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

这项研究探讨了对COVID-19疫情的社交距离反应引发的在线游戏参与激增是否减轻或放大了对那些远离社会支持、刺激和情感的基本来源的人的福祉造成的伤害。 世界正面临一场前所未有的危机，因为人们突然戏剧性地远离身体接触，进入中介空间，其成本和收益基本上是未知的。本研究的目的是通过利用多人游戏中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交，支持，社区，身心健康的净影响的纵向窗口。随着新的群体上线，这些变化是否有所不同？随着这些新群体与以前的群体混合，动态如何变化？网络游戏是应对这场日益严重的危机的一剂良药，还是问题的一部分？答案将对大量的人的社会和心理健康产生广泛的和潜在的直接影响，对这些人来说，这些游戏是友谊和社交的主要平台，既有现实生活情况发生变化的老玩家，也有可能给这个非常重要的社交媒介带来新需求和行为问题的新玩家。在疫情发生前，研究团队已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，获得良好的比较统计数据，以分析疫情随时间的影响。 地理位置的衡量标准也包括在内，这样就有可能综合关于大流行病蔓延和严重程度的官方统计数据，并调查可能的因果关系。 通过对具有代表性的玩家样本进行问卷调查和访谈，以及对游戏中文字聊天的分析，将了解疫情的深层含义。 这项研究具有足够的创新性，可能会有意想不到的新发现，但三个主要的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的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)现有的和新的参与者在哪些方面经历了社会危害，总体幸福感日益下降？(3)哪些新的和新兴的社交互动模式是积极的，可以被游戏设计师用来改善他们的平台？该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为是值得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的支持。

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.