RAPID: Natural experiments with online games: Support, impact and mitigation during the Covid-19 Pandemic

这项研究考察了因COVID-19大流行而采取的保持社交距离措施所引发的网络游戏参与人数激增，是否减轻了或放大了那些远离社会支持、刺激和情感基本来源的人的福祉所受到的伤害。世界正面临着一场前所未有的危机，因为人们突然和戏剧性地离开了身体接触，进入了中介空间，其成本和收益在很大程度上是未知的。本研究的目的是通过利用来自多人游戏的现有和正在进行的大型数据集来发现缓解策略，以提供这些变化对社会化，支持，社区，身心健康的净影响的纵向窗口。当新的群组上线时，这些变化是否会有所不同？当这些新群组与之前的群组混合时，动态又会发生怎样的变化？网络游戏是缓解这种日益严重的危机的一剂良药，还是问题的一部分？这些问题的答案将对许多人的社会和心理健康产生广泛且潜在的直接影响，这些人将这类游戏视为友谊和社交的主要平台，既有现实生活发生变化的资深玩家，也有可能为这一非常重要的社交媒体带来新需求和行为问题的新玩家。在大流行之前，研究小组已经开始与管理一款非常受欢迎的团队游戏的公司合作，收集非常广泛的匿名数据，从而通过不断收集新数据，有很好的比较统计数据来分析大流行随时间的影响。地理位置测量包括在内，因此将有可能整合关于大流行传播和强度的官方统计数据，并调查可能的因果关系。我们将通过对具有代表性的玩家样本进行问卷调查和访谈，以及对游戏内文字聊天的分析，来了解疫情的更深层次含义。本研究具有足够的创新性，可能会有意想不到的新发现，但三个主要研究问题有助于制定应对COVID-19大流行全球挑战的流程和行动：(1)现有和新玩家在不同游戏环境中以何种方式获得社会支持，减轻社交距离的有害影响？(2)现有玩家和新玩家以何种方式遭受社会伤害，导致整体幸福感下降？(3)哪些新兴的社交互动模式是积极的，可以被游戏设计师用来改进他们的平台？该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This research examines whether the surge of participation in online games triggered by the social distancing response to the COVID-19 pandemic is mitigating or magnifying the harm caused on the wellbeing of those kept away from their fundamental sources of social support, stimulation, and affection. The world is facing an unprecedented crisis as people have suddenly and dramatically moved away from physical contact and into mediated spaces, with largely unknown costs and benefits. The objective of this research is to discover mitigation strategies by leveraging existing and ongoing large data sets from multi-player games to provide a longitudinal window on the net effect of these changes on socialization, support, community, physical and mental health. Are those changes different as new cohorts come online, and how do the dynamics also shift as these new groups mix with the previous ones? Are online games a balm against this growing crisis, or part of the problem? Answers will have broad and potentially immediate impact on the social and psychological health of the very large numbers of people for whom such games are a major platform for friendship and socialization, both veteran players whose real-life situations have changed and new cohorts of players who may bring new needs and behavioral problems to this very significant social medium. Prior to the pandemic the research team had already begun to collect very extensive anonymized data through collaboration with the corporation managing a highly popular team-based game, thus having good comparison statistics to analyze the effect of the pandemic over time through constant collection of new data. Geographic location measures are included, so it will be possible to integrate official statistics on the spread and intensity of the pandemic, and investigate probable cause and effect relationships. Understanding of the deeper meaning of the pandemic will be derived from a questionnaire and interviews administered to representative samples of players, and also through analysis of the in-game text chat. This research is sufficiently innovative that unexpected new discoveries are likely, but the three main research questions serve the development of processes and actions to address the global challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic: (1) In what ways are existing and new players acquiring social support across different game environments, mitigating the harmful effects of social distancing? (2) In what ways are existing and new players experiencing social harms, increasing declines in overall wellbeing? (3) What are the new and emerging patterns of social interactions that are positive, and can be used by game designers to improve their platforms?This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.