementary heuristics were then examined qualitatively with help of game developers and players. This study resulted in developed heuristics for design and evaluation of social games with playability and sociability in focus.Keywords: social games, heuristics, sociability, playability

One of the ways in which the attachment relationships we develop during infancy influence us throughout life is by emotion regulation. Although studies have shown that attachment orientations affect emotional functioning, the effect of attachment dimensions on overall emotional functioning and sociability has still not been investigated. The purpose of the present study was to examine if attachment dimensions predict emotional intelligence (EI) and sociability. The sample consisted of 75 psychology students at Stockholm University who completed the Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ; Feeney, Noller & Hanrahan, 1994) and a section of the Understanding Personal Potential (UPP; Sjöberg, 2001) that measures EI with self-report as well as performance measures, and sociability. The current data did not offer conclusive evidence for the impact of attachment on EI, but suggests that secure attachment predicts sociability. The results are discussed in relation to existing theory and a more integrative approach is suggested for future studies.

This paper investigates how players interact in classic and retail World of Warcraft by conducting a participant observation study by joining Pickup Groups (PUGs) to play through dungeons. Chat activity is logged and all messages are categorised into different types depending on what is conveyed in an attempt to see if and how social interactions differ between the games. The results indicate that classic players communicate more, both for instrumental value and for purely social reasons. All players met throughout the classic PUGs interacted to some extent through the chat. Most retail players chose not to interact via chat at all. It is speculated that the varying levels of social interaction are connected to the accessibility of the PUGs and dungeons. Dungeons that required more effort to access and had challenges that required an irregular strategy generally had a higher level of social interaction within them. Groups that established a positive atmosphere through social interaction had players that responded to potentially frustrating events by reassuring the other players in order to uphold this atmosphere. Groups that did not establish such an atmosphere responded with frustration instead in similar situations. / Denna uppsats undersöker hur spelare interagerar i klassiska och moderna World of Warcraft genom att utföra en deltagande observation av “Pickup Groups” (PUGs) i så kallade “dungeons”. Chatt-aktiviteten loggades och alla meddelanden kategoriseras i olika typer beroende på vad som förmedlas i ett försök att se om och hur sociala interaktioner skiljer sig mellan de två versionerna. Resultaten visar att spelare av den klassiska versionen kommunicerar mer, både för instrumentellt värde och av rent sociala skäl. Alla spelare som möttes under de klassiska PUG: erna interagerade till viss del genom chatten. De flesta spelare av den moderna versionen valde att inte interagera via chatten alls. Det spekuleras att de olika nivåerna av social interaktion är kopplat till tillgängligheten av PUG:er och Dungeons. Dungeons som krävde mer ansträngningar för att få tillgång till och hade utmaningar som krävde en annorlunda strategi hade i allmänhet en högre nivå av social interaktion inom sig. Grupper som etablerade en positiv atmosfär genom social interaktion hade spelare som reagerade på potentiellt frustrerande händelser genom att uppmuntra de andra spelarna för att upprätthålla denna atmosfär. Grupper som inte etablerade en sådan atmosfär reagerade istället med frustration i liknande situationer.