AbstractTitle: Onlinegaming – A qualitative study of young people's attitudes about online gaming(Onlinespel – En Kvalitativ undersökning av Ungdomars attityder om onlinespel)Number of pages: 34 (35 including enclosures)Author: Armin MoradiTutor: Else NygrenCourse: Media and Communication Studies CPeriod: Autumn 2009University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science,Uppsala UniversityPurpose/Aim: The purpose of my thesis is that from a social perspective to examine and discussyoung people aged 16-18 vision of online gaming. Why online games are so popular and to see ifthe stereotype is a reality among young people in their late teens ..I also have a secondary purpose where I want to explore the social function of online games have,and what or what needs it fills in young people's everyday lives.Material/Method: The main method used in this essay has been qualitative group interviewswith 17 high school students. The result from these interviews has then been analysed usingseveral theories, Uses and gratification theory, Socialinteraction theory, Interactivity theory andmedium theory.Main results: The compilation of collected my results have shown that young people makeextensive use of online gaming pastime and to socialize with each other both virtually andphysically. Online gambling has on young people an entirely different meaning than it does forolder generations.For young people online is as natural as watching TV is for the oldergenerations.There are gender differences in perception of online games but it is not at all in the same highdegree as can be expected, the differences were minimal. The participants in my interviews havealso made an association exercise in which I presented as the words of 15-20 seconds to describeother words. Most replied to the word "Homework" that it was "boring" and the word "computergames" was the most frequently used word "fun".Keywords: Uses and gratification theory, Socialinteraction theory, Interactivity theory , Mediumtheory, Online gaming,

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.