Componente Ambiental

12.3

Game session length

The game session length for portable devices are not very different in weekdays and weekends. Both the table and the graph shows fairly consistent that the session length are similar. The mean answer is alternative two, with 6-15 minutes. The average being 2,2 and the next most used alternative being 0-5 minutes, one can say that the most common session length for portable devices is between 0 and 15 minutes. Very few people play more than 1 hour.

Figure 12.9: Session length for portable devices

Table 12.3: Session length statistics for portable devices Weekdays Weekends

Median 2 2

Mean 2,23 2,24

Std. dev. 0,83 0,96 Highest freq 2 2

Compared to consoles and computers, the game session length is not surpris- ingly much shorter for portable devices. While the game session length for portable devices are usually between 0 and 15 minutes, the most common ses- sion length for stationary devices are between 30 minutes and 2 hours.

Figure 12.10: Session length on weekdays

From table 12.4, we can see that game sessions for stationary devices are even longer in weekends, with a mean and median close to alternative 5, 1 - 2 hours. While the game session length for portable devices does not change much between weekends and weekdays, this is different for stationary devices, as seen in the table data.

Table 12.4: Session length statistics for stationary devices Weekdays Weekends Median 4 5 Mean 4,14 4,72 Std. dev. 1,14 1,20 Highest freq 5 5

12.3.1

Income

For the different income groups, the results are very much the same as for game session frequency, however the two lowest income groups does not stand out as much in session length as in frequency. There are some differences for the “Do not wish to reply” group, with them seemingly having a longer game session duration on both weekends and weekdays.

12.3. Game session length 117

Figure 12.12: Session length for weekends, mobile devices by income

12.3.2

Age

In figure 12.13 and 12.14, the different age groups graph does not show any significant difference, except from the older age groups, in which have too few responses to draw any conclusions. There is a small trend in the graph showing that people between 10 and 19 seem to have a somewhat longer session duration.

12.3. Game session length 119

Figure 12.14: Session length for mobile devices (weekends) by age

12.3.3

Gender

There are some differences for game session length when it comes to gender. For weekdays, females seem to have a longer duration for session length in general than the male population. One should however consider a relatively low number of responses for females in this category. The same effect is also present on weekends.

12.3. Game session length 121

Figure 12.15: Session length for mobile devices (weekdays, weekends) by gender

12.3.4

Social status

As for frequency, married respondents have somewhat different replies than the others groups when it comes to game session duration. Especially the alternative 6-15 minutes stands out. This means that the married respondents might have a shorter average game session length.

12.4. Multiplayer 123

Figure 12.17: Session length for mobile devices (weekends) by social status

12.4

Multiplayer

From our prestudy we know that a lot of games on portable devices like for example the iPhone have support for multiplayer. We asked the users how often they play games with others both on portable devices and stationary devices. For portable devices the results shows us that these features are not often used. Looking at the graph, 62% say they never play games on portable devices with other people.

Figure 12.18: Playing with others - portable devices

The mean and median values from table 12.5 confirms the graph, telling us that most gamers never or rarely use multiplayer features on portable devices.

Table 12.5: Playing with others - portable devices Median 1

Mean 1,60 Std. dev. 0,75 Highest freq 1

The participants were also asked about whether they play on the same location or device when playing with others. The results in figure 12.19 shows a tendency towards players either always play with the same device and location, or rarely does so. The results are, as one can see, centered around the never and always (81%-100%) alternatives. Not many players are between those two.

12.4. Multiplayer 125

Figure 12.19: Portable devices - multiplayer

Comparing the results for portable and stationary devices (figure 12.20 and table 12.6 below), one can see that multiplayer features are more widely used in stationary devices. There may be several reasons for this, in which we will discuss in the discussions chapter. On stationary devices, the median and mean answers are around alternative three (41% - 60%), and the graph tells us that most people use multiplayer functionality. Only 10% say they never use this kind of functionality.

Figure 12.20: Comparing playing with others for stationary and portable de- vices

Table 12.6: Comparing playing with others for stationary and portable devices Portable Stationary Median 1 3 Mean 1,60 3,35 Std. dev. 0,75 1,32 Highest freq 1 3

12.4. Multiplayer 127

12.4.1

Income

Looking at multiplayer, sorted for income, we can see that there is a tendency for people with larger income to play less with others. There is a strange ten- dency in the third income group, where the highest income groups are virtually nonexistent. This does not fit with the other groups however, and might be due to bias for that age group.

12.4.2

Age

Figure 12.22 shows the age distribution for multiplayer, asking if the respon- dents are playing with others.

12.4. Multiplayer 129

12.4.3

Gender

Sorted by gender, there is a difference in responses showing that there are more females using multiplayer features on portable devices than males.

Figure 12.23: Multiplayer by gender

12.4.4

Social status

Social status does not seem to be an important factor here. There are some variations, but it does not seem to be a consistent pattern in the results.

Figure 12.24: Multiplayer by social status