Abstracts Economics

”Pelaaminen on isoin juttu, mitä mä valinnaisesti teen” : Fenomenografinen arkitutkimus videopelaamisesta: Phenomenographic study of video gaming in everyday life

by Lauri Välimäki

The popularity of video games has grown significantly over the last half century. Most Finns aged 10–75 have stated that they play digital games at least once a month. Video gaming is an increasingly common and diverse phenomenon and should not be seen as a mere pastime for the youth. Video game play has been studied in the past, for example, through the motivational factors of playing them. In addition, the study of problematic gaming and downsides of video games have been quite common. Attention has also been paid to the serious games, for example for learning and well-being purposes. However, these studies, which are often quantitative studies, do not really provide answers to the relationship between video games and everyday life. In previous studies, the needs for this type of research have been pointed out. This home economics’ study describes the perceptions that gamers have of video gaming as an everyday life activity. This study is a qualitative master’s thesis with phenomenographic approach. This approach allows the phenomenon to be described using the concepts of gamers. The study material was collected through individual semi-structured thematic interviews from six actively playing gamers. The interview material was transcribed, and from that the single concepts were analysed into pool of meanings. From pool of meanings, a total of 12 categories of description were formed, corresponding to different perceptions. These were abstracted into four categories of description that describe the phenomenon at a more general level. Each category is part of a larger whole, forming together the outcome space. Gaming as established everyday practice, gaming as an everyday resource, intensive everyday gaming and composed gaming were the general level perceptions of video gaming as an everyday life activity. The research results describe video gaming as a phenomenon that is constantly interacting with other activities of everyday life. Also, it is being included to one's own daily rhythm, taking one's own interests, daily situation and available resources into consideration. The results are displaying what the digitalisation of everyday life, as one of the biggest changes in everyday life, can mean in the context of video gaming. Video gaming blends into a natural and meaningful part of everyday life.