Perceived realism in digital games: a quantitative exploration of its structure

In this paper we attempt to come to grips with the concept of perceived digital game realism. In particular, our main goal is to provide a quantitative exploration of the concept by reassessing the framework of perceived video game realism described by Malliet (2006), evaluating the adequacy of the concepts and categories within this framework, and subjecting the adapted framework to an exploratory factor analysis. Principal axis factoring was performed on items completed by 385 respondents, whose ages ranged between 15 and 19 years. Seven factors of perceived game realism were identified: simulation, freedom of choice, character involvement, perceptual pervasiveness, authenticity regarding subject matters, authenticity regarding characters, and social realism. These findings are to a considerable extent congruent with the theoretical framework. Perceived Realism in Digital Games 2 Introduction The relationship between the virtual realities that are constructed within digital environments and the real world of everyday life has attired the attention of scholars for over two decades. Ever since the first attempts were made to analyse electronic games and virtual worlds as cultural or social forms, researchers have been focusing on subjects such as 'playergame relationships' (e.g. Myers,1984), 'the virtual self as a second self' (e.g. Turkle,1995), 'immersion' (e.g. Murray, 1997) or 'agency' (e.g. Laurel, 1993; Ryan, 1991). Based upon concepts that have been developed by Huizinga (1950) these studies have described the differences and similarities between the 'real' and the 'virtual', or between the subjective reality of the player and the programmed reality of the game code. Likewise, economists have been fascinated with the virtual economy that characterizes MMORPG's such as World of Warcraft (e.g. Castranova, 2001), or with the possibilities for virtual marketing or advertising that are included within these worlds (e.g. Nelson, Heejo, & Yaros, 2004). From a political point of view the impact of virtual decision-making on real-life empowerment has been frequently investigated and debated (e.g. Laurel, 1993; Frasca, 2001; Castranova, 2001). Others have explained the attractions of electronic game play in terms of mental processes wherein the player's personal identity is mapped to the narrative or ludic reality created within a game (e.g. Grodal, 2000). To date, the study of video game realism, in all the different shapes it takes, has mainly been performed from a theoretical or qualitative perspective. Unlike in television research, where quantifications and operationalisations of concepts such as 'viewer involvement' or 'observed realism' go back as far as the 1970's (e.g. Hawkins, 1977), the study of video game realism has mainly been the territory of cultural philosophy or semiotics. However, as has been demonstrated within a number of recent studies, there is a growing need for a more accurate understanding of these constructs within research that focuses on the psychological Perceived Realism in Digital Games 3 or social characteristics of electronic game play from a quantitative point of view. Many content analyses of video game play have been performed, accounting for game realism as a mere function of the realism that is included within a game's graphics (Provenzo, 1991; Dietz, 1998; Smith, Lachlan, & Tamborini, 2003), and thus largely neglecting the insights that have been developed within the game theory movement. Similarly, experimental setups and survey designs have been used to investigate the difference between realistic and unrealistic depictions of violence, and have mainly operationalised this difference in terms of the graphical qualities of the games that are debated (e.g. Anderson, & Dill, 2000; Ivory, & Kalyanaraman, 2007; Jeong, Biocca, & Bohil, 2008). As has been argued by, among others, Malliet (2007) or Consalvo & Dutton (2006), there is a growing need for a larger framework that extends these notions to include rule-based and narratological aspects as well. Elaborating on this argument, within a number of recent studies a first attempt is made to explore the dimensional structure of perceived video game realism (Malliet, 2006) or digital game involvement (Calleja, 2007). Once again, these studies have predominantly made use of qualitative methodologies, and therefore provide only limited support for conceptualisation within a quantitative research framework. Within this paper, we seek to provide a quantitative exploration of the concept of observed digital game realism. The study builds upon the investigation of Malliet (2006), and attempts to systematise his findings by means of an exploratory factor analysis. In a first section, an overview is given of the most relevant literature regarding perceived realism. In a second section, the results will be presented of a survey that was conducted with 385 Flemish