Social capital in video game studies: A scoping review




Korkeila Henry

PublisherSage

2023

 New Media and Society

NMS

25

7

1765

1780

1461-4448

1461-7315

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1177/14614448211054778

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14614448211054778

https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/67710434



This study explored how social capital has been utilized in video-game studies by conducting a scoping review. In total, 74 peer-reviewed publications were analysed from three different databases. The following aspects pertaining to social capital were analysed: definition, methodology, game or genre as stimulus, its utilization inside or outside the stimulus, whether it was the sole concept or variable, how it was utilized, whether social capital was used to predict variables or whether variables were used to predict it, and what where the predicted or predicting variables. The results of the analysis show that Putnam’s research, the quantitative method and Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games were most commonly combined. Social capital was predominantly utilized in binary form. It was utilized almost equally inside and outside the video games’ sphere of influence. The study then presents the main findings and discusses future research avenues.


Last updated on 28/02/2025 03:04:33 PM