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Social gaming: A systematic review
Open accessAbstract
Digital games often constitute a shared activity where people can spend time together, communicate and socialize. Several commercial titles place social interaction at the center of their design. Prior works have investigated the social outcomes of gaming, and factors that impact the experience. Yet, we lack a comprehensive understanding of how social gaming has been approached and explored before. In this work, we present a systematic review covering 263 publications, gathered in February 2021, that study gaming experiences involving more than one person, with a focus on the social element that emerges among partakers (players and/or spectators). We contribute with a systematized understanding of (1) how the topic is being defined and approached, (2) what facets (mainly in terms of outcomes and determinants of the experience) are being acknowledged and (3) the methodologies leveraged to examine these. Our analysis, based on mixed deductive and inductive coding, reveals relevant gaps and tendencies, including (1) the emphasis in novel technologies and unconventional games, (2) the apparent negligence of player diversity, and (3) lower ecological validity associated with totally mediated evaluations and a lack of established constructs to assess social outcomes.
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“Additionally, a systematic review of 263 studies found that multiplayer gaming settings may help foster friendships and a sense of belonging through shared communication and tasks [23].”
From Health Benefits of Video Games in Adolescents and Young Adults (2026) · cites this paper as [23]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Gonçalves, D., Pais, P., Gerling, K., Guerreiro, T., & Rodrigues, A.
- Affiliations
- University of Lisbon (PT)
- Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Gonçalves, David
- Venue
- Computers in Human Behavior
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2023-10
- Volume
- 147
- Pages
- 107851
- ISSN
- 0747-5632 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4381384711
- Cited by
- 72
- References
- 382
- Citations by year
- 2026: 25 · 2025: 29 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 1
- FWCI
- 3.61
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Computers in Human Behavior (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Repository KITopen (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- KITopen (cc-by)
- Funders
- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (UI/BD/151178/2021, UIDP/00408/2020, CMU/TIC/0026/2021, UIDB/00408/2020, 2022.12448, 2022.08895)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Digital Games and Media
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Educational Games and Gamification
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Keywords
- social gaming, multiplayer games, social interaction in games, spectators, social outcomes, game design, ecological validity, research gaps
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